"I dont really know what is the cause of this." Fear...shorting is as easy or easier than buying but most people cant get their mind around it.When you see stocks explode up in 5mins you know they will pull back on that move.We all see this when we are long a stock that is rallying nicely and we think to ourselves 'wow,i should sell now cuz i know its gonna pullback a little on this upmove'.However we rarely pay heed to that voice and our thoughts are soon confirmed. Stocks also drop faster than they rise.Try shorting just 50 shares of something.
how you expect to have wining long positions in a bear market? should shorted all the subprime and went long on metals and energy.
its easy to look back and see what i should have done differently, but theres nothing i can do about that now. i need to figure out what i should do starting tomorrow.
All cycles take much longer to unravel than we expect... or at least that's been my experience. I fully expected the market to collapse at the beginning of last year. I reasoned that people couldn't be foolish enough to continue buying in the face of an obvious recession. My timing was wrong... and actually I have yet to be proven correct. My point? There are plenty of opportunities to short if you want them. If you don't know how, or you don't know alternative ways to make money when the market falls (ie: put options, futures) then you should stop trading and force yourself to learn for the next year. Otherwise, you'll just be throwing your money away. I'm not being an ass. I have little money and have learned this recommendation the hard way. PATIENCE is a virtue that is difficult.
buy gold,silver, copper <comodities/meta;s> futures, or gold ETF GLD , nat gas mini and just sit on them.
I actually agree... and giving you my recommendation. There is nothing like real experience... but expect to pay for it.. and dearly. Even if you're like me, and only blow out a couple of times (rather than losing more than your account) then you still have significant opportunity costs. For me, it's hard to be sitting in a small apartment during the summer, rarely going out to eat, or doing what many other youngsters my age are doing. My friends? Well, they have expensive cars, decent houses, etc... me? not hardly a cent to my name. Yep. I learned a lot all right... a lot of what not to do. Do I know how to make money? Maybe.. if I could only control myself and narrow my focus.. and stop thinking about this.. and that.. and over analyzing.... maybe I'd make money. Or maybe I wouldn't. The question is, would you rather keep the money you have and learn as much as you can? Or would you rather piss it away trying to be a one in a hundred chance? Take the time, learn. Learn how to manage risk to the utmost degree. Learn how to manage yourself. That will be your holy grail. Me, I'd rather piss it away... cus I never think I'm going to lose the money. I always think the gain is greater than the potential for loss. I always think I can cut my losses. The markets can be as addicting as any casino. With all of the money I've pissed away or made for my broker I could be sitting pretty... and probably better than most of my friends... but nope.. it was 'tuition'.. a return on investment I'll probably never be able to claim. Maybe one day I'll be wealthy and look back on these 7 years as my learning years... then again, I might continue on this path indefinitely.
I am new to this forum, but I am successfully trading this bear market with a bounce strategy that I designed to scan for stocks that are trending down but are geting ready for a bounce. You can do this by searching for volume anomalies and wait for the price to react. This is a very short term approach and could require some day trading. Just trying to help break your losing streak.
just want to keep you guys updated on whats going on. I just made back half of all my losses this year today. Thats right, all in just one day. It may have been luck, but at this point i dont care. My confidence is back, hopefully I will continue to inch higher and get out of the red soon. I shorted BGP monday afternoon near its high, and covered today near its low. I also bought SEED a couple days ago and sold it at about a 40% profit. Thanks to all of your advice about money management, I got out of these trades at the right times and locked in my profits. Thanks alot guys. Hopefully I can continue to absorb knowledge from you ETers out there.