it`s a bs.you can 3 times hard work and gain xp and still remain a fool.i`ll never believe in experience! you need to be SHOWN what the hell it is, EXACTLY, that you should DOOOOOOOOOO!!! thats how it works!
Hello Folks. This is one of those funny threads where someone asks a silly somewhat serious question and gets the usual ET response of posers and BSers and when people do try to explain their ideas the result is a lot of gobbligook that is weighted against the usual don't try it no one wins crowd. I never get tired of these threads although I'm sure some do. When you spend some time around stock traders you quickly draw distinctions-- who invests their own money and who invests other people's money. It is a difficult decision who to alight with. A trader who trades for himself will be more into it, more clued in and quicker to sell to protect small profits. A trader who trades for others, may very well have come up with a system and by keeping his emotions out of the picture, he is more likely to let positions sit there and do nothing as well as let winners run. Obviously some combination of the two styles in the answer but this is very difficult to achieve. When you get a lot of competitive people in the same line of business your " edge " becomes something hard to quantify-- is it that you do MORE research than the others? Is it that you try harder? pray More? Cry More? " Edge " is always " Price " The way to get you returns up a few notches is to keep buying the same stocks, keep using the same systems of research you are using but buy the equity at the correct time. If you can buy a name you like on a downgrade or a slight earnings miss, you will be in there 4-7% cheaper than the next guy. When the stock bounces right back as you knew it would there you are with a 4%-7% head start-- then the move happens and when others pile in on momentum and are happy with their 10% returns, you are up 15% or more. When to sell? This is the universal " edge-maker " When to sell is the most delicate part of investing. There is no real right answer, here is where years of trial and error come into play and judging the emotions of the market in general and your stock's holders-- are they long term or flighty, will they be aware of options expiring etc. In it's simplest sense-- judging when to sell is a lot like the old definition of pornography-- you know it when you see it. I can't tell you how many times I've flicked on the computer checked a particular account and seen an equity greatly outperforming... you gaze over at the profits made and you think geeze that's a lot compared to the others... it just stands out. That of course is time to sell-- that moment of recognizing that the investment is working out really well. In order to not come to that point, when the market is in an upswing I will work day and night and never check the overall averages to see if they are up or down, and I NEVER check the portfolio to see what's working-- if I did I would surely sell something too soon. It's when the clouds darken that one re assesses things and says " do I really believe in electric cars? etc. " Then pruning is done to accounts usually in great swaths and with blood all over the place, I like to get angry and do it in one fell swoop. Ok so " Price " is the ultimate edge. What are a couple others? TA- Everyone should be somewhat able to chart. Here too the old definition of pornography comes into play again, when you see a nice chart you just know it. I'm not talking about a straight line up chart I'm talking one of the various familiar patterns that you have seen a million times, a staircase or regression pattern that bounces off trend lines and support. Ganja- Those that know me or have been to my lectures know how I feel about this issue. (a) a first little sparkle early morning gets the creative juices going-- this is for research, for thinking outside the box and surfing through the various relevant business stories of the day. (b) 7-8 cups of increasingly hot coffee then sobers your reasoning into the buying portion of the day. (c) An lunchtime sparkle re energizes the thought process and one turns to clipping a few day trades or making a larger gamble on a certain idea. (d) A closing doobie allows for the watching of these terrible wrap up shows on CNBC and Bloomy and a bit of Housewives of NYC or Swamp People or River Monster or Duel Survival. Hope this helps ~stoney
Watched charts, read everything that people posted on the Internet related to trading and listened to what a couple of successful traders told me. After a few years setups started to "work".