Stay Humble
"Every day I assume every position I have is wrong." --- Paul Tudor Jones When the market is strong, everyone is a genius. Since 4 out of 5 stocks move with the general direction of the market, pretty much any stock you pick will move higher during an uptrend. I have always said that "strong markets tend to forgive your mistakes." In other words, you can buy extended stocks or not be as strict with [...]
The Number One Challenge For Traders
I get many emails about stock trading. Although the questions cover a wide range of topics, I usually read the same theme in between the lines: Uncertainty, fear, lack of confidence, etc. I can sum them up in one word: Indecision. The number one challenge traders face is the ability to make decisions. When do I sell? I own too many stocks, what should I do? I see the setup, but I can't pull the trigger [...]
Defending Jim Cramer
Oh boy! If the title of this blog post alone bothers you, then do me a favor and don't continue reading. If you're cool and open-minded, then please read on 🙂 I don't know Jim Cramer. I've never met him, never spoken to him, but I have tremendous respect for the man. I was recently on a plane reading his book Confessions of a Street Addict (which is a great book by the way) and the [...]
Pay Attention to Price Action
Back on July 22, 2011, I was long 6 stocks. A sharp trader friend of mine looked at the 6 charts and said: "Those are REALLY good setups, if they fail, the market is screwed." Two trading days later, I got stopped out of the 6 stocks and went into 100% cash (I wrote a blog post about it on 7/26/11). In the following 10 trading days, the Dow dropped nearly 2,000 points due to [...]
Everyone Has A Different Strategy, Respect It!
Ready for a run-on sentence? I trade growth stocks, companies with strong fundamentals AND solid technicals, I trade them during healthy markets, I look for strength, new highs, breakouts, momentum, stocks that have ALREADY doubled, I don't look at PE, I don't watch S&P levels, I don't care about R1 and R2, but I'm a big fan of R2D2 and C-3PO, I don't use any indicators (RSI, MACD, Fibonacci, etc.), it's all price and volume, [...]
Have Conviction In Your Ideas!
The number one question people have asked me recently is: How do you deal with such a crazy, volatile market, especially knowing that at any minute a headline regarding the Fiscal Cliff could come out and lead to additional volatility? 1) The market is volatile period! If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. In other words, if you are such a nervous wreck, maybe trading isn't for you. 2) Stop watching [...]