| pv78 |
|
Gold User, Member, TeleChart
|
| Registered User |
|
|
|
|
| Unsure |
|
| Thursday, August 11, 2005 |
| Monday, February 1, 2010 8:24:55 PM |
26
[0.01% of all post / 0.00 posts per day] |
|
I'm a relatively new trader and was looking for some advice on how to determine the number of open positions at a given time. I do take partial profits, and let the remaining position run and also respect stop losses (mental stops to escape market noise).
My problem is that I have a short biased portfolio that I began accumulating on Feb 28. I was convinced that the market is headed for a downturn (as did many others) and started looking for shorts. My usual position size is 1/10 of my account value (give or take depending on risk) and I have close to 10 short positions open. Clearly that hasn't done well in the month of march. Do you have any advice given the past month, when did you initiate new shorts and when did you stay out?
|
|
Thank you all! This is great stuff and gives me a lot to think about.
|
I have been trading for about a year now but my trading account has been following a persistent downtrend and I'm not sure why. So I'm hoping I can get some help from you experts.
1. Following the trend: One of things I try to do is go with the short term trend of where the SP-500, COMPQX, DJ-30 might be headed. I know that no one knows for sure where the market may turn around and that's the inherent risk in the business. Unfortunately, by the time I see an established market trend and look for individual stocks that follow that pattern, the market does a U-turn. For instance on 7/20 I thought another downleg was coming. But instead it made a double bottom, surged up and stopped me out of most of my shorts. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong.
2. Skill vs. luck: I am really not sure what it takes to succeed in this career. Is it really skill or is it just luck (read as success for a certain period of time). I've heard about traders who had successful trading systems and they do not work any more because the market has changed. So is that skill or was it luck? I would like to hear from any experts about how they overcame drawdown periods. I have the basic knowledge of trends, money management, waiting for entry, etc. and I'm looking for what more I need to learn before I can become successful.
Thank you in advance!
|
|
Anyone have an idea on what's going on with BLDP? Moneystream (or smart money) appears to have spiked on one day and disappeared the next day. I'm still trying to understand what this represents. What kinda smart money invests for one day and leaves the next day?
|
|
The market is due for a pullback and NEU looks like a good short to me. What do you think?
|
Thanks so much for your comments. I have tried a lot of different trading styles in the past year but ended up losing half my potfolio. I constantly come across different advice and am not sure what really works in the market. I would really appreciate your help on what I can do better. Here are some of the trading styles I've tried:
* Buying stocks with TSV divergence when they bounve off of previous support and raising stop loss every day.
* Buying stocks that are uptrending in an upward trending sub-sector
* Buying stocks that rebound on above average volume
Most of the times I have been getting stopped out at a loss. I don't know what additional filter I can layer on - strong fundamentals? IBD top 100 selection? Any help would be appreciated.
|
I'm still learning and would love to hear from the pros if they look for market and sector being on the same side of stock's direction. I know there are different trading styles and everyone does what suits them best. But my question is what do you guys do if you spot a great stock for instance YMI, GEOI that seems like its resuming uptrend but then the market is headed down. Do you not trade during months of questionable market direction? And if you do trade during these months do you actually make money?
Thanks in advance!
|
|
I was looking at MG742 - Toy and Hobbys stores which has a price of 419 but has only two stocks - BBW at 30.04 and MIK at 32.95. Should MG742's price be between 30.04 and 32.95?
|
Looking for advice on when to stay out versus when to go in fully margined? I like to swing trade and buy on pull backs and hold for about 2 weeks. Lately the market has been choppy and I've been getting stopped out on most trades. So I wanted to ask how do you decide when to stay out and when to use margin?
Thanks in advance!
|
|
there is some negative BOP coming into play. May imply consolidation if not trend failure (IMHO)
|
|