You are right mate, trend trading ain’t easy. Looks like your buddy knows exactly what he is doing, which is good. He probably does his homework.

I read something once about intuition in the stock market, if you don’t have it and how to develop it. Gives me an idea for another post .

Me, Ill buy the apple and sell it after a bite.

Cheers mate and take care.

Me, I might buy that apple … but I sure wouldn’t eat it!

Thanks a lot mate, your comment by itself could make a post mate. Gives me an idea .

Focusing on price movement all the time only clouds your judgment, very rightly said. The more you study charts and business news all the more difficult to take a decision. I have also done pretty good in short term trading and booked profit, simply because I had laid out my investment objective (book profit or stop loss). Never fall in love with stocks they don’t always keep going up.

Also I invest for the longer term, I have learnt that if you “stay invested” long enough the stock market will outperform any other investment. Don’t panic, give it time. Buy more in corrections or crashes. Find out what is best suited for your attitude to investment risk, there is no one size that fits all.

Thanks again mate, loved your comment.

Take care and cheers.

I’m a believer of marrying both technical and fundamental analysis, hence charts do have a role to play for me, especially when it comes to timing the market.

Reading a chart is actually a good way to gauge the emotional mood of the market. Personally I’ve joined short term stock competitions before and done pretty well.

My strategy for such competition was that I first sussed out companies with good fundamental. Then I select those which are ripe to go in. Once it reaches a certain %, I take profit.

Different circumstances call for different strategies.

Trend trading is good for short to mid term speculation. Speaking about trend trading, CANSLIM is a great trend strategy.

By the way, while I look like chart, I probably only spend very little time on them. I spend about 1 minute analyzing the chart to see if the time is good to enter. In addition, I only look at them after market closes.

Focusing on price movement all the time can only cloud one’s judgment because of all the emotional highs and lows.

So you are quite right to say that it is better to learn how the market works instead. And not only that, it is vital to establish a system that fits your own risk profile and personality. There is no one sized fits all plan.

Actually I’m more of the long term investor, and I like to go against the crowd and pick all the stocks which people hate. I believe that investing is for the long haul, but I do make the occasional short term trading exception in strong upwards trending momentum market.

Cheers,
Jag

As you rightly mentioned the smarter ones converted the numbers into cold cash. Those who never see the money are the ones who don’t follow the basics ie book profit or stop loss.

In the stock market you usually see herd behaviors, doing what the others are doing. Most people lose money in stock trading.

Do your homework, avoid very high risk investments, stay away from the crowd and don’t follow NEWS.

Cheers and take care.

I’ve seen some friends of mine who used to deal extensively in stocks. For one thing, they never see the money nor the stock in the entire trading process.

It was like a numbers game … buy now, sell an hour later, pocket the difference, but still the money is only in the heads — like HOW MUCH someone ‘thinks’ the stock is worh.

But the smarter ones, I think, were those who, at least once in a while, converted the numbers into cold cash and actually invested in some tangible assets!