TrendSurfer 109 posts msg #65813 - Ignore TrendSurfer |
8/4/2008 7:46:33 PM
SFM:: You need to know what kind of trader you are before you commit money to the markets. Are the conditions under which you made your purchases still in play? Were there strong technical reasons to buy in the first place?
8-10 stocks??? Hoping that diversification will help you? Not so, as you've found out. While it won't hurt in a good market as a rising tide lifts all ships, can only give you false confidence to buy and add to your pain in the current market.
Even great stocks go down at times and if you're going to buy strong growth stocks, you must purchase them in line with the overall market conditions.
Just guessing, but it appears you are buying off recommendations, suggestions, ratings, etc. And just hoping for the best.
So, if this is the case... Did you look at a chart and buy a dip above a trend line? If so, you stay with it until the trendline breaks. As mentioned above, you can always buy the stocks back if they set back up.
Buying long, setting a loose stop-loss and hoping for the best is the surest way to give your money away in current times. You'd be better protecting your portfolio in cash and waiting for an up-trend to establish.
Cheers
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rharmelink 81 posts msg #65815 - Ignore rharmelink modified |
8/4/2008 8:52:15 PM
SFMc01 >> On the other hand, as a margin player, if one doomsday occurs, i may
SFMc01 >> be wiped our so deeply that I won't be in the market again anytime
SFMc01 >> soon. Maybe the implication of your thought is that one just cannot be
SFMc01 >> in these type of stocks and be heavily using margin player at the
SFMc01 >> same time. I don't know and that's one reason I hope to gain from the
SFMc01 >> experiences of others here.
I have no experience with margin, so you're the expert there. But I'll reiterate what I said -- a 4% drop in WER type stocks is a very common occurrence, ESPECIALLY if the market is dropping quickly at the same time. I've even seen some CANSLIM-type stocks have a 40-50% price gap between the close and open. But I've also sold more at a 30% or more gain than those at a loss. It would be up to you to decide if the risk of leverage is worth the reward.
I'm not a trader. For me, the better system would have as few trades per year as possible.
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