Search results

The whole idea is not to catch the precise top -- tops don't work like bottoms where usually everyone can identify the exact moment where the panic selling ends and we reverse hard. Tops take much longer to work out -- last month was a perfect example, I'll bet not one person can off the cuff...

waggie, I would take just the opposite viewpoint when it comes to stops -- traders that prefer to try and catch tops and bottoms do so precisely because it allows them to set tight stops, while trend followers must sit through very large drawdowns. Entering mid-trend is perhaps the most...

If you're betting on the fundamentals of this company, then a lower price should be seen as a gift to add to your position -- I would take be taking advantage of any technical-based selling (support being broken at 5.20 for example) to buy more. If buying a broken chart seems scary, then...

In turn, I think lots of the bulls on these boards are equally flaky, for hardly any ever put a figure as to when they would be stopped out, for fear of looking dumb when the market resumed its upmove after leaving them behind -- one can crow about "100% upside to go" without ever having to be...

What's arbitrary about selling short when you feel that recent longs have been buying purely on momentum, and that once that momentum shifted the selloff would occur fast and hard? As long as your stops are reasonable vs what you expect the selloff's minimum target to be, one can try to call a...

To each his own, but I wouldn't consider 2.5% off the top a buyable correction (especially after this run).

Remember when the Nas was down 500 and the Dow up 300? Good times :)

The 2.5% was in regards to the Russell.

I'm sure many are looking at the 50-day MA for most of the major indices as a first target, and we've pretty much hit that spot today. But as for the above question, if I wanted to enter long into this market, a down 2.5% move after several days of selling off would be a pretty good place to...

One word: Japan :eek:

Here we go again . . . gotta love the timing of these blackouts eh? :)

It just happened again, so it's definitely not volume related.

If the dollar was to really tumble it might drag the Nikkei down as well, as exporters usually catch all the headlines and a stronger yen is detrimental to their earnings.

I hear ya waggie, but hey, if you're gonna go short, you might as well do it when we're breaking highs over and over, rather than 10% lower (where the trend finally "breaks") with very wide stops (which I'm uncomfortable with using). Sure shorts have been burned repeatedly, but I'd rather lose...

The yen acted similarly after Hussein was captured, only dropping a small fraction of a percent while the other currencies tumbled. There may be a "catch up" factor involved here that might keep a bid under the yen at least until the next G-7 meeting in Feb.

It's funny that you mention "absolutely no reasonable criteria" for being short -- that's exactly how I feel about being long, that most are long the market only because it keeps going higher, and will become sellers once the market loses momentum. That is why I am short. Is that...

Agreed waggie, but the problem is we haven't had a meaningful pullback for so long -- everyone is conditioned to buy any dip. Those short and sharp corrections happened all last year only because everyone was afraid to buy the dips or were shorting them. This time, with the majority of ppl...

Anyone who bought nasdaq since 1/5 is down or flat, but this is just supposed to be garden variety pullback? I smell complacency . . .

Not saying if we've seen a top or not, but just curious where all the trend followers will say the trend is finally broken? One can keep saying "buy all dips" till the cows come home, but there has to be a point where those purchases must be dumped. I'm guessing most will be brave enough...

I don't know if anyone realizes, but we've just given back all the gains since the 2nd trading day of the year in 2 sessions (QQQ). The key thing I'm learning about shorting is patience -- bottom pickers usually get proven right or wrong quite quickly after entry, but top pickers often see...