However I constantly miss the trains, at least the right ones.
Is this something with looking at the right indicators or is pure luck or something like psychology issue?
Lojze [/B][/QUOTE]
Lojze, It is my opinion that this is something that we all, and if not all, something that I certainly struggle with. And even if you are on the right train, you can get off too early or too late which is at a minimum an opportunity cost and at most a real cost.
One thing that has worked better for me than finding the perfect set up is finding several "close" set ups. For instance, last week I was short several stocks. WYE gapped down huge which made my week. Several I took off at losses and several at small gains that I could have let run.
Other thoughts and problems that I am working on.
Confusing time frames. My resolution is to start writing out entry, stop loss and target goals. The reason for the trade as well. And this is to keep me from pulling trades too early which has cost me money both ways. The other thing is being right but being too early. And since it is nothing for a good short to run 10% in a day, I would have improved greatly by being just a little more patient to wait for a run up before selling.
The big part of this problem is my feel that I am going to miss something by not being at the terminal. I am becoming increasingly convinced that we will get a short term tradeable rally. As such I have started to position myself longer over the past month or so. So when my shorts go the wrong way, I look to cover as not to get squeezed too hard. The fact that this is a "longer term" trade often causes a difficult paradox between what I have to do daily and what I see longer term.
The second thing that was/is a problem for me is trying to watch TOO MUCH on a daily basis. And this may seem contrary to my basket approach, but it is not. For instance, if I want to get short, I will pick 10 set-ups I like and TAKE them. In the past I would have thrown them in a watch list and WAITED and WATCHED and MISSED. Now I keep watch list of open positions and several things I want to keep track of like indicators and industry groups. Other than that I do daily scans, if I like I go with it, if not, then tomorrow is a new day. Overall, this has worked pretty well.
There are no perfect answers, at least not from me.
Regards,
