Thank you for your opinion. I appreciate all feedback.
Well, I figured the corn wheat lumber etc had a double bottom reversal and other good factors supporting it.
I only go long something when there's a rationale behind it. Why did I like gold at $500? Because 500 is psychological support. In other words, I base my trades on something that makes sense, and that has returned well in the past. I didn't make similar buy/sells on silver or platnium, because platnium broke $1000, and I regard that as bearish. $1000 will be tough resistance for it.(It does seem to be in a strong uptrend now)
I tend to pick stocks that are not heavily publicized. I don't trade hot stocks. I mean, these stocks can fall 20 30 or 50 points in a day when they are out of favor. Why buy hot stocks when there's easier money? I like to buy into sectors that have good charts, or have good correlations. For example, I was bullish on oil, so I found oil stocks(CFK BPT etc). Bullish on semiconductors so I found DIOD. Bearish on USD so I found CAT. All of these stocks had a pattern that I could trade on, and some underlying factor supporting it. Nasdaq rallying made me buy RIMM(which I felt was set for a rally.) JLL was a pure speculative trade, based on the good fundamentals the company had, and the base after base pattern. I felt bullish on agricultural commodities, so I bought DEL BG and CENT(DEL in lumber, BG and CENT in agricultural chemicals, correlation with agricultural commodities.)
I hope this answers some of your questions. I'm a CANSLIM speculator with a tinge of cyclical investing in my system. I also watch sentiment carefully, and am heavily based on technical analysis.