Originally posted by hybridmachine
The market can take those dreams away from you. The market can and will do whatever it wants to. I wish you success in your trading ventures, but may I caution that emotion and opnion are no friend of the trader. This work is more a matter of understanding, humility, probability and a healthy dose of realism (read money management, or better said, knowing when to take your losses).
I think it's hard to make big money without having an "opinion". I almost always have an opinion about the market. Right now I'm bearish....I've been bearish since late August.
Here's what that means to me. I'm actively looking for opportunities to get short. I'm looking for failures on the upside.
Take today for example....we took the days highs out...and then failed. What followed was a very nice down move. Or yesterday....a nice rally that was reversed entirely in about 1 hour...from high to low.
Take the gap failure on September 11. Or the gap failure on Tuesday. Anyone can take advantage of these situations of course....but if you have an "opinion" you're waiting for them, you're all over them, you step up to the plate...you give them TIME to develop.
I form my opinions by looking at the daily bar chart on the SP cash index, and by looking at a considerable number of individual stocks in the evening. I go with the trend. I don't look for oversold or overbought....the biggest moves in history have ALL occured AFTER the market got overbought or oversold.
The debacle in 1987 occurred AFTER we were oversold. There's no limit to how long a trend lasts, or how overbought or oversold a market can get. What you do is recognize the trend...and then trade in that direction by capitalizing on EVERY move that is contra trend. You WAIT for the failures....because the market ALWAYS fails against the trend.
It takes having an opinion though. Now I will trade against the trend at times. But I'm VERY demanding, and I get out quick...because contra trend moves end quick. I don't expect much.
OldTrader
....until they decide to stop.
