Traders who specialize in Shorting

[psytrade]

I have been trying to add a short component to my equity trading system with no luck. I find most public systems that had a short component performed poorly with a short end to their system.

Any thoughts?

 

[Steve Tvardek]

Once again Coolweb has to be a jerk. Nononsence offered you good advice, there is no reason to "specialize" in one side of the market. Thats plain stupid. And being in cash during a bear market is dumb too. Both sides of the market offer great possibilities. The key is switching gears when necessary.

I have broken my month down, am up 19k so far this month, approx $12,800 on the short side, approx $6200 on the long side. The short side has been much better this month than usual hence market conditions called for more short positions.

Quote from coolweb:

Nonosense,
You may be still struggling to become a profitable trader, but some of us aren't.

We are refering to the profitable traders who specialize in shorting who like the downside because of its benefits.

 

[psytrade]

Coolweb, I was thinking you could look up Jim Chanos, a trader, owner of a hedge fund that specializes in shorting.

Kynikos Associates or something. Not much is published, but he manages a billion I believe. Maybe he wrote a book on the subject.

http://www.sec.gov/spotlight/hedgefunds/hedge-chanos.htm

 

[coolweb]

Hello Psytrade,
Great article, Read it and it was pretty interesting. Thanks!


I must say I'm delighted there are not many people who specialize (not dabble) in shorting.

fewer particpants, greater the opportunities.
Thanks for the replies!

 

[qiuniu]

Quote from bl7077:

Jim Cramer leads off his show talking about how great CPST is and how it could be a $40 stock in the future.

I turned back to my screen and watched as CPST went absolutely ballistic. It was up about 30% above its intraday high in about 1 1/2 minutes. [/B]

If you short, don't ignore Cramer. Everytime he talks up a stock it gaps up. You don't have to watch the show, just go to his website and they have a recap.

I short a lot, I love it. Always looking for companies taking a header!

 

[tdoc]

Quote from qiuniu:

If you short, don't ignore Cramer. Everytime he talks up a stock it gaps up. You don't have to watch the show, just go to his website and they have a recap.

I short a lot, I love it. Always looking for companies taking a header!

Which website are you referring to? I don't think he posts his "Mad Money" picks on "TheStreet.com" or "RealMoney.com".


Thanks,

Tom

 

[qiuniu]

Quote from tdoc:

Which website are you referring to? I don't think he posts his "Mad Money" picks on "TheStreet.com" or "RealMoney.com".


Thanks,

Tom

http://www.thestreet.com/funds/madmoneywrap/10248955.html

You should be able to access this without a subscription, but I could be wrong because I do have a Real Money account, but I don't think so. If I am there's also some guy who's Cramer's biggest fan and runs a blog about him. I havent' checked it out but it shouldn't be that hard to find.

 

[areyoukidding?]

what kind of volume do you do to achieve those numbers? it that a gross or net number? what is your avg. trade size?

 

[kowboy]

Coolweb,

There is a member by the name of shortologist that posts on ET occasionally.

 

[zdreg]

Quote from reno4nook:

What happens to shorties if we enter another long bull market?

Could lead to poor results.

A master trader feels no emotions and has no preferences. He is able to adapt to whatever market conditions currently apply.

nothing happens to the shorties since there are always short opportunities
unless you are managing large pools of money. large is relative because of the structure of markets. large pool of money for shorts is much smaller than for money on the long side.

i don't think that people who post on this board are in the large pool category either on the long or short side

feshbach brothers blew out because they got too large for their breeches.