Honest to God, Dave, you really MUST stop posting these
personal comments about me <GGG>.
I hope you understand I'm joking. I just see myself
a bit too clearly to let it go by unremarked.
I think the comment about no specific plan of action
is right on for many, many investors and an even
larger portion of investors trying out trading.
In my case, for my long term investments I have very
specific plans and trigger points, which do not involve
the performance of the instruments themselves but rather
are based on my long-term objectives and acceptable levels
of risk. Naturally my view of the fundamental soundness
of various components (individual stocks and mutual funds,
mostly in tax-sheltered accounts) affects the mix at
any particular time, but only to a fairly small degree
on at least 2/3 of the mix because these are VERY broad-
based funds. I'm trying to learn enough technical analysis
to improve this, but I'm not complaining about current results,
and meeting certain objectives has moved me 2/3 into money
and IT bonds. This is defensive of gains meeting objectives
<VBG>; it is NOT a long-term position for me (Spots's
application of the Hippocratic oath: First do no harm).
But I'm very much at sea on trading and shorter term objectives.
I've tried percentage stops, and as you say they don't make
particular sense unless you're trading on a VERY short term
basis (which I don't have time for). Last one I set, the
stock traded through my 7% top to down 15% in one morning
before I checked the market at 9:40. There it hit a support
level and has traded in and around and up since. I know this
is a support level because I have watched the stock for months,
not because I read it off the chart. The support level would
have made a much better stop (which, in a sense, "the market
took me to"), but I'm not yet good enough
at TA to figure a reasonable stop based on current patterns
and/or indicators, generally speaking.
Well, enough of my problems. Takes a lot of
tweaking, all right. I hope I'm actually learning something,
'cause I sure as hell feel overwhelmed at the moment.
Regards,
Spots |
