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Strategies & Market Trends : MARGIN - Do's and Don'ts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John F. who wrote (22)	8/7/1999 6:26:00 PM
From: Greg Jung	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35

I don't know of any literature about this. Have you been getting burned by your margin lately? I suppose the rules of prudence would be specific to one's trading style. I consider it a tool for timed market trading: not appropriate for the hold-and-forget account. Greg

To: John F. who wrote (22)	8/8/1999 7:41:00 AM
From: Dale Baker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 35

I started this thread two years ago to try and stimulate a debate on this subject. No one ever seemed interested. Since then I have stuck to a rule of never going more than 10% margin on the long side. Since I stay fully invested I will use more than that to go short; at worst my portfolio is fully hedged and won't move much either way. Lately I have done some large shorts in QQQ and XLK when the market looked weak. It cushioned the blow of momentum longs pulling back. But I always kept my account equity over 50%. Using a ton of margin long is simply gambling when the market is wallowing.