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Strategies & Market Trends : Rande Is . . . HOME -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Canuck Dave who wrote (36445)	9/26/2000 6:52:20 PM
From: Mark Konrad	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 57584

OMKT...sorry about your nightmare, Dave. Funny thing is, OMKT is actually a "better" company now than it was two years ago! This is why I have tended more and more towards charts and TA: the "true" story will ALWAYS ultimately be reflected in the price. There's something else I should explain, too. Right now I think I have a lot of OMKT but the total value of those shares makes up less than 5 percent of my trading account. Others, like EGAN, ENGA, and NBCI each make up 1-2 percent with a few dozen more stocks above and below those levels. In general, I don't allocate more than 5-7 percent for any one stock or more than 3 percent for any stock under $15. There are exceptions, of course, but this general rule of thumb forces me to intelligently diversify my portfolio and prevents any one or two "landmines" from wiping me out. Fear and greed, right?! Don't look for "revenge." Instead, learn from trades that go sour....sometimes there's little to be salvaged and that's a lesson, too. For example, I bailed out on ICGX (thank God) for a 10-15% loss but kept a few shares "just in case." Well, that "just in case" is now "just in case I run out of toilet paper!" I believe I read my charts properly with both the original buy as well as the stop-loss sell but it was the "asset allocation" part of the trade that kept me from really singing the blues: my total original purchase of ICGX was less than 2 percent of my portfolio (and my trading portfolio is NOT large in sheer dollar size). On the happy side, I tend to let my winners run and then use my charts to help me pick the best times to prune those winners back to a more reasonable percentage of my account. That's what I mean when I post about "taking partial profits in JNIC" or whatever. In general, when a 7% stock rises enough to become 15-25% of my account it's time to lock in some profits! All the above is my opinion only and is probably well beneath the experience of you and most here on the thread....I just wanted to ramble a bit. Better fortunes on your other trades, Dave. There will always be more and better opportunities around every corner! Regards, Mark