To: eichler who wrote (64242 ) 12/14/2000 12:26:34 PM From: KymarFye Read Replies (1) | Respond to Eichler, at the risk of boring the board with some reciprocal appreciation: Though you may have less of a weakness for politics than I do, your open attitude towards trading strikes me as exemplary. The twists and turns in the market this year, and all the more so in sentiment and conventional wisdom, have at times seemed amusing, at other times infuriating. To be frank, the vast majority of my successful trades over the last few months have been countertrend trades - going long for a few hours after exaggerated drops, shorting exaggerated strength, scalping a little bit usually amidst miserable slippage. I consider the positive results a testament to the people whose strategies and tactics I'm employing, and otherwise a daily reminder of my own inability to decide on or believe in any particular overall direction. Those who have been more proficient than I at discerning the larger trend, or more patient in riding it, have no doubt done much better, but it does give me some no doubt perverse pleasure to take profit on the long side when the market as a whole is tanking, or to cover a good short on a stock which I actually think looks interesting long term, and which in previous months or years you'd have had to pry from my cold, dead long fingers. Though with minor exceptions only the swings have been working for me for a long time now, I remain watchful for the initation of a new trend, cannot help but maintain a long bias (it's just easier with stocks), and try to be ready to let my day-trades roll into position trades, or to reverse against my latest mistake. At the moment, I see that I underestimated the distance that had to be tested - not, apparently, from the 12/7 high ca. 2800, but from its close in the mid 2700s. I suspect that if the Nasdaq slogs its way to green today, I'll be as heavily invested in it as I've been since March... if only for a quarter of an hour. Otherwise, I'll probably be 100% in cash and playing for a possible snapback tomorrow - by now an exceedingly familiar situation.
