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Strategies & Market Trends : Your Worst Trading Enemy.. You -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: shawnwolff who wrote (92)	1/18/2001 5:06:16 PM
From: Explorer	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 223

Hi all, I'm a fairly new investor, a couple of years. I don't day trade. I guess my philosophy is kinda mixed, with me taking positions in what I consider strong companies with attractive prices, like NT, SSTI, RFMD, but also playing long shots at low prices, like RTK (which I've held for several years, watching it trade largely sideways with occasional spikes) or ARIA, a biotech I particularly think could be a huge winner long term. I've not used stops so far, and it has cost me, I'm sitting on paper losses on a majority of my holds -- but I'm watching them come back as the market turns upwards. I think, now that I'm understanding stops better, and seeing what this kind of down market can do, I will use them in future more. I liked Nortel at $45 US so I bought in. A stop loss would have gotten me out with an opportunity to buy even lower. Of course, I might have been stopped out again and again -- how did I know how long it could go? On the other hand, I held without any panic, just, I admit, frustration. It seemed clear to me that long term, NT was bound to bring me a profit. I am trading and working full time, but would like to learn more and perhaps trade fulltime. I feel I do know myself very well, strengths and weaknesses. But I'd be interested in hearing more about different trading techniques and the personalities that are most appropriate to each. In other words, what questions should I be asking and what are the answers telling me. Also, criticisms or observations are all welcome. This thread is one of the most interesting, useful and welcome I've seen. Thank you for starting it.

To: shawnwolff who wrote (92)	1/19/2001 9:32:54 AM
From: E. T.	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 223

No probs Shawn. NG likens daytraders to dart throwers, and I suppose the analogy fits some. However, the alternative of not trading doesn't appyl here cause we're all traders, and holding stocks has been a total fiasco. The only profitable course of action in the last 8 months has been to trade stocks based on their daily action. There has been no profitable alternative, cause holding stocks longterm hasn't been working. So I don't know what he is talking about.