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Strategies & Market Trends : Intraday Updates, Analysis & Strategies for Daytraders -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dave Gore who wrote (428)	3/16/2001 12:29:03 PM
From: Dave Gore	Respond to of 589

In a choppy market, if you watch the indicators for a buy or sell short point, you may be too late. There are so many false signals, especially in the doldrums. The futures, after a merciless fall today, then stabilized and rallied during the start of the doldrums, then broke above the 20, 40, and 200 period ema today only to fall back. So how are you supposed to know whether it is a real breakout of a false one? Watching volume helps but the short answer is ....you don't for sure. It was a gamble to buy even if you watch the indicators. It's better than nothing but not necessarily a source of confidence when we have this whipsaw action. When we are in these whipsaw days, I think many are realizing that they are best off (including me) when they go long stocks that they know and when you feel they are cheap. What do you do then? Dig in and put stops below major break points on the downside. It is very tough buying stocks that are falling rapidly so I generally wait until they stabilize for a while, the longer the better, maybe bounce off lows a couple times and then just dig in. Buying VRTS at 52 was a great move in hindsight and lower risk that buying at 56 or 57 even if it looks like we are rallying. But like I said earlier there is risk everywhere. There just is no easy answer. There is no strategy that works for long, only ones that work better for awhile than others.