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Strategies & Market Trends : Waiting for the big Kahuna -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: donald sew who wrote (18703)	5/19/1998 11:44:00 AM
From: Robert Graham	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 94695

You are one of the more serious and discaplined in that respect here at SI. It also shows up in both the content and quality of your calls too. That is why your market calls always have value, even during the times I may disagree. The other poster's comment about the exuberance and this being a positive for the rest of us more discaplined traders. I agree that it is this type of market sentiment the rest of us can make money off of. Sentiment of any kind when it shows up in a trader does compramise their trading ability, and can render then no more than a public speculator in the "crowd" that the pros fleece when they can. I am all for the public providing me with their hard earns money that they are at times willing to stuff into my shirt pocket. Unfortunately, more frequently I have to compete against many other professional traders to get to the public speculator. There are just many who are there to liberate money from the public, and the "room" just gets very "crowded" in this way. Perhaps we all can be taking numbers in our organized attempt to liberate money from the public? Just an idea. I have a suggestion for those who are feeling very exuberant today. If the market fails your analysis, take a few days off to cool down. First, this position will set you up for a market drop that you will not respond well to. Second, you need to get your bearings before continuing to trade. Only then will you realize what a serious mistake you have made by letting sentiment impact your approach to trading. If your sentiment driven market outlook begins to become a reality, I still would be very careful. For you will not know when to get off the train until it is too late. Don't let your successes here validate your new found sense of exuberance. This is where many beginners who have initial success in the end lose their money. But in this bull market, this may take some time. Meanwhile, at each apparent success, the sentiment driven trader will be taking on additional risks. Two further suggestions here. One to pay close attention to your equity curve. When this flattens out and starts to turn down, then you are making mistakes no matter how you feel at the time, mistakes that need to be addressed immediately. Also, keep a diary of trades that you make. When a significant loss does happen, at least you can go back to your diary and see how you got yourself in that spot. I think you will notice a pattern that breaks with discapline and takes on trades of higher risk as time went by. This is when you wish you had someone with you that held you accountable for your self-destructive approach before it was too late. Personally, I would rather someone "hit me over the head with a baseball bat" (so to speak) than for me to pursue a trading appoach that leads me to losing a significant amount of money that took me years to accumulate. And who knows, as you read through your diary, this realization may come to you before you start losing good money. Trading behavior that has lead to significant losses has happened to some good traders here at SI. Even though I would be in "good company" by joining them, I would prefer not to. Time will tell. Good profits to all of you! Bob Graham