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

To: jef saunders who wrote (20660)	6/18/1998 3:05:00 PM
From: James F. Hopkins	Respond to of 94695

Jef; Well my take on short the "market" is if you are short the Main indexes, like the DOW, S&P or OEX. Several way to do this, as well as going long. Some people Hedge ..they are both long some sectors and short others, hedging looks ok on paper, but is not as easy once you get into it real time. With all the DATA one has to look at, I found hedging for the individual to limit profits to such a point, that expenses get to you, and I also found that one person only has time to look at so much data, and getting spread out both long and short, you get distracted by a move on one end, and by the time you get back to the other end it's changed and you miss on it. In general your better off getting a style that avoids distractions in the positions you hold. Switching form one sector to another, is OK but playing very many with all the computer program trading that is rotating lickity split is a killer. I'm not a die hard long, in fact I see the market as a ponzi scam, but I do try to focus on when to buy dips, and sometimes if I missed the last dip, I will try to call a top, often I sell to soon, but I know I have that habit , and I understand why calling a top is harder ( all other things equal ) than calling a bottom. ( even short term ). ---------------------- I think unless people get to where they understand the reason that calling reversals when the market is going down, is easier than calling reversals when the market is going up, then they do not have much of a handle at all on calling the market. The one has very good reasons it is easier to call than the other. The basic one is that a stock can only go to zero..but it can more than double. After a person can deal with that they can find several more, but won't believe them until they find them for themselves. Say any thing to try and protect someone from their own ignorance and you can count on getting toasted. <G> Jim