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Non-Tech : CYBERTRADER -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: brec who wrote (1628)	1/9/1999 5:27:00 PM
From: William W. Dwyer, Jr.	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 3216

Brec, No, I trade short and long....but mostly long lately because of the definite upward bias of the market Long simply means less risk when stocks are trending up. But, when I find a good volatile stock that is moving, I trade it up and down all day long (if I can). One problem, though, is that to short the shares have to be available and often they are not....then there's the uptick rule, makes shorting more cumbersome....but some of the best profits are made shorting. It's easiest, imho, to trade one stock you know well, and if it moves up very high and very fast, just short it and ride it down....easier than finding another trade. Actually, when shorting, you pretty much have to do it while the stock is going up, at which time you are betting it will go down. If your timing is off just a little bit, you could get stopped out...so you have to be willing to use a larger stop-loss, meaning you have to be able to tolerate it and you have to be right a lot more often than you do when going long. It's tough, but stocks do fall more quickly than they go up, usually. I love to be in a good stock while it's going through the floor. It's a great feeling. Sometimes, when I find myself getting stopped out twice on the same long position, I realize my timing or expectations are just a bit out of sync with the market for that moment. That's when I start shoring instead of going long. I just reverse my whole perspective...things usually start getting better after that. What it means is, when I find myself not doing so well, I just consider doing the opposite for a while....usually works nicely. As for "artifacts of a bull market," I think a really matured trader makes money both ways, couldn't care less if it's long or short, just that the stock is moving somewhere with some speed and predictability. The direction does not matter at all, just the profits <g>. Good luck! Bill