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Strategies & Market Trends : Anthony @ Equity Investigations, Dear Anthony, -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:05:00 PM
From: HRAKA	Respond to of 122087

don't be so anxious to short. There is at least one sure thing that gets posted everyday on this thread. Be more picky about your shorts. Why did you short IDTC when the Net2phone IPO's has been anticipated for a couple months? Hraka

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: steviee	Respond to of 122087

F.M. On this one seems like much more news to come. Dont feel bad the <OTEX> clipper nicked me . lol steviee

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:10:00 PM
From: jjs64	Respond to of 122087

ForceM; I have lost alot of money (being long in the past) in IDTC, so I can sympathize. My suggestion is to short stocks where you have "certainty" on the fundamentals (ie you know the stock is crap, like MLRE and NTOY, because of the Steve Samblis connection). Don't short based on valuation alone, or on technicals, or on who has moved the most that day. Those are all great places to start (or to use as a timing device, to tell you "when" to short), but they are not enough to tell you "what" to short. I like to stick with shorting the crap, the real POS stocks. The liars, cheats, and criminals. I use price and volume momentum, as well as valuation as a guide as to when to short these. Usually, if I am convinced that stock really is garbage, I dont worry about these running against me, for every pump there is a dump. Best regards!

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:19:00 PM
From: R. L. Chapin	Respond to of 122087

I have had my ass handed to me on more than one occasion. Pay attention to percentages and never extend yourself or overcommit. If you're very new, you might want to stay a little closer to Tony's picks as he is usually pretty careful about curbing losses (or not having them).

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:28:00 PM
From: TripleT	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 122087

<<Any advise would be appreciated as to what am I doing wrong. How is everyone else making a killing? I know I'm still learning, but I like to think I'm a little smarter than the average bear (no offense to Ms. Bear and Mr. Bear), so what am I doing wrong?>> The following is just some suggestions. Some may work for and some may not. a) Spread your short funds around between several plays. Several posters have suggested no more than 5% in any one play. b) One quote I've heard from Moma Bear: The 20-40-100% rule 20% profit in a day--take it 40% profit in a week --take it 100% profit in any time frame take it. c) Short Anthony's picks. I won't say short only these -- but I sure come close. As a rule he's very conservative and has an extremely high batting average. d) Study and recognize patterns. For instance, IPO spin-off of internut related divisions. Look at the patterns of the parent stock. DBCC DLIA (Future one is NAVR) c) Watch and set stop limits and get out. d) Know the story behind the short recommendation. If I don't, I usually don't get in. e) Try to keep a reasonable reserve for short squeezes f) There are dozen's more that I haven't heard of and thus can't quote them. Keep looking, reading and trying and learn from your mistakes. f) I can't wait for A @ P's new site. Our batting average will go up. g) And I have had a run of bad luck. However, I now am up for the month and my one short DLIA will probably do well. Techie

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 3:39:00 PM
From: Druss	Respond to of 122087

FM--When on the learning curve play small positions. Don't hang in there when things start looking grim. You may have noticed the 'I bailed posts' regarding PPOD. It wasn't acting right, I bailed too. I took a small loss rather than be painted into a corner where I have to eat a big one. The real danger is couple of successes and you start playing too big of a position and refusing to take a loss. Losses are part of the learning curve. Try to keep them small. All the Best Druss

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 8:37:00 PM
From: Richard Miller	Respond to of 122087

Perhaps reading the posts singing the praise of IDTC by veteran Tom Hua (high on SI's top bookmarked list) seconded by a thread veteran such as myself, and paying some heed, might be a good start.

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/6/1999 9:15:00 PM
From: jlib	Respond to of 122087

Re: Run over by freight train... Not much to add to the great tips you have received. I might add that it has been very beneficial for me to have stops (mental ones if not real ones) in place before hand and bail without second thoughts if triggered. That is not an easy thing to do because we might think "Oh, just one more point I can tough it out" but if you do that a few times pretty soon you may get in too deep. It is doubly hard to take a small loss because part of the nature of shorting is that you need to start creating a position while it is rising and shares are still available so by nature you must get into an upside down position. Where that position is no longer tenable is what you need to determine beforehand. That is based mainly on your financial resources and whether the stock is a pure POS or more an overvalued speculation play (bail without hesitation if the latter goes against you). If you think in terms of abundance then it is much easier to let go of the trades that went bad. Greed makes you hold on. There is at least another new one waiting for you tomorrow. And if you are not able to monitor the market all day then be particularly conservative. As was already mentioned, don't try to save on commissions by opening your entire position all at once. Buy in 3-4 installments over several points so you are not carrying your entire position if it runs away from you after entering. If it crashes quickly that means you might not be in it as much as you intended but that's OK because you have hedged your risks. Fully 20-25 percent of my positions are losses (I'm not very good on my own yet), but I just look at it as part of the game. And don't try to keep up with the Joneses. Someone here may casually toss out the number of shares they bought but that number may be totally inappropriate for your financial resources. There is lots of capital wealth on this thread and it is OK to just live within your own means determined by you. That is why Anthony just uses percentages when he talks about positions. I try to keep 5 or more positions in play at any one time. That helps me limit how much I devote to any one position. Also, assure that you have funds to cover margin crunch up to stop loss point. And if you are ever getting close to a margin call get some money in there right away to keep above that point because if you get called the brokerage may want you to bring your percentage all the way back up to 50%. Anyway, there is a reason you received such an abundance of suggestions. Probably everyone who contributed had a first hand experience commensurate with their suggestions. Most have stumbled on the track of a runaway train. The fact that they are still here means they survived. So don't worry, you will probably recoup your loss within a month or two. Just keep plugging along... Best, Jimmy Liberato

To: Force Majeure who wrote (27198)	4/7/1999 3:46:00 AM
From: Force Majeure	Respond to of 122087

Thank you to EVERYONE!! You have been very kind to take the time to respond to me. I greatly appreciate the thoughts and advice each of you have to offer. I've archived these. In retrospect, several things should have been done differently and the damage would not have been so severe. Will start taking smaller positions and be more careful not to jump on a short based on fundamentals (or any one aspect) alone. IMO, I still think Net2phone is a POS. I think this thread--the people who make up this thread--are truly wonderful. Unfortunately, I'm not able to watch the market throughout the day as closely as I'd like to. However, I've made a commitment to continually educate myself, improve my investment skills & understanding, to make smarter informed decisions. (yes, I will be at the seminar <ggg>) Clearly today was a lesson that I'm not ready to quit my day job. Cheers! Force Majeure ->Sadder but Wiser<-