MrBuzz's Swing Trading Forum
This is a swing trading forum. What is a swing trader? A trader that leans both ways in the markets (both long and short). A swing trader doesn't fall in love with a stock and trades each as a "thing" that is rented for a short period of time. A swing trader is focused only on price changes through time.
This is not daytrading. I rarely close positions out within a day. If I do feel the trade is meant for daytrading, I will note it. This is also not investing. My time horizon is much shorter - rarely more than several weeks.
If positions are closed early it is because I feel either a profit target was hit too quickly or some weakness is showing in the stock. The rule of the road is if the position doesn't move my way after a set time frame, losses are cut short and assumed to be wrong.
Everything in this thread is called the way I see it. I am a firm believer in technical analysis along with a dose of fundamentals. I don't care to pour through reams of news and 10K/10Q reports. That information is "stale" and already reflected in the stock price.
I am a firm believer in money management. I don't use fancy rules of asset allocation. I keep things simple. My basic rule is that I put no more than 20% of my entire portfolio in any one position. Usually these will be ETFs such as SMH, QQQ, SPY, DIA. I will rarely put 20% down on a high flying volatile stock. Margin is used with discretion and when I feel a trend is in development.
In regards to stock selection I keep it simple. I don't play thinly traded stocks nor do I chase the stock of the day. Stocks must trade over 800,000 shares a day on average. I tend to trade QQQ, SPY, DIA, and SMH along with the more active issues such as MSFT, CSCO, DELL, YHOO, SUNW, etc. Thus, you will rarely see stocks mentioned that aren't popular.
Portfolio Notes
* Portfolio started March 23, 2003
* Assumes $1,000,000 starting equity
* 2:1 margin
* CASH.X is the cumulative sum of all closed positions since inception
* To get the total portfolio value since inception:
Total portfolio value = $1,000,000 + CASH.X
Examples:
CASH.X = $250,000
Total portfolio value = $1,000,000 + $250,000 = $1,250,000
CASH.X = $-100,000
Total portfolio value = $1,000,000 - $100,000 = $900,000
- Stocks marked with negative shares (in red) are shorts. Otherwise they are long.
- If there are no open positions, I am fully cash and the account value is the total portfolio value.
- Total %Gain/%Loss in Silicon Investor's portfolio manager has a bug in it. It doesn't calculate short positive percentages correctly. So the portfolio won't reflect the true %Gain/Loss in the entire portfolio. Thus the reason for CASH.X as a cumulative sum.
- I will periodically post my feelings on the markets and about the positions that are currently held. I will rarely get into trade specifics as that is proprietary to me.
Disclaimer:
At times I may own stocks mentioned in this thread. I will not be held liable or responsible for your trading decisions. |
