...unfortunately I'm not. I have, over the last few weeks, had some tough times in the markets. Because of this I decided to take some time away from my screen to destress and "get a grip". I should have decided to stop trading at the beginning of all the chop that we've seen because of the EuroZone chaos. I didn't. I took some losses because I didn't listen to my gut. I wasn't practicing good risk/reward and position sizing and as a result I just about broke even in both of my accounts. My broker, on the other hand, made a bundle.
So, as a result of my mistakes, I stopped trading last Friday. Well, we all know how this week played out don't we. And guess where the Jude was??? Sitting on her hands and watching it all. I'm not regretting doing this; I regret not being in the market but I'm relieved that we can all finally get on with what we do best... trading our plans and making some nice gains.
I plan to start trading, lightly at first, and watching for any pullbacks or retests of breakouts that took place in the setups that are on my radar. I'll be shutting off the noise as I usually do during the trading day and practicing discipline and good risk management. I've Included here a list of 30 trading rules that I found on the Stockscores site last January. Some of you may have seen this already. Here it is again for those who haven't. I'm going to be reading it once again...
1. Buying a weak stock is like betting on a slow horse. It is retarded.
2. Stocks are only cheap if they are going higher after you buy them.
3. Never trust a person more than the market. People lie, the market does not.
4. Controlling losers is a must; let your winners run out of control.
5. Simplicity in trading demonstrates wisdom. Complexity is the sign of inexperience.
6. Have loyalty to your family, your dog, your team. Have no loyalty to your stocks.
7. Emotional traders want to give the disciplined their money.
8. Trends have counter trends to shake the weak hands out of the market.
9. The market is usually efficient and cannot be beat. Exploit inefficiencies.
10. To beat the market, you must have an edge.
11. Being wrong is a necessary part of trading profitably. Admit when you are wrong.
12. If you do what everyone is doing you will be average, so goes the definition.
13. Information is only valuable if no one knows about it.
14. Lower your risk till you sleep like a baby.
15. There is always a reason why stocks go up or down, we usually only learn the reason when it is too late.
16. Trades that make a lot of intellectual sense are likely to be losers.
17. You do not have to be right more than you are wrong to make money in the market.
18. Don't worry about the trades that you miss, there will always be another.
19. Fear is more powerful than greed and so down trends are sharper than up trends.
20. Analyze the people, not the stock.
21. Trading is a dictators game; you cannot trade by committee.
22. The best traders are the ones who do not care about the money.
23. Do not think you are smarter than the market, you are not.
24. For most traders, profits are short term loans from the market.
25. The stock market cannot be predicted, we can only play the probabilities.
26. The farther price is from a linear trend, the more likely it is to correct.
27. Learn from your losses, you paid for them.
28. The market is cruel, it gives the test first and the lesson afterward.
29. Trading is simple but it is not easy.
30. The easiest time to make money is when there is a trend.
Wishing you good trading next week. See you all on the stream. Stay well. Stay solvent. Stay in the game.
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