Investors....come in please!

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Posted by Amkeer:
quote:
For traders a 2% stop is in order. You should have a trailing stop so that you can capture profits. Only you can figure where to place stops.
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Speaking of stops,I've read that 8% is a good level for investors. Personally, I don't enter stop orders per se, because of the risk of getting sold out of a good position. But, I take a hard look at the technicals after a drop of about 5%. I'm a swing trader, not a day trader, so a stop of 2% would send me to the Asylum very quickly.....
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I just put a 17% stop on CMGI. I know it's kind of high but when you have a stock that rallies, then the next day or two you always have scared sellers. I'll remove the stop or bring it up futher as the stock improves or stabilizes.
 
I left CMGI earlier for a nice percentage gain.

Oh yeah, I checked out the AAII stock screener. Pretty cool really - worth the membership alone - and I was whining before. Now that I'm getting stuff in the mail I feel better about joining.

As for the stock screen, I'll need to mess with it some more. Funny CANSLIM is sucking in 2004, but up to this point kicked a$$. I need to select a funnel - that best fits our peaky, vibrating market. What did you choose???
 
My profolio is a friggin roller coaster! Despite the markets pulling ahead, I'm still stock at the same % ......between -2% to +2%.

I'm a tad dissapointed with MOBL. LU was doing so good......go away for 4 days and shiite goes down in flames!
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Z - one of the more common and a practice that does work is called diversification. It's allows you to win by hitting singles, doubles and yes the occasional HR. Sounds like you are trying to win with the long ball with a couple singles hitters.
What else do you own?

As for this market - I'm no big wiener right now either. Sure I've had some great short term trades, but now I have some losers in the portfolio. Not huge, and not huge enough to dump them either. PITA stocks I call them. My funds are actually carrying my a$$ right now. (AS for 2004, it looks like I'll kick the SP500's butt)

The market itself is beautiful and bizarre and scary and intriguing at the same time. (Seems to me I have the same attraction to this type of women) We could take a 500 pt hit on the DOW at any given moment.......or we can continue to go ahead....fueled by the big boys selling crap but then realizing they don't have anywhere to stick it, so out comes the money for the pretty girl again.

But whatever you do, don't try and buck or fight the market. You will be assimilated.

I look at the predictors, charts and models and I see garbage. NONE of these predict the crap that is scaring investors right now. But this doesn't mean you should ignore charts and fundamentals.... it just means that IF you think you have the market figured out, you had better sell everything right NOW!!
 
quote:
Originally posted by Pablo:
Z - one of the more common and a practice that does work is called diversification. It's allows you to win by hitting singles, doubles and yes the occasional HR. But this doesn't mean you should ignore charts and fundamentals.... it just means that IF you think you have the market figured out, you had better sell everything right NOW!!
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Z I've got over 20 individual stocks that I'm long right now. Some are up overall and some are way down. but overall my poretfolio is up about 10%.

Hardest part of the stockmarket is when to sell. You know it's easy to find a stock and easy to buy one, but once you own it, that is when it's hard to sell. If its a loser no one likes to lose money so they keep it until they are in the green, and when it's in the green, folks like to make big money. So a 10-20% gain they will hold on to until it goes in the red.

Just part of the maket.

Like Pablo said, if you have it figured out, sell it all!!!!
 
Guys,

I b!tch about my portfolio every now and then, but I'm in it for the longs! My plan is to keep it for the future.....my retirement plan, if you will.
I would like to sell and make a buck or two on the occasional spike.....that's all.
 
Study, study, study! Don't try to time the market unless you know something about the technicals otherwise you will get smoked!
 
Studying this AM. Will sell VLTR, my last killer stock....or should I hold????

Leaves me with a list of dawgs. All my commodity stuff is in the hopper.....(again didn't follow my own rule)
 
Coming close to that time of year for everyone to post their annual retirement account performance for 2004. If you have a pile of loot like Amkeer and Z that's not in a self directed/Roth IRA or 401K that's OK too. No $ amounts needed. Just % gain or loss.

Not trying to have braggarts and losers - I want all of us on BiTOG to beat the popular averages, and see how we performed against this year's winners that's all. I have gained from this BLOG and so my thanks go to BiTOG and it's leadership, plus Amkeer, Sparks, even Z
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I will do overall, then by accounts: IRA stocks, IRA Mutual Funds and work 401K. But that's just me.
 
quote:
Originally posted by msparks:

Hardest part of the stockmarket is when to sell. You know it's easy to find a stock and easy to buy one, but once you own it, that is when it's hard to sell. If its a loser no one likes to lose money so they keep it until they are in the green,
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That's a trap a lot of amateur and not so amateur stock swappers fall into.

The fact that a stock has lost money doesn't usually increase it's chances of making money in the future. More often than not, it's exactly the opposite.

The question you need to ask yourself is where you should put your money for the future with no regard for past losses. You can't unravel history and reweave it into something more attractive. You can only start from where you are and move forward.
 
I've been looking at my charts, and everything looks overbought, most importantly the SPX. Momentum indicators are losing steam. I realize the market can remain overbought for an extended period, but it looks like we're due for a pullback soon......

I just read that fair value for the SPX would be about 880, maybe a 15% drop.....? Now wouldn't that scare the bejeebers out of investors if it fell that much......?
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Not everything looks overbought. Technically there have been some significant breakthroughs.

I highly doubt the market will overcorrect to 880.....but, yes it could happen.

Don't get me wrong - the market is jittery and it WILL correct. When? Not quite yet - but a good drop says that cash on hand may be handy.
 
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