Pristine.com on sait aktiivsetele kauplejatele, seal ka võimalus tellida tasuta newsletter (avalehel vasakul ääres). Nad saadavad ka veidi jama (seminarid kruiisilaevadel) kuid ka päris lugemisväärseid kirju tuleb vahest (allpool üks näide).
Michael Sincere toob välja paar elementaarset, kuid ikkagi pidevalt rikutavat kauplemispõhimõtet:
1) kasumitel laske joosta, kahjumid pange kinni. Vastupidine käitumine on sageli rahaliselt valus. Seadke endale mõttelised stopid ja pidage neist kinni.
2) Distsipliin, distsipliin, distsipliin. Järgige rangelt oma kauplemispõhimõtteid ja ärge laske emotsioonidel sekkuda. Mulle endale meeldib ka põhimõte, et iga päev ei pea kauplema - kui olukord ebaselge, on kasulikum päev kõrvaltvaatajana seista.
3) Me kõik teeme vigu. Edukad on need, kes oma (või ka teiste) vigadest õppida suudavad.
My Trading Demons
By Michael Sincere, author of the books:
The Long-Term Day Trader and The After Hours Trader
I've recently received a number of e-mails asking that I discuss some of my personal trading experiences, with the hope that readers can learn from my successes and failures. In my first book, which I wrote a few years ago, I described dozens of mistakes that I made as an investor and tried to help readers avoid making the same mistakes I did. It was extremely educational and therapeutic to reveal my errors, as well as the errors of professionals, and to offer solutions to many common investment mistakes. Many people know that you learn little from your successes but everything from your mistakes.
A few weeks ago, I described a few of the most common trading demons from Oliver Velez's book. In today's column, I will tell you a few of my own personal trading demons, and what I learned. One of the reasons I love trading is that if you make a mistake, you can often earn back your money relatively quickly, assuming you trade well and responsibly. As a buy-and-hold investor, however, it could take years for you to recover from losses.
Trading Demon: Not Adhering to Stops
Without a doubt, the most common error I make is not adhering to stop losses. This mistake alone has cost me thousands of dollars over the years. Many traders are disciplined enough to use mental stops, which means they know at what point they will sell a stock and are disciplined enough to follow through. What I have found, however, is that I tend to ignore my mental stops, rationalizing that the stock is only experiencing a temporary setback. Last month, I shorted Juniper Networks (JNPR) around $35 a share. Like many traders, I got swept up in the doom and gloom scenario that was prevalent at the time. JNPR rose a little, then predictably fell on bad news from Cisco Systems. I was convinced JNPR would break through support and plummet even further. There is no way to know what might have happened, because Greenspan unexpectedly cut interest rates, causing JNPR and dozens of technology stocks to rocket higher. The stock easily blew past my mental stop, but I held the stock a little longer, hoping that JNPR would return to the middle thirties. In fact, it didn't, and after three days of excruciating pain, I finally covered for substantial losses. I learned two lessons that week: First, the market is always right, and second, never, ever ignore your stops.
Because I have had some trouble with mental stops, you might think I am a big proponent of hard stops. Unfortunately, and I will discuss this in a future column, market makers and specialists sometimes play a game called "running the stops," where they use their own money to cause some stocks to suddenly rise or fall, temporarily taking out all the hard stops along the way. A number of traders have been unexpectedly stopped out in the last few months, especially on slow trading days with low volume, the kind of days that are easy for the pros to manipulate. Because of this, I tend to use stock alerts more often than hard stops.
Nevertheless, hard stops are still recommended if you are unable to monitor your stocks closely. The trick is to use a wide enough stop so that it is only triggered in case of an extreme price swing, like when Greenspan cuts rates or the market plummets on really bad news. For me, I will use a combination of mental and hard stops with alerts, but I will never, ever ignore them again. They are like an insurance policy. The real skill is in determining where to put the stop, and that, unfortunately, takes some experimentation.
Trading Demon: Lack of Discipline
Although I could write all day about the importance of cutting your losses and letting your profits run, like many novice traders and investors, I sometimes do the opposite. I sometimes let a loss get away from me in the hope I will get back to even. Or, when I'm in a winning trade, I take the gain too quickly before it turns into a loss. On the floor of the exchange, this is known as "eating like a bird and defecating like an elephant." Years ago, when I was a relatively new buy-and-hold investor, I went long Iomega and didn't sell, even when the stock went against me by a dozen points. I mentioned this to William O'Neil, publisher of Investor's Business Daily, and I will never forget what he said to me: "How could you do that?"
He was absolutely right. How could I let myself get stuck with such a losing position? It really comes down to being a disciplined, emotionless trader. It's easy to talk about being disciplined and following your rules, but the truth is, it is extremely difficult to do it in real life. One thing I have learned about myself is that it is not easy for me to leave my ego at the door when I trade, or to not feel a range of emotions, from fear and greed to hope and hopelessness. To counteract these very human feelings, I rely on technical analysis, as well as a structured plan that I follow before, during, and after I make a trade. Like an airplane pilot ready to land or takeoff, I have a checklist that I refer to when trading. When I follow my rules without letting emotions impact my decisions, I always do the best.
I have also learned to not berate myself when I miss a great trading setup because another one is always around the corner. In the past, I was impatient, trying to make money every single day. This is possible during trending markets, but when the market starts and lurches, I have learned to patiently wait for the best opportunities. Most importantly, when I miss one good play, I just wait for the next one--even if it takes a while.
One other technique I find useful is to keep a log of my trading mistakes. This allows me to analyze my actions on a regular basis, and helps me avoid repeating those mistakes. Whether you are a novice or experienced trader, keeping a daily trading log can be extremely beneficial. Although it's a lot more fun to write and talk about our successes, recognizing and then removing the trading demons from your life is one of the quickest ways to become a profitable trader.
