Investing lesson: greed and patience

There are two things investors or traders must learn. One is to control the greed instinct and the other is to be patient.

"You know, a professional gambler is not looking for long shots, but for sure money. Of course long shots are fine when they come in. In the stock market Pat wasn't after tips or playing to catch twenty-points-a-week advances, but sure money in sufficient quantity to provide him with a good living." - Quote from Reminiscences of a Stock Operator

This is particularly true for full-time traders who solely depends on speculating the market for a living. It is extremely important to preserve the capital. Cutting losses fast and letting the profit run is the basic rule that all traders must follow. Failing to keep to these rules are the main reason for the failure of many traders.

Comments

How to do technical analysis for stocks?

I started investing in stock market about 20 years ago. Initially subscribing to IPOs. I had not have luck with IPOs. All of them ended with money losing deal, even though I held on to them for a few years. So, I concluded that the IPOs in Singapore market is over priced. Then I started to read analyst reports on stocks and invest in companies (typically blue chips). Not much profit but good dividends during the good years. Then, came the financial crises. I went on to buy blue chip companies during crises and I held them over the years and sold of a about 120% gain over 5 years on average. Due to some distraction, I stayed away from the market during this crisis and missed the opportunity to buy during the lows. Recently (few months ago), I had been doing some stock trading and currency trading using technical analysis method for more than a year. So far, I had tried many different technical analysis using different indicators (Moving averages, MACD, RMO, Fibonacci, Stochastics, RSI e...

Trading systems

Here are some trading systems that can be used for trend following trading: ATR Channel Breakout : A volatility channel system that uses ATR as the volatility measure. Bollinger Breakout : A volatility channel system that uses the standard deviation as the volatility measure. Donchian Trend : A breakout system with a trend filter. Donchian Trend with Time Exit : A breakout system with a trend filter and a time-based exit. Dual Moving Average : A system that buys and sells when a faster moving average crosses over a slower moving average. Unlike the other systems, this system is always in the market, either long or short. Triple Moving Average : A system that buys and sells when a faster moving average crosses over a slower moving average but only in the direction of the major trend defined by a very slow-moving average.

Professional Investor's advice, market hype etc.

This is an article that I read on 26th September 2012. It has been over a year now and I suddenly remembered. I'd posted this last year with some other predictions from CNBC etc. During then, I was very fascinated listening to these experts. They are so confident and so logical. I always admire their ability to "read" the market and manage hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money. So of them managed billions of dollars. Then I thought what if they ever go wrong? Won't they lose a lot of money? So, I think it would have been interesting to remember what they said and then we verify later. On 26th September, the S&P 500 index closed at 1433.32. One year went on and it went up another 19% from there. Below is S&P 500 over last one and a half year. As we can see, the market has still been a bull. Over the one year period, the S&P 500 index did correct itself. However, it was a

Good Investing Lessons

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