If you think you will spend the weekend worrying about a particular position, it's best to sell it right now and move on.
If you find yourself visiting the yahoo boards to see if there is any helpful news out there that you might have missed, its best to sell right now and move on.
If you find yourself using indicators on charts that you don't normally use just to justify holding a position, its best to sell right now and move on.
If you find yourself asking asking the "experts" on twitter or on blogs about your positions, its best to sell it right now and move on.
If you find yourself checking the stock's fundamentals although you took a position based totally on technical reasons, its best to sell it right now and move on.
Take care and good luck!
7 comments:
I was doing just about exactly all you stated on this post, but I held. Hopefully it is the right decision.
Good Post!
AA for short term traders! Nice.
This may be true for a rich, full-time trader who uses a "safe" approach and has time to research during trading hours. But for a small-fry part-time "risk on" amateur who has to work for a living, I don't think there's anything wrong with a weekend reevaluation of positions relative to alternatives and changing variables using all available information sources, including this one and the Yahoo boards. Besides, I think taking a know-it-all attitude about my meager holdings would be a dangerous portfolio management strategy because I don't know it all.
Thanks for all the comments guys, especially the last one! Let me just address that.
Firstly, I am not a rich, full time trader. I trade with a small account and trading is not my full time job. And I trade momentum stocks so I wouldn't call my approach safe by any stretch!
The purpose of this post is not to discourage learning, anything but. The purpose of this post is to discourage making excuses to onself just to avoid taking a loss. The purpose of this post is to avoid going through great lengths to justify holding a position to oneself just because one doesn't have the guts to take a loss. I know how hard it can be for a newbie, in some cases even experienced traders, to take a loss. The post comes from my own experiences from when I first started trading years ago :). I could go into each and every point in detail and why its wrong in detail, but maybe that's not needed.
Thanks for the comment and good luck!
Great post. And a nice blog. Except that there is an overdose of Google Ads.
Thanks Anon! And I certainly agree on the last point :). The way I see it is that I am justified in earning a little something for all my efforts ;). Plus they help keep the entire contents of the blog free. You will never hear me talking about any subscription charges.
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