Day Trading May 15 afternoon

I detect some interest. Some comments about my trading.

First, just to point out that today I called THD and ENT as 'not good' based on my take on the market and trading on those stocks. I do quite a bit of that. One of my first principles of trading is 'don't lose $$$s'. I see heaps of calls here for risky trades, usually because the caller is holding a losing stock and trying to get other peeps to buy them out of trouble.

I don't try and find 'unknown' stocks and pump them up here after I have bought them low. And I don't really look for stocks that are 'about to go on a run'. I used to get caught up in the 'research' caper long ago but the timing was always an issue. I did think CLQ was a good bet and I made a heap. However, the main run on the SP was cos of the cobalt connection. My reasoning for liking the stock was only half right in the end. It was very hard to trade as well. If you look at the chart you might think you couda sold at various highs etc but those moves were always very quick and there was never much to sell in to. Now it has done a 100% retrace and many would still be holding.

I follow up on most of the stocks given heads up here and really, the success rate is not good. We have been thru a period when the market was quite benign and sure, some of these stocks did go well. But I find that you can do better buying them later when the risk is lower and you can take bigger bets. We are now in a washout period where many are left holding the bag.

So what stocks do I trade? Mainly the bog standard, high volume, momentum stocks that everyone else is on. I'm quite good at charts and follow them implicitly to decide whether to go in and when to get out. I also have a good handle on the 'rules of the ASX game' so I can assess the, ahem, FA, pretty good as well. I don't short cos you can't with most of these tiddlers. Prob should make more effort tho.

So Yep, I don't call many stocks, but I will usually give an opinion as to whether a stock is getting near the chart top or at its use by date. You can take it from me there is no agenda on those calls.

My reasoning for not pumping stocks I hold or trade, is that I wouldn't want to influence peeps either way. If you are gonna make it as a trader then you need to be able to find these stocks yourself. It's not that hard and it's the first skill you need. And if I was right every time I would soon have a following that would make it harder for me to trade and get set myself.

My approach is that knowing how to trade is the big thing. Picking stocks is easy. Knowing when to hold and when to fold etc. Understanding risk management. Weighting your buys. Not getting sucked in by all the BS on HC and elsewhere. Bots and smarties are def out to get your $$$s.

There was a big post on all this and tips from previous trading gurus posted about 3 weeks ago.

Like most others, I am struggling to find a trade atm. I don't like it and have to stop myself from just punting. But market always seems to come back. One good stock and all will be forgiven.

I miss a lot of posts cos I put a lot of new posters on ignore cos there was just too much stuff a while back. Also some posters just bug me and I don't need the distraction. I would not call myself an espc good trader but I do have pretty good insight into the game. If you bug someone like Shelby or Speckle in the lounge to 'quick reply' a question I will see it and give an opinion.