Andrew no disrespect to you but that is a very blinkered view on chart trading. I don't think you really understand why it is we chartists trade the charts and don't bother with the fundamentals. It's because to us sentiment and crowd behavior are the only things we are interested in and this is what we trade and if you are good at it and can see where the smart money is coming in and leaving and how the crowd is reacting you can do very well. This is all there on the chart, that's what it is a visual map if you like of the money flow.
It's actually riskier imo sitting in a stock blindly hoping the fundamentals will all come to fruition than actively trading a stock and moving in and out of it, buying the dips or bottoms when the smart money comes in and selling when the smart money sells. If you buy and blindly hold you are leaving yourself open to Time risk. By that I mean you don't know what is going to happen to the overall markets that may affect your stock, you don't know if suddenly the laws in which ur company is operating might change, hey the whole board may get killed in an air crash who knows. There are a million things that could happen and you increase the chances of something unexpected happening by blindly sitting and holding imo. The sad thing is as well is that having that approach many never even take profits when the stock is peaking and then ride it down the other side and waste even more time waiting for it to recover. In HIH's case it never did. I bet the fundamentals appeared good there as well right to the end.
Sure I admit trading is not easy and I am never going to pick profitable trades 100% of the time but if you can do it even 40% of the time, with good money management practices in place and are disciplined you can make a good living from it trust me. I've managed double digit % gains for 8 out of the last 10 years from trading and not once have I ever known anything about a stock other than its 3 letter code prior to buying it. I've been burnt once by BMN's drop but traded back into profit, by trading the bounces and rises once it turned the corner. I'm actually glad it happened now because it taught me more about trading than I could have ever have known. I'm not a millionaire by any means that takes years and lots of capital and my capital up until 2 years ago was limited, but I do well enough for it to be a serious second income stream. Warren is a legend yes and that's his style and good on him but it doesn't mean that just because he's successful its the only way to make money in the markets. I've met some very very successful wealthy traders too, they just don't get the coverage or want it.
Why knock the traders and chartists all the time? why not instead take it all on board and add it to the big picture because combined with the fundamentals it'll give you even more of an edge. Aren't we all in this together?
Cheers
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