...Mark is an astute trader, and he does not jump the gun on FOMO.
...In fact, he lets the bull run a little while, not prematurely, to ensure he does not get blindsided.
...does not sound like he thinks much of this recent rally.
I’ll be the first to admit—this rally has unfolded with very few stocks truly in buyable position (at least, speaking for my strategy), and for me, the results have been mixed at best. I did manage to latch onto a few nice winners, but the volatility whipped me in and out on a number of names which led to a lack of any real traction and net progress.
But that’s not unusual around a bottom and during the first leg up off a bear market low. During the COVID recovery, the market shot off the lows, and we didn’t put on our first trade until April 6, 2020—and even then, I didn’t get aggressive for several months.
That turned out to be a big year where I was up over 100% and my assistants Mark Ritchie and Brandon Hedgepath were up over 350%. The 2003 and 2009 recoveries were V-shaped and both led to sustained bull markets that offered many opportunities later in the year.
Back in 1995, the market broke out of a long sideways consolidation (the opposite of a V shape recovery), yet I held back until months after the Dow was already making new all-time highs, due to a lack of stocks offering low risk entry points. That year was one of my largest, up over 400%.
The hallmark of a true professional is patience and consistency—and that boils down to one thing: discipline. If you don’t have the discipline to wait for your pitch, then you’d better get used to striking out.
Don't get discouraged if this market has left you in the dust, you're not alone, and it's not unusual. What is unusual for most is rock-solid discipline. And that's why big performance is unusual.
