Boring Historical data

As a follow up to the last post about "cutting it" I'd like you to take a look at my old as of December 2006 trading ideas ( which I stopped maintaining as of Jan 12th 2007 ).

See for yourselves - almost every single trade closed at a slight loss on Jan 12th would be still at a loss as of today or lagging in the best case scenario.

Keep in mind that since I just stopped maintaining that "public" spreadsheet - I "closed" ALL ideas on the same day therefore diminishing returns from "good" positions - but than again - you might see what kind of returns those "positive" closed positions would produce as of today.

For those of you who interested in "future ideas" there is always a "Members Only Fee based Site"

City Slicker in New England or "Having fun mowing your lawn"

Ever since I was a kid I had a very bad memory, it is not that I was not able to remember anything (except for the things I did not want to do of course), but I had difficult time memorizing subjects like history. That is when I learned to memorize things "by association" and this is why instead of promised topic of "cutting losses" I'd like to talk about yesterday, that is my yesterday.

Brief biographical data: I was born and raised in a big city ( 2.7 million people ), I always lived in big cities, loved that city living with all my heart. Then so happened that I had to move to rural New England's town with about 30,000 habitants. Nice clean wealthy place - "old money" type of.

So I had to adjust my lifestyle some ...and one of numerous adjustments I had to make was - I had to start mowing the lawn and I tried to avoid it by hiring "professional" who successfully ruined it by cutting top soil with the grass and it took significant efforts and some hefty amount of money to reanimate it.

If you want something done right... and I bought a lawn mower ( I just could not imagine myself riding a big kick .. tractor on my segmented 1.1 acre lawn.

Every single year I make the very same mistake - I keep postponing "first cut" for as long as I can. I keep ignoring fast growing grass, I keep "forgetting" about it, I try to come up with every humanly possible reason for not doing it ... and here comes the time when I cannot see my dog in the grass ( I have lovely Golden Retriever of very impressive stature - some call her "fat" - I call her using politically correct term of "big and tall".

Anyone who tried to cut 2 feet tall grass with a push mower during very rare New England's sunny days ( in between of the rains ) knows what kind of torture that is.

Every 5 yards you have to stop and empty it out, you have to use your hands to clean that mediocre discharge hole,you have to mow the same spot 2 -3 times otherwise place looks like a small Nebraska town after tornado, you have to pull the tarp with the wet grass to the wood ( I got planty of woods, I can tell you that - with all the mosquitoes in the world living right close by ), you run out of gas and forced to take a shower and drive 20 minutes to the closest gas station and then to the next one, 'cause the first one is "closed for flu".

And of course the day when you finally cutting the damn grass happens to be the hottest, most humid day from all the days you could possibly pick for torturing yourself before that day.

Your legs hurt, you are sweating like a 200lbs pig, your eyes are itching and tearing full of pollen, you becoming a raging human flesh the only desire left is to "DO IT TODAY, ALL OF IT - it is going to rain again for the next 10 days!".
You don't see, you don't feel, you do not distinguish anymore between lawn and your wife's flower garden or UPS package laying on the driway, your feet start to slide on the slope under insultingly grinning at you your very own lawn mower ... and here comes the moment of truth - you fall on the grass and cry and ask yourself THE question:
"Why, or why I did not do it before?
I knew I will have to do it.
I knew it will cause more pain as the days go by.
I knew it will cause a lot of pain if left growing.
I knew I will have to do it in the very inconvenient moment.
I knew I would end up killing more grass by pulling it out of the soil, that actually cutting it.
I knew I would have to cancel whatever plans I had for that day - and may be next few ones - my mood is too screwed up.
Why did not I cut it while it was low and enjoyed the peace of mind - and while in a good mood I could come up with some new great ideas ( instead of constantly thinking how to avoid cutting "it")

WHY I DID NOT DO WHAT I KNEW I WOULD HAVE TO DO - EARLIER???

Why did not I sell that stock with 7-8% loss and let it go down 40% and ruin my portfolio and state of mind?

Oh well, the least you can do now is to take a look here and have some healthy laughter (at yourself)

Forget recession - it is party time!

Bears are nowhere in sight, everyone is happy , everyone is making some money ( except for those who still loosing their pants trying to fight the tide )
My ironic thought on upcoming correction have not materialized .. yet, I am prepared for turnaround and meanwhile I am riding the Bull with the mob.

Here is a link to my trading ideas entered at the end of April ( and bought at the different time bases on "buy trigger conditions" I believe will produce max gain in the shortest period of time and as of today, June 2nd it is up to you to judge if average return of 7.95% in 16 trading days at the daily rate of +0.69% ( not to forget - that list was entered ONCE and not maintained actively, no stocks were "sold" - kind of public demonstration of "buy and ... forget", indeed - my regularly maintained list produced noticeable sizable results )
my My trading ideas from the end of April

Later this weekend ( when I am back from Warden Blocks presentation } I will post ( REpost, stress again and again ... and again.) my thought on importance of ending the very first day when particular position is open in GREEN.

Few long ideas

BOO, VGR, DVR, TIV, JAV, BUF

* Above stocks picks ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST BOUGHT OR SOLD!!! *
* I POST DETAILED STRATEGY FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE ON THE MEMBERS PRIVATE SITE *

"With a little bit of luck..."

What makes a winner? Hard work, homework, persistence, ability to stay in the game after damaging losses, ability to listen to other people and been capable of making own decisions.
Gift? Do we have to be born with a gift of been a good trader?
I think, may be, up to some extent, but most of all - we need to learn ourselves and the market, every single day learn something from the market, about market.

It is difficult market now, a lot of traders ask the same question: "How come everyone is taking profits and I am cutting losses?" Well, I think - a LOT of traders are cutting losses lately, jumping in and out of positions - it is a difficult, unstable market.
At least it was for me - most of April and beginning of May -
my portfolio is only up about 15% from April 1st

We will get there, we will - with a little bit of luck ( I hope you do recall Mr. Dolittle from original "My Fair Lady")

To do something good on a bad day

It is nice when been skeptical pays off
It is not nice to see panic selling, lost money, broken hopes

Few week ago I wrote "another 200 points on a DOW" - and then ... wake up and smell ... no, roses don't smell like that :)

Anyhow, I thought it might be beneficial to visitors of "Trading to Win blog" who are not the Members of fee based group to see my trading homework in action and therefore, first time since this blog started ( one time only ) I make my trading spreadsheet publicly available.
Here is a link, feel free to save it on your PCs and use is a template for watch lists, I hope you will find it useful.

If you like it and want to have updates - you will have to subscribe.

Follow up for yesterday's long list

* Above stocks picks ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST BOUGHT OR SOLD!!! *
* I POST DETAILED STRATEGY FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE ON THE MEMBERS PRIVATE SITE *

A lot of new ideas

And again - all longs,
and of course - not to be touched until "Uncle Ben" will finish talking tomorrow.
As for entry prices, conditions and strategies - those are posted on Members Group's Site
ARIA
AVD
BRLC
CCC
CNU
ECGI
ENCY
FUEL
INO
IOTN
ISV
NAVR
NL
NTN
OTIV
RACK
SMOD
SR
XNN

* Above stocks picks ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST BOUGHT OR SOLD!!! *
* I POST DETAILED STRATEGY FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE ON THE MEMBERS PRIVATE SITE *

April's Results ( That what they call "Vacation"? )

As you know most of April I was either on vacation or have not been trading much due to data problem with Ameritrade Advanced Analyzer.
Still, using about 20% of margin, results are not that bad for one months.



* Above stocks picks ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE JUST BOUGHT OR SOLD!!! *
* I POST DETAILED STRATEGY FOR EACH OF THE ABOVE ON THE MEMBERS PRIVATE SITE *

Few long ideas

Below stocks might be considered as "buys" only above stated price
LMIA 19.98
NAVR 4.35
VGZ 9.12
IMGN 5.54

For more ideas subscribe to Members Group
How to subscribe