Is there anything more entertaining than watching text book, retail short sellers squirm, or reading all their whining about stock market manipulation in the chat rooms, when all they really had to do was look at a chart?
Admittedly, there have been times along the way in the last few weeks I thought the markets might pull back, but I saw no point going short, personally, aside from an occasional scalp ... and I haven't even done that lately.
The fact is, I have been sitting on the sidelines for the better part of three weeks, watching and observing. It's been quite an eye-opening experience for me; detaching myself from short-term outcomes and instead focussing on what is actually going on in the big picture rather than chasing a few dollars on a fifteen minute scalp.
Most newcomers don't get this. I didn't get it either, though, I wasn't thrust into a postion where I had to make money when I first started trading. That was more than four years ago.
If you get into trading and find the need to make money over-rides the time it takes to learn and get a feel for what's really going on out there in stock market land ... I hate to tell you this, but you're pretty much already screwed.
So, take a break if need be.
Observe.
Find the Zen.
The stock market isn't going anywhere.
It will be there with or without you. If you want to take part in the ups and downs, take the time to figure things out and have a back-up plan just in case the markets and you don't get along.
There are multi-billion dollar hedge funds that have thrown in the towel in the last several months, simply because they couldn't get a proper read on the markets. This ... after their many years of success in the industry. Collectively, these hedge funds had some of the brightest individuals in America at their disposal. Can you compete with that kind of intellectual arsenal?
Probably not ...
But your advantage is that you aren't holding millions of shares at any given moment in time and you have mobility because of this. It is not so easy for large traders to simply dump millions of shares because stochastics and a trend line failed.
Your disadvantage is in the need to make money now and perhaps not having the time nor a true appreciation to realize that there are no free lunches on Wall Street.
I hope to post some charts later.
Stay tuned.
Always perform your own due diligence. These are only my opinions.
