Glad to be part of the StockTock Team

I’d like to say hello and thank the Stocktock team for allowing me to be a team member. Its an honor to blog at this site. Craig and the others have been very welcoming and its an exciting time in the markets.

As far as me, I have a regular day job and my trading style is more of a swing trader trying to catch the bulk of the big moves.   My trading experience is limited to less than a year.  I maintain a minimal margin account but that is only because I haven’t grown it just yet into a size that would support more risk.  I will be studying options in my spare time (I do have a good basic understanding of them – particularly how they effect market movements) and I suppose I will open an options account within the next few months. I am in no rush. I have a book called “Power Trading, Power Living” by Waxie Parness and I like that guy, its a starter book on options for me, just haven’t read that section yet.

Confession time; I started getting into the stock markets in April 2008. I suppose I am a late comer to the markets, about 10 years too late…typical as I tend to procrastinate. So not knowing anything about anything I made every newbie mistake you can possibly make. Betting too much on one stock, not knowing when to enter, not knowing when to sell, picking stocks on a whim or listening to sites like Jim Cramer and subscribing to penny stocks, Motley Fool, etc.  I did great because the market rallied nicely through May. Beginner’s luck and I thought I knew what I was doing. None of this of course helped me when the markets dropped In June…and kept dropping and I experienced some quick and sometimes large losses holding longs. Dumb retailer was me through and through.

I found the Yahoo finance message boards and switched to the dark side playing mostly QID in late June before the market was bottoming.  Made some profits and then the bottom and turn came and I learned that staying short doesn’t always pay in a bear market either.  I almost quit altogether after some good-sized losses.  All the losses stung hard but they did not break my bank, as I did have a “self preservation” switch and managed to sell and avoid life-altering losses.  But one thing I had going was that I was an avid reader and was getting in tune with the coming hard times more than most.  I heard someone say you must “try and control your emotions” when trading. I hate that term. Losing money is emotional.   So I decided the best way to control emotions was to get smarter. Get  smart, then I won’t have as many losses and therefore I will be happier.

(EDIT: By the way I do understand what controlling emotions means – i.e. – setting up and executing a trade based on a sound plan – using stop losses – and generally following that plan, good or bad to keep yourself “all business” when approaching trades.  I have learned to do this – I need to get better as I sometimes abandon my plan  at a whim- but it is starting to improve immensly )

I stumbled upon the Elliott Wave Theory in late August.  It intrigued me.  I  joined Elliott Wave International and read and read some more. Studied waves, studied all their literature, their monthly newsletters, etc. I was hooked. Only through wave theory was I able to start to comprehend the madness that makes up the stock markets and socio-economic mood. I didn’t play the market a whole lot through the big drops in September and October–mostly because I was scared and still learning.  But more importantly I didn’t let my account get wiped out. Bear markets will eat permabears too.

I read hundreds and hundreds of hours on everything and anything about markets, banking crisis, CDS markets, bond markets….and I still read.  So I have a good basic understanding of a lot of things. And of course all that reading has created a permabear out of me.  But my biggest love and hobby is wave theory as proscribed by Robert Prechter. Wave theory allows me to concede powerful bear rallies when others may falter. So I try and stay objective. Its a learning process.   In the last two months I have dug heavily into all aspects of TA.   Elliott Waves and traditional TA go hand in hand. They are synergetic.  Many people don’t undertand this aspect about Elliott Waves.

So please keep this in mind when reading my blog posts or giving feedback or asking questions:

1) I am a permabear and my outlook for the near 5 year or longer future is that of severe Depression for the entire world.  Thats another reason I study wave theory – it helps prepare me.

2) I have a basic margin account and do not play options – yet.

3) I am a swing trader and I write with that bias/slant in mind to include my charts.

4) I am an avid Elliott Wave practitioner as taught by Robert Prechter.

5) I have a day job so cannot monitor the “tape” all day.

6) I do this in my spare time so if I cannot answer every question or email – its only due to lack of time – not indifference to the comment or question

7) I generally don’t like to give trading advice on specific stocks/ETF’s.  I do occasionally post what I am playing but I am cautious on recommending specific trades. I post charts and suggest future market moves and try and give reasons why – its up to the individual to take that information and do due diligence.

8)  I do like to hear feedback – good and bad – because it makes no sense posting charts and if its wrong I like to learn and get better.

Bottom line I am an Elliott Waver at heart and thats my strength and what I bring to this game – and will be charting the waves here and on my stocktock.social page (so as not to clog up this main page too much)

Thanks again for allowing me to be a part of this wonderful website. I look forward to contributing.