Day Trading Advice: Don't Get Married To A Stock
Check out this video from Lightspeed Trading's Trader Talk Series. A real trader explains why you should not get married to one particular stock or sector and what you should be looking for. Visit http://www.lightspeedtrading.com/tradertalk.aspx for more unfair advantages!
Step 1: Trading Flexibility
So, I'm just going to talk about some of the things that have been working for me lately trading in the markets as opposed to other traders. One of the things that has been working very well is not getting married to any one particular stock, and not getting married to any one particular sector but being flexible.
As you should be flexible in life, I think that translates very much to trading, especially recently when a lot of the stocks that we have been trading over the past, let's say, six months have not been in play over the past let's say, two weeks.
Step 2: Look For Opportunities
One of my philosophies is to always look for new opportunities and always seize upon new stocks that might be in play today. They may have been dead for the past two weeks. In fact a lot of these stocks maybe I've never heard of or haven't seen on my radar for months.
But I'm always looking for those stocks and I try to identify the trend in those stocks and I try to nail that trend, intraday, intraweek, as long as that trend is there.
Step 3: Niche Trading
A lot of times I don't care what the market is doing in general. We can be getting killed in the Dow, in the NASDAQ, but it's a very stock specific kind of trading and it's the kind of trading where I don't find myself competing against the best traders at the best hedge funds such as Goldman Sachs.
Step 4: Other Strategies
A lot of people do that, and a lot of people do make money doing that; but that just doesn't happen to be my style. If you could find that little niche and for me that little niche is identifying what's strong or weak regardless of what the market is doing.
Step 5: Become A Specialist
If you can identify that niche that works for you 'and for everyone it's a different kind of thing' focus on it, become a master at it, get your PhD at it, what have you, be a surgeon at it. You're not just a surgeon but you're a neurosurgeon or heart surgeon or ER surgeon.
So become a specialist in whatever it is that you excel at and just maximize your gains in it.
Step 6: Scan The Market
Recognize the winners from the losers. Cut your losers as quickly as you can, recognize what you should be trading but more importantly, or most importantly, recognize what you shouldn't be trading. Recognize what's not in play. Once you're able to do this, and I'm not saying it's easy. I'm saying I work at it every single day.
I'm here very, very early. I try to stay late although with the weather getting nice I do like to get out of here early sometimes too. What can you do? It's nice out. Recognize what you're good at, recognize what opportunities work for you and just nail those stocks.
