Snitzer

In no particular order, not thoroughly thought out, but something of what I'm thinking about. Shoot it full of holes, stomp on it, kick it around, bite chunks tear it all apart just please, add the Why. Stock Checklist (Rough Version) Picking a stock (company): Portfolio allocation/sector/where do we want to go today? Diversify! Maintain a watched stable, become intimate with their performance patterns, be ready to take advantage of sudden moves. (I did that, one of my small successes: DRIV) Maintain an indicator watch list; i.e. dollar ETFs, commodities, transports, energy, plastic packagers, etc. Sector: Where is it? Going up? Down? Sideways? Market forces? Future direction? My current exposure/experience. Develop stock screener chops, work with different screens, play, have fun. Company: Market trend/is this company leading, following or stumbling about? Check competitors-always. Check institutional buying. Check industry relative strength (How?). Technicals: Trend/patterns/support/resistance. Use my favorite indicators; BB, RSI, STO, MACD. BUY THE F****** DIPS/SELL THE F****** PEAKS!!!! Or buy and hold; whatever the strategy DuJour is. Use intelligent trailing stops. Lots of noise within the trend set loose stops; a quiet trend then set them close. Let the stops work, upside targets can be exceeded with no loss of karma. Fundamentals: Lots of stuff here; Revenue, profits, backwards, forwards, whatever. Then P/E, EPS, Dividends, Yields and Book Value. Visit Edgar, learn how to read (and stay awake while doing so) SEC filings. Markets slow, no available cash heading towards your brokerage account? Paper trade, not as much fun but can be a learning experience. Assess past perfomance (Of course, you maintain that Sold watch list, right?) and be prepared to relight an old flame. Identify past mistakes (mine were too little of too many stocks, held for too short a time frame, and trying to trade whilst still deep in the grip of total ignorance.

It was last April when I decided that now was a really good time to enter the markets. I did, and yes, I made a little money, but then, the village idiot could have made money in that run-up. But the easy money has been made, and maybe I could cash out with my modest gains, but it appears I'm hooked. In order to stay I need to reassess how I go about evaluating companies, before purchase, whilst holding and after sale. The plan is to devise a pre-purchase, or even a pre-watchlist, checklist, covering both fundamental and technical aspects of the company I've got my eyes on. I've a couple pages of ideas, some of which I'm sure will never see the light of day, but any comments/suggestions would be most welcome.

The article, while dated, still makes sense. A month past the March lows I got the bright idea that now was the time to invest in the stock market, I did, in a modest sort of way, and while I haven't lost any money my gains have been modest ones. My trading philosophy, technique, system, whatever, has been through two major restructurings, my portfolio has been taken apart and put back together as I rethink how to do all this and still I'm ahead (barely) of where I started. Some folks call it "playing" the stock market, but that's about as big a misnomer as ever been nomed (?), as, if it's done right (and "right" is painted in a million colors) it can be damned hard work. I'm unsure just what level I'm at as the more I learn the level of visible ignorance increases, which makes me wonder just how much invisible ignorance lies before me. Buy and hold, active trading, options, definitions, the million and one things that long time traders just know about are all part of this strange new world of finance I've stuck my nose in, and I'm fascinated by the vast kaleidoscope of possibilities/opportunities/pitfalls/dangers and possible screw-ups strewn before me. The simple phrase "Buy low, sell high" is itself fraught with complexities hidden deep within it's simple structure, as figuring the lows and highs can involve deep math, delving into fundamentals, learning patterns and developing the correct spin to impart to the chicken bones as they are tossed. I think I'm going to like it here.