New Year’s Resolutions for Traders
An investor’s New Year’s resolutions, by John Magee (via Jeff Saut)
Resolved, that in the coming year:
• I will not alienate my friends and antagonize my family by reminding the world on every possible occasion how right I was about the upturn – or downturn – in steels, motors, airlines, or whatever.
• When I buy a stock I will not mobilize all the good news to make it look pretty. I will try to consider both the favorable and unfavorable angles as impartially as I know how.
• I will not close out a stock position that is doing well by me for no other reason than that I have a profit. I will not cut short my gains in a good situation.
• I will not hang on to a stock that is persistently going against me. I will limit my loss, and close out any position that seems to have gone really bad before I am in danger of serious trouble.
• I will not be swayed or panicked by news flashes, rumors, tips, or well-meant advice.
• I will not put all my eggs in one basket, nor will I be swept off my feet to plunge into some unknown or low-priced stock on a purely emotional basis.
• I will not attempt to tell the market what a stock ought to be worth. I will try to understand what the market has to tell me about what people are willing to pay for it.
• I will never forget that I am not in the market primarily to prove – to my broker, my friends, my wife, etc. – that I am smarter than everybody else, but to protect and if possible to augment my capital.
Terrific list. Thanks, Jeff!
>
Source:
“Resolved!?”
Jeffrey Saut, Investment Strategy
Raymond James, January 4, 2007
http://www.raymondjames.com/inv_strat.htm
Sunday, January 07, 2007 | 06:14 AM | Permalink
| Comments (6)
| TrackBack (0)
add to de.li.cious | 
digg this! | 
add to technorati | 
email this post
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8341c52a953ef00d8350e225f69e2
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference New Year’s Resolutions for Traders:
Comments
Great advice. Having broken every one of the above "resolutions" at one time or another I have printed them out and posted prominently.
Taking the loss is the hardest one. Most of the other ones can be classified as a subset. If you ever find yourself praying for a reversal, get out.
Posted by: blam | Jan 7, 2007 9:43:47 AM
The comments to this entry are closed.
