Athena Trader

I had some difficulty thinking of what to write in this post and as I read the posts of other bloggers, I thought that I should share about my Chinese beautician who is an excellent source of stock market ideas and everything from China.  Basically we talk about stocks almost all the time since she invests in purely Chinese stocks. Currently ACCICB covers Chinese stocks so I've been thinking of starting my research and who knows I may pick up some stocks along the way. Back when we both didn't know that the other invests/trade, we already get along since we bitch to each other about work and I find her rather similar to me in terms of personality. I admire her candor among other characteristics and over the space of many years, we have become rather close. I do worry when she wants to return back for good and as she will be going home for a month, she told me that she knows of this scheme in China which seems like a deal too good to be true except that it's tru...

One day I decided that I should start applying myself seriously and give TA a shot. I think I was tired of hearing ACCICB tell me how only TA matters and FA is just plain useless in trading. I wanted to figure out for myself which way is the best way everyday in every market. Plus I figured this would help me make better decisions without going through him and I was curious how good or bad I can be at TA.  I started by learning about candlesticks as it seemed pretty important and I believed that it would give an added dimension to decision making. To make myself realize how important this was, I took down notes in my old company notebook...kinda like a reminder of what was behind me and where I am now.  I literally stopped all buying decisions and concentrated on selling the remaining positions in my books. I guess I was just so absorbed in applying candlesticks as well as the other indicators along the way that I wanted to be absolutely sure before I start to buy aga...

It is quite often that ACCICB and I have the same stock in our books. Recently one of them was subjected to a takeover rumour which caused the price to skyrocket once market opened. As the news broke after market closed, I placed an order to sell my lot before market opened the next day and boy did it open strong! I was chided by ACCICB as to why I made such a rushed decision aka I should wait and see whether rumor is true or at least later so that maybe prices will go much higher etc. This was a stock that I held for slightly more than a month as I couldn't exit earlier as it fell slightly short of my exit price. Yes I simply ignored the indicators although back then it was primed to sell and pocket a small profit.  It was a company I was comfortable with, good dividend payer, well liked and covered by analysts, solid business model etc so I was in no hurry to exit except at my target. My philosophy was simple. The rumor was unconfirmed and has a 50% probability of being ...

ACCICB told me about eToro and I went to check it out as I was curious about it. eToro is a social network of sorts whereby you can copy traders/investors trades. It's like Seeking Alpha where crowd sourced is seen as being more accurate than individual analysis except that in eToro you get to make money if the traders/investors you follow are correct. I suspect that the traders/investors being followed are earning more $$$ from having their trades copied than the actual trading itself! There have been some unhappiness in the past about eToro's fees and the way they manage complaints and grouses. I'm happy with the brokers I'm using so while I did signed up with eToro, I didn't fund my account nor did I follow anybody. I guess it's a matter of me wanting to own my skills rather than following somebody who has the skills. It is based in Cyprus and currently allows trades in a few key markets such as NYSE, LSE etc so it's not as comprehensive as other bro...

I remembered the day when ACCICB told me that the time has come to learn how to short the market. I was like Woah exciting times that we live in indeed. He calls it being able to play both sides of the coin and was telling me how the charges are more expensive and has also updated his spreadsheet to include that function.  I was rather chilled when he told me about it as I foresaw that this would be just one more step in his journey from investor to trader. He compares it to jumping off the cliff and all I could say was Thank God it's a long way down. Let's just hope you can get your parachute to work and who knows you may sprout some wings and take off instead.  As with all new things, he started by paper trading first which was a constant refinement of techniques and mistakes being made and what not. Every market has its own peculiarities and since he covers so many, you can imagine how long he has been doing this. After much time, when he was confident enough he move...