Rules
Lunch Breaking Investing Rulebook
After careful consideration, I have decided to try a new investing strategy. I’ve found that I do not have time to use the traditional rules. My rules will have to fit my time constraints. In other words, it has be easy and simple enough to do during my lunch hour.
Here are my Lunch Break Investing Rules:
1. Only buys stocks on the watch list.
2. Must be trending upward.
3. Must have a trending sweep of at least 10%.
4. Buy only at the bottom trend line.
5. Set a loss limit (2-3%).
5. Set a trailing stop loss to 8% below the bought price (dollar amount on the stop loss, not percent)
6. Set a profit limit (5-10%).
6. Allow the stock to trend upward until trailing stop loss is activated.
7. Never break any of these rules.
8. Adapt my strategy as needed.
Over the next several weeks I will be expanding on each of these items. I will also concentrate on the automation and mobile techniques.
Comment and share!
Admitting Mistakes – Follow your rules!!
Here is my full confession to my horrible mistake. I did it again! After careful consideration and research, I bought 200 shares of a nice pharmaceutical company. I followed my rules:
Added it to my trading journal
Calculated my Profit Limit
Calculated my Loss Limit
Set my alerts for both profit and loss
The stock did just as I expected. It hit my profit limit. As always, when my iPhone dings it’s ding of profit, I cheer and do the “the profit dance”. But! I didn’t sell. The whispers of greed said, wait it could go higher. I missed the word “could”. Yes, dear reader, the spirits of trading punished me for not following my own rules. The stock dropped. My iPhone mournfully sang the tune of loss and I frowned and did the “loss shuffle” to my computer. It touched the loss limit, but didn’t go below. I was safe. I now promise the trading spirits that I WILL follow my rules and sell when my limits are met. Again, I have learned my lesson the wrong way.
Thanks for reading, check back later for a more light hearted and happy post. I promise!
Stop Loss or How not to lose your pants while away from your computer!
Like all valuable lessons, this one cost me money. I did my research and bought my stock. This was the one (aren’t they all). I set my alerts to notify me if it dropped below 5% of my buy point. I even went as far as to set an automated Sell Limit to take profits when the stock would hit (because I knew it would!).
All was well, except!
Meanwhile at my day job (I don’t trade professionally), I was in a meeting and my cell phone was going nuts (I was losing money). I couldn’t leave, I couldn’t sell, I was stuck. Once I got back to my computer, I sold the stock for (yikes!) an 8% loss instead of the 5% that I originally planned (just in case). Moral of the story, I need to set automated Stop Loss and Sell Limits to both protect and profit.
Another reason to automate is to protect from the greed voice. That little voice that whispers, “What if it goes higher?” or “It’ll go back up, really!”. It’s rarely right.
I learned my lesson and hopefully you too won’t make my mistake.
Happy Trading!
Sell Limit- Getting the Profit
This is a horror story of making and losing money in one hour. One hour!
I bought my stock, set my alerts for my sell price and my loss price (not all are winners and I’m ready to cut my losses after a certain point). Cell phone was charged and ready. The stock was bought on Monday and I knew (yes KNEW!) it would hit my sell point within a few days. I was right. It hit the next day. My cell was buzzing with anticipation of profit! It sang and cheered! It vibrated all over my desk, SELL SELL SELL!
I didn’t sell. No I wasn’t breaking my rules for greed. I didn’t know. I didn’t have my cell phone with me. An hour later, I picked up my cell phone to see the alert! Yes! Profit!
No!!! The price had dropped to just above my loss sell point. The stock peaked where I expected it too (sometimes I get it right). So, the profit that I was expecting turned to a loss and the stock kept dropping. Fortunately, I kept with my rules and sold at the loss limit.
If you are like me and can’t monitor your stocks at the pace that they change, learn from my mistake. Keep your cell phone with you when you expect an alert and always set a Sell Limit. It’s the difference between profit and loss.
Tip:
Set to automatically sell at your expected sell point. No emotions and you get to walk away with the profits without the worry.
Happy trading!
