2020 for me

Biggest Loss:  AMZN Call – $5K to $100 (basically 100%)

Biggest Gain: ENPH shares – initial buy (4/20)  $37.41, current avg $51.84, current price $181.39 = 249.92%

Greatest words ever written/spoken – the main tenet of the Swing. It is in this method that you are “bullish”. When you buy a stock/name, you do so because you clearly believe its price/value will go up – this is simply because price increases due to buying. Thus, as price rises, in order to affirm that you are a bull, technically you should be buying on the way up. If you buy a stock and sell it on the same day, you are not bullish on that name, & it is false to say so. A bear can also wield the Swing, but his/hers can only reach 0 – the true Swing is infinite. 

Understanding price charts, price action, the basics of technical analysis, etc. is very much the crux of the Way, especially if you are of the Retail. Charting upgrades your ‘play’ from simple gambling to ‘intelligent’ game-planning – instead of buying & hoping/wishing for the best, you buy confidently based off the potential you have assessed beforehand. It is said that these stocks/names are “more than just lines on a chart”. This is very much true – however, the chart can help one somewhat discern the history/health of its corresponding company. At times when discussing a company, one of the first things commented on is the price history of its stock. The chart itself is seen as a form of advertisement, enticing investors & traders alike to buy. In this day & age of trading, it is almost impossible not to utilize price charts when developing any strategy or even anticipating the strategy of others, friend & foe alike. In all, your goal is to determine your signal to buy & your signal to sell. It all begins and ends with the Chart.

Success is defined as “the accomplishment of an aim or purpose.” The way to success in the Market as a trader is to win consistently. In order to win, there must exist a target/goal or (dare I say) even a game. If there is a game, you must learn rules & constraints. Within these constraints, experience must be gained through application & method testing in order to learn how to consistently attain your desirable results. If you lack any of these things – which also include purpose and/or the Spirit of ‘winning’ – given the vastness, uncertainty, & irrationality of the Market, it will be difficult to attain great success & big money.

“There is timing in everything. Timing in strategy cannot be mastered without a great deal of practice. Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts: shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and abilities, there is timing… There is timing in the whole life of the warrior: in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this. 

In strategy, there are various timing considerations. From the outset, you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing... and from among the large and small things, and the fast and slow timings, find the relevant timing – first seeing the distance timing and the background timing (SPY, QQQ, etc.). It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain…… If there is a Way involving the Spirit of not being defeated, to help oneself and gain honour, it is the Way of strategy.”   - Miyamoto Musashi, 1645.

Believe in Yourself.

You can make more money than you believe you can in any given amount of time – but in order to do so, you must set your heart on strategy and earnestly stick to the Way. Stay open-minded, use your Eye, and share what you absorb at all times. Gradually the money will come, & almost instinctively. So will your method of preparation, and of course your chart-reading capability. Be Humble but Stay Chiseled. You must be able to trust your own reasoning & decisions, and this is hard to do if you follow others. However, it does always pay to have a good sense of community. Do right & kill everything. You can achieve all that you want and more.

 

“Spectate or Make a Move… Hesitate or Regulate… it’s on you.”   - Prodigy (RIP)

“I am a Trader… it is my business to Know.”  - Larry Livingston, 1923.

1. Never invest $ you can't afford to lose!
2. Create investing rules and stick to them - (e.g. 30% loss and you're out and don't look back, learn the basics, fundamentals and technical analysis which is just fancy terminology for reading charts, etc.)
3. Use Stop Limit Orders - to secure your profits and move them up gradually as your profits increase and trim or sell some of your shares/contracts when it jumps up
4. Green is Green (no matter what the %) and Losses are Lessons - never beat yourself up with could have, would have, should have.  Learn from your experiences as well as other people's experiennces.
5. Investing in myself and continuously learning increases my ROI and ability to give back!

1. As a buy and hold investor, I learned that shorter trades are quite lucrative.  And they're a great way to fund my longterm portfolio. Taught an old dog new tricks. 

2. When the Feds say unlimited QE, they mean UNLIMITED QE. A very costly lesson.  

3. SPACS. That is all. 

4. I learned how to do options. And I learned to keep away from SPY puts. Another expensive lesson. Long dated options and catalyst based options are the best.  

5. I learned that our group is amazing and I can't wait to see how far we go in 2021!!

1. Secure. Your. Profits. Couldn’t tell you how many times I got burned by not securing profits when I had the chance.
2. Don’t bother trying to get rich off penny stocks. Most are penny stocks for a reason and you will end up losing a lot of time and money chasing them.
3. Have an exit strategy. This means knowing how and when to get out of a stock or option. This of course means you must have a level of confidence in the stock or option so you don’t sell for a loss simply because the stock dips on a red day for the market or sector. Know why you’re invested and what relative PT you’re going for.
4. Don’t chase! If you miss your entry point for a stock, then just let it go and look for the next stock. Chasing is one of the sure fire ways to lose money.
5. Buy long term options for stocks you believe in long term. And don’t overextend your portfolio. Always try to keep some money in your available buying power for a quick move.

The more I invest in myself and  learn the higher my returns and ability to give back! 

1. Stock in good companies isn't cheap.
2. Tech will dominate our lives even more in the future, but the best companies in this space are often the ones you've never heard of.
3. Buying (and selling options) are a great way to boost your portfolio's growth. 
4. SPACs make for great long term investments if you believe in the management team leading the SPAC
 5. Don't underestimate the psychology's influence on the market (social contagion, fomo, referent power, charisma, terror management theory, etc.). 

5 Things I learned: