Trade Strategies

[amins]

Do you have automated strategies you've create and run each night?

Do you have a select number of stocks you watch and just trade as the opportunity arises?

What strategies do you find that tend to work best?
- Channeling w/ Credit Spreads?
- Trending w/ Buying on Dips/Pullbacks?
- Divergence Plays?
- Dividend plays?
- Earnings Plays?
- Are you a Greek Trader?

I've found my bread and butter trade that i scan each night is a simple MA Trending Strategy... using a % of spread between MA's as entry points w/ hard stops below key support/resistances.

[Vanraw]

With the exception of a couple very long trades, I have been moving away from individual equities. The main reason is the ability for individuals to comIt fraud, which is never ever caught before the damage is done. Bottom line is our stock market is based on bubbles and speculation since the late 90s.

Oil is a great example of what is wrong. It used to be that 80% of future contracts were users running businesses that require oil. Now its 20% with 80% speculation trades. I think this Is what the market is as well.

So my strategy is short trades on over all market conditions and macro level news. Greece is still in the picture but not moving the market. But if Greece defaults, look Out!! Because there will be a domino effect. Just not as bad as 12 months ago.

The holy grail of having a historical trend chart predict the future has never been obtained. In hind sight, yes someone can always find a chart that predicted the future. But it rarly stands up to other drastic conditions. As a wise man once said, even a blind squirrel finds an occasional nut.

So when I say macro events, I mean things like oil right now. I have no doubt that gasoline will hit close to 5 a gallon this summer. The speculators think this as well. So a safe short term bet is gas. My strategy is to jump in and set a profit goal, along with bracketed conditional stops. When the profit hits, I get out. Even if I lose and the price goes up another 50%, I'm happy with my 20.

[Breand]

I am a meat and potatoes trader, I just dont have the time or inclination to get crazy with spreads/options etc. I run my stock portfolio basically like I do my 401k but with extra play money to do what I want. I have 5 or 6 long positions, mostly in oil/precious metals and stocks with nice dividends, and then I have a wad of cash I move around based on market conditions. I will generally buy a stock I think is a good deal, and I'll sit on it until it turns a profit Im comfortable selling at. I will wait the market out. I dont like losing money so id be more inclined to sit on a position for an extended period than jump off the ship.

I did make some nice money playing the TNA/TZA game last year when Greece was driving the market crazy. Havent really done that lately, and Im sitting on a TZA that I need to be at $24 to break even. I have a lot of money in CVC (my own company) because I think it is really cheap right now.

[Vanraw]

I have a lot of money in CVC (my own company) because I think it is really cheap right now.

I just have to chime in here, but please just ignore my butting in My advice is to do everything you can to keep your investments away from your main income / salary source. Unless your a owner of corporate officer where your choices, decisions and information are directly related finances of the corporation.

I'm saying this from experience in Worldcom / MCI. I saw too many people who not only lost their job via RIF but also watched the safety net investment disappear at the very same time. Image the company taking some serious downturn where they lay you off, and at the same time you watch your savings buffer go poof, not to mention 401k. Been there, seen that.....

My company has a great 401k program, but the company match is in company stock. As soon as the system lets me I dump every VZ stock I can out of my 401k. Just too many eggs in one basket. I learned the hard way that diversity between income source and investments is even more important then diversity in portfolios. My mistake cost me 10 years of retirement planing.....

[Breand]

Well when I say I have a lot of money in it, I only mean a lot of my "funny money" as in day trading money. So in the grand scheme of things it's not a lot. I have never bought a single share for my 401k account. If the value of what I had in it went to 0 it would have no effect on my life.

[Grieve]

I have a lot of my 401K money in my company stock (as well as stock options), because it's on a growth spurt and I think it's going higher. It's tripled in the last few years, so I'm willing to roll the dice with it a bit. I love risk, and don't really treat anything differently, whether it's 401K, IRA, or brokerage. I don't own a single bond - too boring.

Actually I asked my company legal department if I was allowed to buy call options in our stock. They said no.

Something like Vz is more of a safe and steady dividend play, so I probably wouldn't put so much in it if I worked for them. Especially with the iPhone destroying their margins. 4G iPad HD should be very good for Verizon and AT&T, though!

[Vllad]

I try to find companies with lots of assets that have solid income and long term debt. That way you get a good deal on a low hanging stock and any recovery will lead to some profit. YRCW is my favorite right now.

It dipped to $5.40ish, I got it for $5.60 and it could rebound to as much as $10 or $12. They just need a solid peak to double your money. If they don't recover their stock is so low that you shouldn't take a big loss.

You can turn 15k into 35k pretty easily.

I never gamble with more then 15k on direct stock purchases. When I make money I put away everything over 15k I made into bonds or bank it. That way if I make a bad decision it isn't much of an impact.

Their is good and bad with that. Had I just kept investing my stock wins I would have a few hundred thousand extra but I am too much of a coward to do that.


Vllad

[Vllad]

Oh and I have to be very careful about what I buy since my company does business with many great stock purchases. Buying stock while working in the transportation world is a tricky business. I have additional reporting I have to do so everything is on the up and up.

I did to really well in oil the first two quarters this year though.