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What long-term investors can borrow from trader's-mind, then, is the agility of mind and quickness of reaction to take a ride on fast-moving stocks without the traditional fears that have tended to block them from taking this kind of risk. |
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Toward the very last days of 1999, little old ladies who were used to safely stashing their money in bond funds were calling their brokers and demanding that they sell the funds and put the money to work in Internet stocks. This, of course, was seen as a telling indication that the frothy tech stock train was heading for a crash, that the market had reached its top. If price momentum investing continues to be popular, many of the tools we have discussed in this book will be useful to the investor who wants to risk at least part of his or her capital in these kinds of positions. |
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Trading Stages, Rhythms, and Cyclical Events |
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Investors who don't trade very often usually don't pay much attention to the rhythms of the trading session. They don't utilize some of the information that short-term traders take for granted and use daily to help time their trades. With this information, investors would not make some of the bad trades they make, like buying at the wrong times when they pay the highest prices or selling at times that almost guarantee them less than they could get at other times. Some of these rhythms are more crucial than others. Some of them are best learned with experience, not just being told. But all of them should become part of the common knowledge of the disciplined online investor. |
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Typical Stages of the Trading Session |
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Generally, active traders who are watching and trading the market all day tend to break the trading session into three broad divisions, each lasting about two hours. Both the first and last segments are characterized by heavier volume, while the middle two-hour period is relatively light. If we want to refine the stages a little more precisely, we can break down the trading day into five stages, each one having a particular event that characterizes it. |
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The first stage is what is called the clearing stage at the open of the market. It usually lasts about 20 minutes into the new trading |
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