ETF Prophet

Update Last week the portfolio saw an increase in equity (1.74%) while being hedged. The MOM system added past momentum losers to the portfolio. They are going to be sold with a good profit this week. Hence three new stocks will be added ( WFM, STX and NUAN). In case of RIMM I did a Twitter update [...]

The TrendX signaled a short cover at Thursday’s close and a BUY at today’s open.  Interestingly, Thursday’s closing price on GDX was the same as today’s open, with Friday providing some possible early entry momentum. The larger markets are clearly at major support levels and despite media hype the technical picture doesn’t look all that [...]

Update Last week the portfolio saw a raising equity (2.7%). For the coming week a number of changes will take place: RIMM, NIHD and BIIB will be replaced with ALXN, ERTS and STX. Next weeks portfolio profile: Gold  28% Treasuries   17% Stocks   52% Cash  3% About Portfolio Trader Read more about Portfolio Trader [...]

“It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.” – Sir Josiah Stamp As discussed in previous posts, there is a significant difference between working for a company and working as an independent trader. For example, as independent traders, there are no managers to evaluate our performance, no [...]

“History’s great achievers – a Napoleon, a da Vinci, a Mozart – have always managed themselves. That, in large measure, is what makes them great achievers.” – Peter Drucker In Part 1 of this series we looked at having Structure as an essential element to our trading success. Successful businesses have a defined and comprehensive [...]

“For most of us, the task of beating the market is not difficult, it is the job of beating ourselves that proves to be overwhelming….” – Martin J. Pring In Part 1 of this series, I discussed Structure as being an essential applied element of being a successful independent trader.  Like any successful business, having [...]

The trade today reminded me of the Tuesday before the monster ramp on Sept 1 that led to this current 7-9% rally off of the August lows. The action started out well, then sagged precipitously into the close and continued to do so into the after hours.

In our ETF Prophet chat room last week, I was asked what motivates me to host the room.  The first and easiest answer is the social aspect.  Trading can be a lonesome endeavor, and it’s nice to have a virtual bull pen with which to share insights and ideas, as well as camaraderie and the [...]

Significant dilemmas can be posed when one decides to work for themselves in a trading career.  For example, structuring your time, creating achievable goals and objectives, self-managing the rules you create, and a host of additional tasks. These concerns are compounded when considering that the independent trader is going up against some of the sharpest [...]