For those who know me…I am not separating from my wife of soon to be 14 years! I could not be happier! I am talking about the stock market. There is an old adage on Wall Street that goes something like this: never marry a stock. Interpreted: never become so in love with a particular stock or trade that it leaves you divorced, broke, and sloppy. Staying single allows for the following:
1. You can bounce around from stock to stock and sector to sector.
I focus on a particular pattern that repeats itself over and over again on a wide variety of stocks. I do not trade multiple patterns on one stock. Just my strategy and may not work for everyone. This allows me to trade where the strength or weakness is depending upon the general market sentiment. In other words, if the market is on a buy signal and tech is strong but energy is weak, then I will ditch energy and go out with tech. Energy can wait until it is her turn. She will come back. She always does. And vice versa. When you are married to a particular stock or sector you can miss better opportunities elsewhere.
2. You can break-up without getting your feelings hurt.
Ever had a stock go against you? If you haven’t you have not been trading very long. My 12 year old daughter has a “boyfriend” at school. It is her first. Right now she is on cloud nine. But soon the cloud will dissipate and this one will be replaced with another…and another… She is only twelve you know. Will she be hurt by the eventual break-up? Absolutely! Will she get over it? Absolutely! As soon as she finds another. We have all been through this. Some are still going through it. Same with trading. Some of us fall so deeply in love with a stock that we refuse to see that the relationship is just not going to work out. So we allow the stock to just run roughshod all over us and our trading account. Hello! Wake up! He just does not love you anymore! Get out before more than your feelings are hurt. There will be another one…and another…and another.
3. You can break-up without feeling guilty about it.
Ever been in a winning trade, hold on to it a little too long, only to have it reverse and take all your gains away? Remember, the market could care less about you, so get over it. This is not about some vow you made where you trust the other partner to do what is right. This is about getting what you want before the market gets what it wants. This is war man, not marriage. Get what you want out of the trade and then get rid of it. And the best part-there is absolutely no guilt attached. There are no vows that tell you that you have to stick around “until death do us part.” In fact, when the time is right you can jump right back into the relationship and start all over again as if nothing ever happened. Awesome concept huh?
4. You get to make all the decisions based on what you want to do.
No one tells me when to trade. I make the rules. I tell the market where I want it to go and if it does not agree with me then I stay home. I do not have to argue about what’s for dinner, which movie to watch, how much time I can spend out with my friends. I make all the decisions and have no one to answer to. You want to know why? Because I do not have a shiny band of gold on my trading finger. You know the one, the one that presses the “enter” button. If you want to stay home in your pajamas, eat chips and salsa, surf the tube you can. If it is time to put on armor, sharpen your sword, load your weapons and prepare for battle you can. It is all about you and the market, not you and the wife and kids.
Stay single. Believe me it is much more fun…and a lot less expensive!
