Lsbcal
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
Trading is something a person should do after careful study. Don't study the stuff? ... then don't do it. The best traders are mathematicians.I exhibited spectacularly bad timing last week. Rotating about 120K out of S&P500 into short/intermediate bonds I had given myself a sell level of 1680. And the next day Larry Summers withdraws and the market goes up 1%, then a couple of days later the Fed decides not to taper and the market promptly rockets up to 1720 plus. So I threw out over $3K by not waiting a week. Grrr.
Seriously though, this is exactly why I NEVER move more than 10% of my assets at a time. I've guessed wrong and right over the years, but burned myself often enough that I believe in dollar cost averaging (in AND out) as an article of faith.
Even when you study the stuff, you realize this is a statistical situation where you will be on the wrong side of the trade for possibly a long time. Some trades will bring a long term loss.
BTW, I'm not a trader. But I'm fascinated by the stuff.