Hello everyone, So to start, my only knowledge when I started investing was buy low/sell high. So consider that I know nothing , I am in the middle of watching and learning from the various free libraries out there, NOT YOUTUBE; places like TD Ameritrade/Fidelity. My questions are as follows: 1. When someone(Zacks or SA for examples) say Strong Buy of a stock, when I go to look at the chart it always seems like that when looking at 6mo or YTD the "Strong Buy" is at a peak compared to the lows that the market chart shows. Why is this? Wouldn't a strong buy happen at the low-lows and the stock should now be a sell or strong sell? The longer I think about this the only explanation I see is that the buy/sell windows and are different from my 6mo to YTD, is that correct? 2. What are some I guess named strategies that are good for a short/intermediate term (no more than 6month)? 3. Is there any app(mobile, web-based, or desktop) that would, search all current stocks, for technical indicators crossings, not just for stocks that I choose, but the whole market? For example, I get an alert or message saying XYZ stock dipped below 30 RSI? I do realize that this would have to be a paid app but I would still be interested. Thanks
These are good questions. It is VERY difficult to buy at the extreme low. It happens to you once in your trading/investing life. Beware of trying to chase that dragon. Also you will never see those click generators (Zacks) give a strong buy to a stock at the extreme low. At the extreme low is when things (technicals, financials) look the worst. On the other hand, it can be painful to sell a stock that is "way up" now, because momentum is a big thing in stocks, so they can keep going up. A stock at a 6-month high can keep going up for years more.
Thanks for the reply. So, instead of "chasing the dragon", I should be entering at the start of an uptrend/momentum and selling before or at when a downtrend starts. A follow-up questions would be that you called Zacks a "click-generator", I'm going to take it that is NOT a compliment; other than following news in general do you have any recommendations for just getting a rough idea of when to buy/sell; I don't take what they say as a hard yes/no, but I like reading say XYZ is a buy/sell and then I enjoy looking at the charts to see "why" these analysts says it's a buy/sell.
No there is a misunderstanding. Do not worry about trying to get the best possible entry and/or exit. It is the obvious thing to try and do, but it is near impossible. You can buy stocks even after they have gone way up, if they are your best current idea. If you try to buy at the lows, that is something that rarely happens exactly as planned. The beginning of a trend can quickly reverse back to the old downtrend, for a bit longer. You should pay attention to sentiment. When everyone says something is a buy, that is usually the best time to sell. You do not want to follow the stock market, you want to be ahead of it.
Actually, in my opinion, if you use common sense, and buy low and sell high, you have won half the battle! In my opinion, the other half of the battle is to INVEST the sure way, as you will see demonstrated here by Long Term Investor, TomB16 and others. Personally, I like to do both: buy low and sell high - and focus on long-term 'buy and hold' investments. I don't day trade or swing trade. When I buy low and sell high, I am buying and selling quality investments, so that if I end up having to hold them to "sell high" - no worries. It's just a matter of time. It's true that no one can time the market! No one can buy at the lowest low, or sell at the highest high. The problems start when people TRY to time the market - when they TRY to buy at the lowest low and catch a falling knife - when they try to hold out for the highest high and then the sky falls. You don't have to time the market to know when a long-running bull market keeps hitting new all-time highs, but warning signs are everywhere! And greed and unfounded optimism keeps driving it up, up, up! Sell a small percentage of your holdings in times like this, and when the next bear market hits, don't try to find the low. Buy back in - carefully, slowly and thoughtfully. Forget about trying to catch the lowest low - forget about selling at the high. If you use common sense and buy when the markets down and sell when it's up, and learn from your experiences, you should do just fine. Focus on the total value of your investments, and growing that. If you buy a QUALITY stock that was at $50 during the bull rush for $34 and it goes down to $29 - so what? When the market rebounds, and you sell the stock $46 or $54 or $60 - just take your profits and be happy. If you sold at $46 and it goes to $60, again 'so what?'. Take your $12 profit, reinvest it and keep growing your TOTAL value. You can woulda / coulda / shoulda yourself to death and try to squeeze every last penny and "time the LOW and HIGH" - or you can relax, use common sense, learn as you go and watch your money grow, grow, grow. That my two cents, and I'm sure it's worth every dollar you paid me for it!
Interesting, yet makes sense in a way. When people are saying buy, if I had thought ahead to get into the stock early, people would buy, price would go up, and I should sell and make a profit. Do you have any books to read; that will actually teach me some things, or podcasts. In addition, I have a solid 2 hours window in the am when waking up and sitting at my desk before the market opens; any recommendations on news sites, or what to read for the day in regards to the market? There is so much I see when searching for like $30/month access to reports or analysis. This is 100% how my thought process aligns. I bought some stocks and see they are down 6%, but my mentality is exactly as you said, "so what", I have no problem holding until they turn a profit. Same questions I asked above, any recommendations on books, or podcasts, or a place to get pre-market data and learn more? I see that you are a new member as well and joined recently, have you just started investing or just new to the forums?
I don't have specific recommendations, but be very selective with books and even more selective with podcasts or YouTube. If these people are such investing geniuses, why do they need podcast or YouTube funding? "Goodness of their hearts, want to help other people succeed..." Heard it all before, haven't we? Books and self-education are great assets, but maybe 1 out of 10 books out there might actually help you - choose wisely. I don't invest how any book, person, podcast, etc. tells me to! Instead, I try to determine WHAT INFORMATION THEY OFFER is valuable, and what is crap! The longer you invest and gain more investing experience, the easier it becomes to determine this. Sometimes, "trial and error", or perhaps "trial by fire" may be necessary to determine the value (or NOT) of certain information. "Paper trading" is available and can be useful for this. I am a recently joined member, but I have been managing my own investments for decades - starting mostly with 401k and IRA accounts, then converting my cash savings into a standard brokerage account. Now I am retired, and have all three.
That's pretty cool, you spoke like someone who has had extensive experience. I do have a question, what is the longest you've held a stock waiting for a profit? And if you tell me you have stocks that you have had for decades without being able to sell for a profit I'd love to know, lol.
So please bear in mind that I have two separate strategies: 1. long term "buy and hold" investments 2. quality "buy low/sell high" stocks that I buy when the market is down (or less often when a particular quality stock is out of favor for some reason) and then sell when the market rebounds. Yes, I have stocks I have held for many years, some even decades, but NOT in my "buy low, sell high" basket. Just like no one can time the market, no quality stock is guaranteed not to falter or fail for some unforeseen reason - so if I realize that one of my 'buy low/sell high stocks' is going to be stuck indefinitely in the doldrums - or worse, has lost the "quality" for whatever reason, I most often sell it and save the proceeds for the next bear market. When bear markets come, I don't put all my "buy low/sell high" funds into a single quality stock. Diversification is just as important here as in any other area. In a bear market, I search for quality stocks that are beaten down by whatever caused the bear market (COVID, 2008 debacle, housing bubble, dot.com, etc) and that I expect to bounce back the quickest and with the most upside potential. But QUALITY and liquidity are always the highest priority. In down markets, I don't buy back in all at once! If I buy 250 shares of a stock thinking we're at the "bottom", then it does down more, I'm locked in for 250 shares at that price. I'd rather buy 100 shares. If it goes down meaningfully again, buy 50 or 100 more. "Rinse and repeat." If my original buy turned out to be at or near the bottom, I'll count myself lucky and happily take the profit on 100 shares! ADAPTABILITY is key, as is continuous learning. I should note that I have a very small amount of what I consider "play money", that I will take a flyer on occasionally, or buy what I think of as "stock lottery tickets." I just purchased 100 shares of MNMD based on information here on these forums, for example, that falls into that category. But it's such a tiny amount of my overall investments that I don't even consider it a strategy - that's why it's "play money." My wife calls it "funny money". My 'play money' stocks TOTAL combined amount to way less than 1% of my portfolios.
You're more than welcome. Like I said, my comments are worth every dollar you paid me for them! There are a lot of investors on these forums with much more knowledge than me. But I'm happy to share what has worked and continues to work for me. As another poster said in another thread, everyone is different and has to determine their own priorities. Things like risk threshold, time horizon, and of course, personal preference and experience - just to name a few.
