Sold everything

Sold everything abt 3 weeks ago:

• 10 lots NOL @ 2.04
• 5 lots parkway @ 3.31
• 2 lots citydev @ 10.32
• 18 lots midas @ 0.99
• 10 lots wing tai @ 1.75 (bought @ 1.85).

Altogether a 6.5K loss, including brokerage.

At one point I was up 5.5K. Must change the way I trade:

- Don't feel compelled to buy just because of the bull, only buy carefully on retracement. Mkt takes money a lot easier than it gives it. It is not reasonable to go from 0 to 100% invested, or even 0 to 50% in a few weeks. Edge my way into a rising market.

- Learn to recognize when the market is overbought. The length and strength of the rally:

• 11 weeks without a dip is too long.
  
• The rally (follow thru day) started on Mar 1st, and it kept getting more and more overbought.
• At one point we had 8 consecutive weeks of gains.
  

- Learn to recognize when individual S'pore stocks are overbought. This is harder: possibly I should just say that when a stock has shot up and is now far from support, I can consider selling. NOL for example?


Remember, speculating is just a way to skim a little off the market...to keep out of trouble.... until the next bear market opportunity.

Bought citydev

Bought 2 lots @ 11.06 on Thurs 22nd Apr.

Has retraced slightly on low vol.

Cut-loss at previous low (10.56).

The rally that won't die

US:

• Market still in uptrend. Despite Greece, Goldman Sachs... etc, it is still going up.
• IBD reports favorable breadth (IBD 100 still rising).
• 8th consecutive week of gains.
  

Back in Singapore:

• GS sparked off a round of selling in the local market. Now we have had 5 days of almost continuous broad-based selling. My broker suggested that this is a safer time to buy, as all the contras are wiped out.
  
• Also gives an opportunity to select stocks based that have retraced slightly (not below a previous low) on low vol... as a way to sort the wheat from the chaff.
  

Tiong Woon

Bought at 56c (21-Apr-10), healthy retracement on low vol:


Sold several days later, as it gapped below moving average during the ,market's broad based fall.

May have been a mistake to sell, as vol was low when it fell.

I think the mistake here was the original buy decision - buying in an overbought market, and also buying a stock with cut-loss too far away.

Sold Osim

15 lots at 0.92 on 22-Apr-10.

It was (and still is) not completely certain that the stock is undergoing distribution:

• Was only one day's selling.
• Market fell heavily, and broadly that week too.

So hard to tell....One reason for selling was because of the high drawdown (stop loss at 0.87).

Don't think this trade was a mistake... it just didn't work out.

Bad Trade: Straits Asia

Bought 6 lots at 2.34, sold at 2.11.

Mistake was to buy when the market was overbought. Must learn patience. Don't have to be invested, even in a bull market.

Sold Capitamall Asia

Sold Capitamall Asia on 21st Apr, at 2.21.

Not a shred of anything bullish in the chart: