I’ve slowed down on trading last year as I was writing the book, but as they said, the real work is in marketing it!  So had to learn as much as I can about getting publicity so that I may share my blessings from trading to you all.  I was able to find publicity expert Joan Stewart from the United States  for lessons and was able to capture her interest  guest posting in her  blog  “Publicity Hound”.   I shared all about how I was able to wow the media on my “business and pleasure trip” in the Philippines. Read it here or use this link:

http://publicityhound.net/?p=10664

Joan’s publicity tips had helped me greatly, inspiring me to be creative and strategic and so for my dear friends who want to share more of their blessings, get clicking to her site now!

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check out this video…US Markets in Corrective Mode? Until when? Let’s see,,, 1 week? When US company reports find their way into the headlines, the news will probably erase all talk of this correction. This may be fun to watch 2 weeks from now.

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It’s been a while, I’ve been wanting to buy a new pair of shoes and I’m still empty handed (it doesn’t help that my fave store closed.   I am getting desperate, but I reminded myself, I can’t be buying just any pair. So I have to keep looking.  You should remember this when looking for a new trade.  Don’t trade just because you want to. You got to look for it really hard and make sure it ticks all the boxes.  (Like the perfect shoes!)

If you are a short-term trader (not a day trader), do you have a daily routine?  How do you know there’s another opportunity and or it’s time to close a trade?  I have a 4-part trading procedure and the first part covers 5 steps that I do daily before I am able to determine a trade (open / close). It takes 10minutes or so.   You may not be daytrading, (I trade short-term) but daily, you should have steps to let you know what’s going on in the market, ready to trade when the opportunity is there.

Of course there is preparation and study, way before you can do this.   But when you’re ready to trade, all it takes is 10 minutes for you to determine if you should trade or not.  My trading procedure is discussed in detail in my book “High Heeled Traders” – here’s a handy list of the first 5 steps of the part I do daily:

If you want to get the book, order it  HERE or email if you’d rather do a bank transfer.   Free shipping worldwide!   It’s also available in Amazon and online bookstores in US, UK, and Australia. And all  Fully Booked branches in the Philippines.

High Heeled Traders

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It was bold, somewhat commanding statement. Someone posted in the trader site I frequent == “Can someone train me?” No one, it seems, was sure how to answer. I thought I’d reply, “You have to know what kind of trader you want to be”. It sounds kind of mature answer right? (Geessshhh someone can guess how old I am already!). Anyway, just thought I’d share with you The Tharp Trader Test. Yes, there are many types of traders.
Surf over to http://www.vantharp.com/ it’s at the top right hand corner. Takes 3 to 5 minutes.

Enjoy ….

Tharp Trader Test at Vantharp.com

My results today - will take the test another day, see if it changes!

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Sushi dreams

Who doesn’t want freebies? I know many of us, like to get freebies. One day I got a call from management of my broker, very earnestly offering me free brokerage fees for 2 transactions and “their sincerest APOLOGIES”. Given the choice, I didn’t want the freebie. I just want my opportunity. But anyway, this is how you get freebies from your broker : Tell them they are wrong. Challenge them. Especially when there are  steps to be followed and  because of manual back-office procedures, they missed the step/s. Find fault (yeah, women’s “analytical skills” put to good use hehehe).

My recent experience : I wanted to do a new transaction to sell Covered Call option.  My last transaction on this particular account was done months ago, when the Covered Call option was bought back (to close the transaction), the Release should have been done right after the close. My broker “forgot” to Release, which stopped me from doing my new transaction. These steps are done by the broker in its back office processing.

It happened to me already once before. I know, I remember, I am a business analyst in my past life, I am aware about “procedural flaws” but  —  I just let things slide. You don’t have to be a business analyst, but as traders and investors, you should be fully aware of what you are doing, what are the steps and rules. So to you my friends, don’t make the same mistake. If I had rang them up and told them what “did not happen” then I wouldn’t have to miss that opportunity — could have made big fat profits in a snap. STO had gone from 13.60 to 14.55 (5 March to 15 March in the chart below).  As I was planning to buy 1200 shares, that’s some $1000 profit I’ve missed.  I could have been enjoying sushi.

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Juiced

Picked this up from a trader’s musings in a trading group:
“All I get are learnings, but not turned into profits. Sold too early, or cut loss too early. It’s really frustrating. Really need to attend technical analysis seminar”.

I tried to help and said :
Your issue seems to be on Exits and risk management (same issues as me when I was a newbie) technical analysis is more on entry signals. Check out my site and register to get the free eBook – it’s slanted towards women but you’ll pick up on those issues on exits and risks.

The trader’s motto : “cut your losses short, let your profits run” is all about Exits. In addition to my site, you can get a grasp of exits and risk management at Van Tharp institute where I took advanced workshops. here are the sites http://highheeledtraders.com/ and www.vantharp.com

I further say – it is important to know what kind of problems you are having so you can go and look for appropriate solution. Sometimes because certain ideas are popular, we tend to expect or take them as the true solution to our problem). Only to find out that it does not help. OK guys, feel free to roam at this site or Van’s.

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The only thing we needed was “The Booth” and it would have seemed like I was in a heart-pounding “Question and Answer” portion of a beauty pageant aired live! As if knowing my “beauty queen aspirations” a fellow trader posed this question in the PSE thread : “What stocks do you like today and why?”

Well, JT, (the trader who asked the question) — had asked me nearly 10pm which is my bedtime, so I had to tell him I’d answer it today. And that’s today! Ready?

Actually, it was a timely question as I was surfing the PSE site yesterday.
I looked at the Most Active List
I looked at the Advances (of course!)
I looked at the Declines (had to check those out too!)

I looked at the eye-popping 50% stock rise and wished I had a position on those.
The day before. LOL

However tempting that may be though, for a girl like me, first time dipping her toes in the Philippine market, I’ve got to remind myself of what I do, and those things I consider as low-risk high-reward trades.
1. I trade stocks and options. I trade Options to be able to protect my stocks on the downside risks. PSE has no Options, so, I have to be careful on choosing only the uptrending stocks.
2. I trade Oil stocks – and I intend to stick to this so I can just leverage on the market analysis I am already doing. So hint: It will most likely be an Oil stock.
3. I trade short-term (2 days to a few months usually 2), I am not a day-trader, so JT if you are not too disappointed with that, you can read on.
4. I trade stocks where I can get an optimum position (such that the risk is low yet I hold a number of shares that is worth for me to trade and compensate me for my effort and time). So I have to make computations about the price level and what the daily volatility is like, and the price move in a 1 month timeframe. This was a bit complicated so I didn’t finish it yesterday as I need to get more data.
5. I was looking at blue chips – dividend paying stocks – those that are already making money.

So, I didn’t really zero in on my “perfect pick” as of yesterday. Which is which?

what's the perfect pick?

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The most common F word on investing – is Fear. And rightfully so, all investments have risks after all.
How do you deal with it? Do you really want it to rule over you? How do you get rid of it?
In my experience fear had limited my growth, my happiness, my wealth! I have fears like most of you. When I started to invest and trade, I was only able to overcome my fear with hope – the hope that I can turn things around for myself. So is there something in your life that you are hoping to have? Hoping to achieve? Use that as a beacon of light to guide you where you want to go.

There were also very interesting questions on the Women’s Money Week feature page for my book “High Heeled Traders”.
If you haven’t done so already, jump in to this link:

http://womensmoneyweek.com/high-heeled-traders

Hope springs - Cherry blossoms by Villamor Bon

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I had the wonderful opportunity to be featured in Women’s Money Week 2012! I got to hear many questions about investing which I have answered on the site. If you wish to send questions in, that will be fantastic too! Here’s the link!

http://womensmoneyweek.com/high-heeled-traders/

Most of the questions are about starting to invest or to invest in stocks, options and FOREX – and have I got a book for that! I am very willing to answer the questions so may I just share to you my free eBook! If you haven’t done so already, please register in this site and it will be sent to you!

And there was a lady who had been comfortable in what she invests in “passive asset allocation and low cost index funds”, and wisely wanted to try something new. You know I’d be happy to oblige.

So try something new!

Try something new! Mango Apple Almond Jelly treat!

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This post is part of Women’s Money Week 2012. For more posts about stocktrading see Saving and Investing Roundup

Women have gotten respect for doing great in budgeting and saving, but how about making money grow? With increasing expenses and dire global financial situation, you must be thinking “It’s time to step up!”. So how would you like to know more about trading stocks – by shopping for shoes!
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
1. We should know what we are after . “Oh I really need strappy sandals for a wedding”. Same as in Trading, start by having an Objective. Say you want to “consistently achieve 3% of capital per month (total of 36% per year!) . If you don’t know what you want, where you want to go, YOU CAN’T GET IT RIGHT!

2. We buy what is a good fit. Usually, you wouldn’t buy a shoe of a smaller size. Like so in Trading, if a trade does not feel right for you but you went ahead being influenced by someone else, this tends to be a loser. So trade only what fits you, your timeframe, trade only the stock/industry you know.

3. We buy a lot! Formal shoes, running shoes, many styles of sandals, boots, according to color, material etc. You have to have a range of shoe options. Point is you have got to budget for all the shoes you need according to your lifestyle. You shouldn’t spend too much on one shoe. So this important lesson in trading is that you have to keep how much you risk at an amount that does not blow out your budget and be able to fund next opportunities.

4. We buy and wear shoes according to the conditions. In winter we would usually wear closed shoes so we don’t get cold, in the summer, sandals are popular, to keep cool. So in Trading, you have to have an idea of what the market is doing. Are people optimistic and buying things in the hope of rising prices (Bull Market), or are people scared and dumping their assets before the prices go down more (Bear Market)? Or are people not sure where things are going and there is a tug of war between the people who are optimistic against those who are not (Sideways market). You need to determine Market condition before deciding on action or strategy, or choose not to trade when market is too choppy.

5. We buy it when we look and feel good. Easy when deciding for shoes but was a surprise for me it also applies to trading. No matter how much the trade looks positive from your analysis, but when you don’t feel good about it (or afraid) that it won’t turn out right, worrying could make you cut short a profitable run, this is the worst you can do in profit-taking! So before opening a trade, you need to feel good about it. If not, don’t trade it.

I can probably go on and on and on, but the other important thing is, as there is always another shoe…. as in trading, there is always another opportunity. Be patient and you will find.

(Thank you to Via Uno Shoes!)

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