Change

It is said that Aristotle was once asked “What’s the greatest force in the universe?”   His reply was that man’s resistance to change is the greatest force.  My own evolution as an investor has become an exercise in change. 

I began investing about two years ago and was attracted toward technical analysis, ticker watching and surfing the web for the day’s hot stocks.  My funds were limited and so too my time.  The market was in a year of decline following “the bubble” so there were few times when the market momentum would cover mistakes.  At the end of that first year I proudly thought that I had done very well because I had learned much, had fun and hadn’t lost any money.  I was certain that in a rising market I would do great.

During most of the past year I continued what could only be described as day trading without a full day to trade.  I was struggling to keep track of my investments and my work schedule simultaneously.  I did very well at times and had profits lost at other times because I was concentrating on cheap volatile stocks and was not “in attendance”.  I was expending large amounts of time studying charts and it was not resulting in gains that justified the hours of research and ticker watching.  It became obvious that I needed to change.

Enter M.S.T.S.  Stress free trading?  Well, that sounds good.  At first I thought it strange. What, no Bollinger Bands, MACD, Stochastics, etc.?  Ok, then where’s the deep fundamental analysis?  I decided to give it a try.  I was stopped out on my first two entries.  So, could I not combine my previous experience with M.S.T.S.?  I decided to follow the momentum stocks and catch them on a dip reversal.  Results, poor to fair and I was still spending too much time.  I recall a Mark Crisp comment, “Either you are following M.S.T.S. rules or you are not.”  I thought that comment rather abrupt.  But he was right.  I had to either get with the program or go back to what I was previously doing.  I have since done my best to follow the program as outlined.  As of this writing I hold three stocks and have better than 15% gains on two of them.  It’s still very early for these holdings but the amazing thing is that I still hold them at all.  Previously, the one that is down would have been sold and the profits in the other two would have been taken at about 5%.  Change!

Bob V.