|
PureBytes Links
Trading Reference Links
|
Excellent question - and excellent observations. I've never been a day
trader - but I started working in the markets in 1972-73. Lived through
the equities bear market of 1973-74 - and the bond bear market of the late
70's - early 80's (whoever thought you could lose 40% on bonds - I thought
those kinds of losses were reserved for equities). The only investment my
husband and I made money on for a whole decade was our condo (I did make
money at times in things like options - but then the market would take the
money back). And that decade left a big impression on me. Made me very
very conservative for a long time. I'm less conservative now - but I
doubt I'll ever approach the markets the way someone who started investing
in them 3 years ago does.
FWIW - I've backtested my SP500 and bond systems through those periods.
They don't make money in secular bear markets (on the long side) - but
they keep losses within manageable limits. Robyn
Timothy Morge wrote:
> ...You know, here's a fascinating question: How many traders on this
> list
> have actually traded stocks or stock indexes in a bear market? I won't
> use Robyn's example of the bond market, because it has not been as
> pure a trend as the stock market, but it is also a valid market to use
> as an example. So many of our tendencies as traders are learned early
> in our career [hence the old saying you can't teach old dogs...] and
> so I always scratch my head when people that have been trading for two
> or three years talk about how 'they are making tons of money and can
> make money in any market conditions.' Some of them even talk about how
> they survived this crash or that crash. I wonder, silently, to myself,
> what they will do when these markets turn and become down-trending
> trading markets, which can be entirely different animals...
|