Trading Techniques   

Common mistakes most investors make

heh heh, giantlow, relax lah...don't count your chickens before they're hatched, even if they're in the queue already. hahha. keep cool man....

singaporegal, yeah, concur. prices tend to fluctuate in the morning and are more even in the afternoon. if you see the STI, the first opening tends to be a major movement, after which it's more regular. (by implication, high beta stocks will follow the same pattern)



It's a bit of a bait actually...funds get to queue earlier, so it appears as though prices shoot up & high demand, which panics retail investors to chase the stocks up (your kneejerk reaction)....after which funds can nicely shed off excess stocks--a bit of contra for pocket money, while keeping the main holdings safe. vice versa holds true too, for panicked selling.

the other fluctuation tends to happen at 4.45 pm onwards. hehe. ready for the market tomorrow? :) 

most counters look too overbought to be bought tho. sian....looking more to sell than buy this first week.

 

hmmm. the pre market volumes can be quite misleading. i remember that i was very excited to see 500 lots queuing to buy & i quickly entered to sell my 200 lots. however, that 500 lots was suddenly withdrawn b4 the lock in period. make me excited for nothing. grrr

if i remember correctly that counter was a celestial warrant.

 

i agree with elf that the market might be mixed tmrw. cos some fund managers actually window dress before the year end. i.e either sell away the stocks that were losing money b4 year end and buy back after the new year or artificially buy stocks at higher prices to push the prices up b4 the year end and sell the excess stocks after the new year

 

Hahaha..... :)

ok.. back to this topic -

I feel that one common mistake many people make is to buy shares first thing in the morning. I find that the share price fluctuations are mostly artificial in the morning due to knee-jerk reactions by retail investors and that the prices will usually stabilise after lunch.

Elf - do you have any views on this?

 

keke...elf queens just lie around in bowers of flowers and get fed dew and grapes (hmm...not a bad idea hehe)...but a bit too boring for this hyper little thing here. hmm..would rather be an archer elf. *ooh legolas....* hehe.



ed88ks (how do you pronounce this?)...hm...difficult to make a call for the market tomorrow...am expecting a mixed market. some counters have ran before they were expected to, so would expect some funds to offload some counters asap and buy into other laggards. the thai situation is an unknown constant too. watch the 830am pre-market opening, the vols lined up for buy/sell: that will give you your clue as to up or down. A lot depends on the GDP data being released tomorrow too. tho, the moment the market hits 3k, i say, run. 

 

any hangover for the new year 2moro market?

 

So elf .... are you the Elf Queen?  :)

 

hahaha why not?? :P hmm...gotta come up with a more evocative title tho...and then we're on our way to the Mountain of Profit! heyhey, singaporegal can be our Arwen! ;) 

hehe. bwah haha!! anyone else wants in on the journey? haha. :P

 

haha. elf. The Fellowship of the Shares???

 

hello, yep, hope i can stay in SJ too; have learnt a lot from the people here, esp you, singaporegal. :)

hehe. does this mean we could actually be colleagues?? heh heh.

job-wise...hm..it does have its perks, but i'm also going in knowing that the slightest miscalculation on my part could very well lead to the deaths of tens, hundreds, or more. so it's a heavy responsibility. just hope i meet up to expectations.

on a lighter note: eheh, giantlow, just realised that both of us have taken mythological creatures in our nicks. hehe, wonder if there are any sprites, gnomes, fairies, hobbits etc out there? can form a Fellowship!! whee.... heehee. :P  

 

Haha... I also work for the Government too.

But I am a low level employee, not like elf.

 

Haha... I work for the Government too.

 

wow elf working in such a high powered job.

care to share what are u working as, singaporegal?

 

Wow... sounds like a high powered job. Congratulations to you!

Hope you can continue to stick around in SJ to share your insights!

 

heyho, sorry to disappoint, but nope. Was selected for another thing. classified, so can't say much. has to do with global events tho, and muah haha, i'll not be on the cpf scheme anymore. i'll actually get a pension if i stick with them til retirement. they're so secretive. it's gonna be immensely interesting. hehe.

hope i still have time for the market man. sigh.   

 

Hi elf,

You work for the Government now huh? Let me guess.... hmmm... should be MAS, Temasek or GIC?

 

The market is not a level playing, it never was and never will be. To get a better idea of how this whole system works, I recommend a book titled "Why am I always losing in the Stock Market" by Heritt & Company, you will see the market from a completely new persepective and mindful of baits thrown at you. You will also learn to live and play with (not against) the big boys.

 

hey pikachu....need to clarify something first: I _used_ to work for one of the big boys--an international fund mgmt co--but not anymore. the govt found me. hehe.



and yea, stock manipulation is real. if you want to do TA, stick with the blue chips (and such stocks) with constant vols, less likely to get caught short. Offhand i can name you three counters played in the last few months by institutions and rich private investors: tat hong, hongguo, enviro-hub. Take a look at their charts, the vol spikes, you'll know what i mean.

 

I'm so glad that we have someone who works for the big boys here at Sharejunction!

 

Hi elf,

Thanks for the reply. Very interesting indeed. I'm just a retail investor and there has been urban legends about stock manipulation by the big boys but I have usually shrugged them off as rumours.

After hearing this from you, I think there's definitely more than meets the eye! I'll take a closer look at volumes from now on!

Thanks!