I'm sure that
seasoned traders understand, but
newcomers must be wondering what it
is going on.
Bottom-line, I'm finding current
market conditions very difficult to
get traction in, and I'm not
convinced we've seen the end of it.
Still at -0.69% for the month no
damage has been done.As a
complete aside, I partially returned
to equities this month (shock horror
*), and spent the best part of the
month looking into two or three
prospects mentioned to me by a
couple of friends of mine.
I've discounted all but one idea for
various reasons, but I think one is
just right (let's face it, it needs
to be special in this market), so
I'm in.
* Just a little bit of personal
history here. I became a
full-time trader in May 1999, after
about twelve years of serious
planning. This was
before trading Foreign Exchange was
a viable proposition for private
traders. For the first
six month's, or so, I traded mostly
tech stocks in the US, but with
mixed success. I was also
becoming continually concerned with
what was an obvious tech bubble.
By January 2000, I had virtually
ceased trading dot.com issues, and
had become a momentum player in
Australia penny stocks, of which
Australia has quite a few.
For several month's I made great
returns, only to wake up on my
birthday (it had to be on my
birthday, didn't it?), to see that
the NASDAQ had crashed (foreseen),
taking the Australian penny dreadful
market with it (certainly not
foreseen). I don't
remember much after that, except the
tax losses lasted me a number of
years! By 2002, I was
100% in f/x.
Those who have been following
this web site and my online
ramblings will know that I have a
great fascination with compounding,
and what can be achieved with the
right vehicle, and a following wind.
The thing I liked then, and still
do, is that there are some hidden
gems in this segment of the market,
and that on occasion they move
significantly. For
example, one of the companies I was
looking at went from 1c to 50c in 3
months (and has subsequent dropped
60% from that peak). To my
mind that kind of potential is
simply extraordinary, and you don't
need many of those in your lifetime
to build a house, or retire.
Anyway, the flame is alive and
well - hope it also is with you,
despite difficult markets!
BTW: Please note next month's
report will be delayed, as I'll be
swanning around Europe.
