Entries by Arnie Singer

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Overtrading

Portfolio managers at institutions and hedge funds, for the most part, always need to be fully or close to fully invested. Retail traders don’t. You can stay in cash until you find the right trading opportunity that fits your criteria. As they say, “cash is a position.” But instead of waiting for A+ setups, many […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Looking Back

The key to successful trading lies in sticking to your plan, not obsessing over every outcome. When you enter a trade, you’ve already evaluated the setup, assessed the risk, and made your decision. The market will do what it does, and once you’ve exited a position, the outcome is no longer within your control. What […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Intro

Since ancient times, people have speculated on goods, hoping to profit from rising or falling prices. If you trade stocks, options, or other financial instruments, you’re doing the exact same thing. You buy stocks or calls when you think prices will rise and sell when you think they’ll fall. If you’re right, you make money. […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Don’t know Your Ticker

Every ticker has its own personality and way of moving. Some tend to spend lots of time consolidating and then make outsized moves. Some tend to trend. Some tend to stay within specific range. Some respect the 21 sma, some the 34 and some the 89. Some like simple moving averages and others exponential moving […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Trading the Open

It’s 9:28am EST and you can’t wait to trade. You know that feeling. You’ve gone over your charts, drawn your support and resistance levels, reviewed whatever you usually review and developed a few trade ideas on tickers you’ve been stalking. The premarket action is looking extremely bullish and you definitely don’t want to miss out […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Ignoring Major Levels

One of the fundamental principles of technical analysis is the concept of support and resistance levels. These are price levels where large numbers of buyers or sellers have historically been active. The more often these levels hold, the stronger they are considered to be. When a level breaks with strong volume, the price can make […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Unaware of Market Movers

When you’re in a trade, you can’t just focus exclusively on price action, volume and the other technicals you use. You also need to have an awareness of stock and general market related events that can have a significant effect on your position. Being unaware of, or ignoring, these events can blindside you and bloody […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Too Fast and Furious

A common account killer for newer traders is the desire to trade fast moving and volatile tickers, before they’re prepared to do so successfully. These could be highly liquid, big cap tickers (SPX, TSLA, NVDA, NFLX), memes gone wild (GME, AMC) or less expensive and less liquid stocks making moves on rumors or news. The […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Distracted by News

Retail traders often get burnt trying to trade the news. They spend lots of time and energy finding, researching and analyzing news stories related to the overall market or a specific sector or stock, and then place trades based on their analysis and determination. More often than not, they end up on the wrong side […]

Trading Mistakes to Avoid – Ignoring Volume

We already touched on this point in the previous chapter about following the smart money, but it’s arguably the most important factor in trading in harmony with the smart money, so it’s worth while reinforcing and expanding upon. Price moves on heavy volume indicate smart money activity. If you are trying to follow the smart […]