Traders Cooperative

[Joe Stocks]

Good points. I have been online trading since 1994. Etrade rep once remarked years later that I was in their first batch of accounts. After the internet crash I ran in to a trader that had a very simple rule. He held a large position in SPY and he only held it if the S&P was above the 200SMA. And sold if it dipped below. He traded around that position but mostly out of the market with the S&P below 200. If you pull up a long term chart you can see he did pretty well. He did not do shorts. Said they put him in a bad mood wishing something would go down.

I always keep that in mind. Unfortunately many times not near enough.

Do you, or ever follow Harry Dent? Books? He theorized that we would go into the great depression about 2009-2010 based on demographics. I haven't followed him for years now. What he and I did not count on was the government going to a low to zero interest rate policy, and adding trillions of dollars in deficits to pump up the market. And now all the stimulus that had been added in the last couple of years.

To your point, now a lot of that appears to be coming to an end. We are so addicted to such an accommodative Federal Reserve along with ever increasing government spending that the US economy is in for a big hit if that comes to an end. I don't see how not only US but other countries as well can avoid it.

The S&P 200sma is at 44.53. We are currently at 4418. So right now my cash levels are rising. Most of my holdings now are dividend paying issues. Unfortunately from what I read 75% of a stocks movement is market related. So, the good can go down with the bad.
I do like to play speculative trades like some a posted. But again I like to mostly be in companies here that treat me like a partner and shares profits by way of dividends.