Zeev's Turnips Patch-No Politics (ZEEV)

[Train Guy]

Where to start. I understand where you are coming from and the predicament you are in. You have people looking for hot stocks tips for LTBH in a bear market. And then there are the ones that want the closing prices for the next two weeks, providing of course it is not to much trouble. <g> It's as if they think the turnips are a rote mechanical machine that spits out answers. When in reality (correct me if I'm wrong) the turnips are more like concepts and ideas that can be applied to data that is constantly changing in real time.

The part about your knowledge totally escapes them. If I have it right, you have not one but two doctorate degrees in mathematics. And we are not talking 1+1=2 stuff here. <g> The concepts and ideas that you not just know but use daily in real time, are so far beyond the average person they don't even know they exist, let alone you could actually use them for something. And it certainly isn't your job to try and teach doctorate level mathematics on a stock board. Now for some of the really sharp ones, just the little you said, opened their eyes REAL wide and had then going WHOA!! (like me) They might not of understood it all, and be able to use it, but it certainly gave then whole new areas to go exploring. The average person was, Huh?? Jeez, he's speaking that Hungarian again. <g>

And they dismiss the part about experience as not that important. The practice, practice, practice, makes "perfect". The first day they are in the stock market they want to get to fly the space shuttle. Well, the SEC does have some basic rules and do's and don'ts, but there is nobody telling you, you can't. Why do they act so surprised when they crash and burn. Duh. <g> I only in the last couple of weeks put a few of your rocket fuel stocks up on my screens. I knew better than to be even looking at them, let alone try to trade them. This may seem too obvious, but stocks that you can make a lot of money in, in a few minutes, also means you can LOSE a lot of money quickly. Hello. <g>

So certainly trying to teach the turnips on a stock board isn't practical, if it is even possible to teach the turnips at all. Besides, that would take all the aura and mystery away from them. We couldn't have that. <g> Now it is assumed that everybody here is a big boy and girl and .....AND they have their thinking caps on. From some of the crash and burn stories we've had in the last week, maybe we shouldn't assume that. And that is just from the people posting, who knows about the lurkers. I brought up the idea of risk management, #msg-504606, which you might not have seen. The point I was trying to make, is that you make it look so easy, that a lot of the fundamentals go right on by most people.

Finally getting a handle on the concept and application of risk management is why I consider I have graduated from day trading 101, to 201. Hopefully people don't think that when you say you are at zero percent cash, that means the coast is clear, everybody in the pool. It means exactly what it says. It doesn't mean lots of margin (I know you don't use margin), highly leveraged, betting the house.

Worst case scenario, you are at zero percent cash and the unthinkable happens. How big a hit percentage wise would your portfolio take? Just a guess. Like say an ice storm hits and you are without power for three days. (Actually happened to me once. I ended up having to find a public library that still had power and an internet connection. It's why I have two UPS's that should give me at least 10-15 mins. as long as I still have a phone line. Trivia - The power lines are the top wires on the poles so aways go first, and why you rarely lose your phone.) And how far back in time would that set you back. In other words, how many weeks of work would go poof? Everybody needs to do this for themselves and determine if they are taking to much risk. Put your thinking caps on.

It's as you say, plan the play, play the plan, which comes under the heading of risk management. In the past I only vaguely had a plan with really no back up. So when a trade went against me, I usually was left going, Damn, now what am I suppose to do. <g> And then I would sit and watch as bad became worse. Looking back at some of my better boneheaded trades, if I had ONLY taken a 2% hit on the portfolio I would be a far richer man.

So I understand the predicament you are in. The concepts and ideas that you use are so far above the average person, why bother to try and explain them. All you would do is convince everybody that you really are an alien from another planet. <g> And yet people are puzzled as to why you hang out on a stock board for free no less. I would do the same thing. And if I couldn't manage to trade and follow the board at the same time, I would literally pay somebody to read boards and post messages for me. A close observer would realize you are getting far more back than you give. Great legends don't happen in a vacuum. They need feedback.

Ok, that should be enough for everybody to chew on for awhile. <g>

TG