Dude...
You need to know yourself first.
You know the Sun Tzu stuff?
Before you go to war, you need to know yourself first....

Knowing what kind of player you are is far most important.
For example...you can know all the hop haa about trading....
But.....

If you cannot cut ( despite knowing the importance )...
Then....it's common sense you should not be a trader...

Or if you wanna be an investor...
And you know all you want to know about investing....
But....somehow....
You might be one who is easily swayed by early and easy profits...
You would end up always selling fast and short...
Unable to build good profits....
And might even end up holding a portfolio of stocks....
just cos they are paper losses....

Know yourself first....

So who are you?

My poison to you.... don't 
I always use only one method...
the one best method that suits me...
I don't believe in using more than one method.

If I know I am good at investing...
I will just be an investor...
And if I know I am good at trading...
I will stick with trading...

I just do not believe in using many methods.
Ooooh....
Short term trading... ?

I do not do short term trading.
Why?
It's not that I cannot skin a trade...
It's not that I cannot day trade...
It's just that I know myself...
I discovered myself after years of just paper trading.
And what I know is...
I cannot do short term trading...
It's just who I am.
So I avoid it.

But that's just me...
Who knows....
You might be a good short term trader.

pssst.... We are discussing.
For me... these stuff... ie finding out what one is good at... these are the very important first steps....

pssst.... I paper traded for many years. 
I think it is outright stupid to mess around and pay tuition fees....
Money is always hard earned...
I respect money too much..... 
So I don't mess around...

pssst.... if you insist...
for short term trading....
use 6% cut loss....

pssst.... if you are an investor.... averaging down...
I know...
common saying is...
you are getting the same good thing but cheaper...
so you buy more ... ie you average down...
the risk?
such thinking leads to mistakes....
why?
sometimes... you invest the stock...
the price goes down.....
what IF...
what if... the main reason why the price goes down.... is invested wrongly?
ie... you could either pay too much for your initial investment...
or... you simply made a wrong judgement call on the investment...
either way...
when you average down....
you are simply buying more of your initial mistake....

Is it? All this while I thought you are a trader, not investor. Haha!

OOps 

Trader vs Investor

Lines are blurred lar...

Why so anal about this?

Ah.. more conspiracy...

Let see the list... 

1. Gain market share and destroy shale oil
2. Punish Russia over Ukraine
3. Punish ISIS to reduce thier income..
4. Punish Iran... their arch enemy

hell no!

Lap Sap stock!

so you trade this ? 

Ah this is true.

However, I was only giving Gark my honest opinion about the stock and my definition of a Lap Sap stock is a company which hardly makes more than 1 million ringgit a quarter. This is way below par.

And yes... do have your own niche when you play the market.

I am a fussy trader.
I do NOT simply trade for the sake of trading.
I do NOT simply trade any penny stock.
I do NOT treat the stock as an ATM machine where I foolishly believe I can make money on any given time.
I do NOT trade for a lousy, pathetic KFC meal. It makes no sense, betting so much money, just to win a lousy KFC meal.

Hehehe.... ya... I am a fussy trader. 

Let me join in....

Boon3 is the bugger
who picks his booger
while profits get bigger
more than ten bagger
but no tips for beggars

One of the ways to learn and improve is to study those who are more successful than you. That's why people read books by famous traders or investors etc. Does not mean the methods will apply to everyone, but must try and see if it works for you. No harm in trying. But its difficult to try when you don't know the exact method....

I have gamble all the way from ho hum stage to DEAD!! stage.. now taking a rest..  hopefully can reach WIN stage

some of the company may have cash flow problem before the oil price back to favourable price. then really 

Errr..... Volume actions is more important than anything.... but then it depends on how and what kind of time frame you are trading.....

Some traders wants to react with every singe price action that they see in the chart....
They think the best is to try to profit from every spike and every down turn....
It's possible...
but for me...
ie... judging on MY OWN standard and capability la....
I cannot.....

I cannot sit still starring at the chart 10 hours a day....
I tried I cannot....
and it exposes myself to making constant decisions all the time....
this is so damn difficult.....
I could get it to maybe 45% correct on a trail period of 14 months...
but considering all factors....
this is not something I desire....
I do not want to be slave to the market.... blah, blah... bah.....

see?
it's like what I was saying...
know ownself first....
not everyone can be that someone....
it's not like that one....

on indicators....
every single indicator that is out there....
it's all based on the past data/factors....
think about that...
practice that long enough....
and you will see what I am trying to see....
it's not reliable...
sometimes...
it may appear to work like a charm....
but many times .... it won't...
and those times when it doesn't work...
these are the times which will hurt one badly............
so bad.... that it will take a long time to recover....

err.... you do know that you are trying to ask me to write a many moons and many cows stories.....
   

next week la....
choose a stock....
any stock....
and we do a live chat.....

you will see my limitations one....