Category Archives: Stops

Just 40 $ Away…

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The first signs of greed can be sensed.

We’re talking about Gold.

A few months ago, serious players in Gold had identified Rs. 28,000 / 10 grams as their target for Gold.

This target has been achieved for a while now. Nobody’s booked their Gold.

Instead, the target has been revised to Rs. 30,000 / 10 grams, which is just another 40 $ an ounce away.

Please don’t tell me that nobody is going to book (meaning sell, as in booking profits) their Gold @ Rs. 30,000 / 10 grams. I’ve got this nagging feeling that they’re not.

Hmmm, greed is setting in. Nothing unusual. That’s how a bubble progresses.

Yesterday, an update from Reliance alerted me to the hypothesis that Rs. 40,000 / 10 grams was a real possibility in Gold.

Maybe, maybe not. As of now, Reliance is sounding like that fellow who predicted a Dow level of 36,000 some years ago. Today, 36k on the Dow seems impossible, even in one’s dreams.

Does it matter to you how high Gold can go? Or is your target more important? Both are valid questions.

If your target has been achieved, here’s one scenario. Book the Gold and put the released funds into debt. Debt in India is safe, and is giving excellent returns, especially to the retail investor.

If your stomach is full, do you dream about more food?

Seriously people, playing this by targets is a serious option.

It’s also ok if you wanna play it in a “let’s see how high this can go” manner. That’s just another way of playing it. Fine. In this case, you need to set trailing stops, and you need to stick to these if they get hit.

Either way, identify a booking strategy for Gold and stick to it.

Take greed out of the equation. There’s no room for greed in the career of a market player. There’s no room for fear either.

We’ll talk about taking fear out of the equation some other day, if and when unprecedented gloom and doom abounds.

And what was Mr. Fibonacci thinking?

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0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377… , … , …

What’s this?

A random set of numbers?

Nope.

It’s the Fibonacci series.

How is it derived?

Start with 0 and 1, and just keep adding a number to the one on its right to get the next number, and so on and so forth.

What’s so peculiar about this series?

As we keep moving from left to right, the result of dividing any number by the one on it’s immediate right starts converging towards 0.62.

Also, as we keep moving from left to right, the result of dividing any number by the second number on its right starts converging towards 0.38.

The series starts with a 0.

Another number to note is 0.5.

So, in a nutshell, these are the important figures to note, which this series generates: 0, 0.38, 0.5, 0.62. There are more, but these are the most important ones.

I’ve always wondered why the 0.5 is important. Actually, “half-way” is big with mankind.

What’s the significance of this series?

In any activity involving a large number of units, these Fibonacci ratios are said to be observed.

It is said that crowds behave as per these ratios.

It is said, that for example when many leaves fall from a tree over a long period of time, a Fibonacci pattern can be determined in their falling.

It is said that these ratios are ingrained in nature.

True or false?

Don’t know.

What I do know is that the trading fraternity has taken these numbers to heart, and looks for Fibonacci levels in anything and everything. Most commonly, entry into a sizzling stock is planned after the stock has corrected past a Fibonacci level and has once again started to rise.

In simpler terms, aggressive traders who buy on dips will look for a 38% correction of pivot to peak before entering.

Less aggressive traders will wait for a 50% correction and then enter upon the rise of the underlying.

Traders who like to value-buy will wait for a 62% correction, which might or might not come.

If the underlying goes on correcting past 62%, it is best left alone, because the correction can well continue beyond 0, the starting point of the prior rise.

A current example where you’ll most definitely see Fibonacci ratios in action is with Gold.

The million dollar question I have been hearing around me today is when to enter Gold now, especially because it is correcting heavily.

The immediate answer for me would be to enter at a Fibonacci level of correction.

Which level?

That depends upon your risk profile.

Understanding Loss and Reacting to it in a Winning Manner

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In the world of trading, we deal with loss everyday.

We have no option but to deal with it.

If we want our performance to improve, we need to deal with it in a winning manner.

What is loss? I mean, apart from its monetary ramifications…

A loss has the propensity to suck the living daylights out of you.

That’s if you allow it to.

You see, in the world of trading, losses have the propensity to grow.

You need to cut them when they are still bearable. Period.

If you don’t, they can become unbearable.

You then still have the option of cutting the unbearable loss as opposed to letting the loss eat into your gut and cause insolvency. Choice is yours. I’ve seen it happening with my own eyes.

You see, losses not only suck out money, they also suck out emotional energy from your system. Your mind loses focus, and instead of concentrating on your A-game, your mind focuses on the loss. The result is that your A-game becomes a B- or a C-game. Unacceptable.

Health deteriorates and one is snappy around the family. Totally unacceptable. Just cut the loss, stupid.

In FY ’08 – ’09, my senior partners walked into my office. I was being consulted, hurrah, a winning moment by itself for me.

Our company was entered into a derivative USD hedge at the time. The trade had turned sour, and was showing a loss of half a million USD. I was being asked what to do.

In a situation like this, a trader does not dilly-dally. I advised my senior parners strongly to cut the loss as it stood, no ifs, and no buts. That’s what we did.

Two other companies in our town were involved in a similar hedge. They chose not to cut their losses at this stage, but to hope, pray and wait for a recovery.

Well, recovery did happen ultimately. This was that swing when the USD first went up to INR 38 and then down all the way to INR 52.50. Before recovery occured, let’s see what else happened.

One company declared insolvency, because it could not repay the 22 milllion USD loss in the hedge, because that’s the amount the loss had ballooned to at a later stage, before recovery even started. The other company, I believe, settled its losses at 25 million USD, and enjoys a cash-strapped existence today.

So that’s what. My training as a small-time trader came in handy, and I was able to help our family run export business in a major way.

This was also a big test for me. It showed me that I had understood loss as a trader, and was able to react to it in a winning manner.

And that’s the prequisite required to understanding winning and reacting to it like a champion. More on that when I’ve mastered this myself!

Street’s got the D-word

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There seems to be an X-word in every avenue of life.

The Street has its own – the D-word.

It spells D-e-r-i-v-a-t-i-v-e-s.

Whatever reasons there are for a crisis to develop become secondary at the peak of the crisis, because derivatives take over. The crisis is driven to the nth level because of massive institutional leveraging in derivatives in the direction the crisis is unfolding. Recipe for disaster.

The human instinct is to maximize profit, irrespective of any consequences. When masses start shorting the stock of a company that’s already in trouble, its stock price can well go down to zero (and lead to bankruptcy), even if the company’s mistakes are not deserving of such a price / destiny.

Similarly, when masses start going long the futures of a company’s stock, the resulting stock price overshoots fair-value in a major way. Then come along some fools and buy the scrip at an extreme over-valuation. They are the ones that get hammered.

That’s the way this game has unfolded, time and again.

Does it need to be this way for you?

No.

Firstly, as a long-term investor, don’t buy into over-valuation. Make this a thumb rule. Control your animal instinct that wants a piece of the action. Leave the action to the traders. You need to buy into under-valuation. Period.

Unfortunately, most long-term investors (myself included) miss action. Then they fool around with their long-term holdings to get some, and in the process mess up their big game.

The animal instinct in the long-term investor can be channelized and thus harnessed. One way to get action is to play the D-game. Of course with rules. The benefit can be huge. Action focuses elsewhere and doesn’t mess up your big game.

So, play the D-game if you wish, but play it small.

Secondly, be aware that you’re only doing this to take care of the action-instinct. Any profits are a bonus.

Thirdly, keep the D-game cordoned off from long-term investment strategies. No mixing, even on a sub-conscious level.

Then, take stop-losses. DO NOT ignore them.

Also, when anything is disturbing you, DO NOT play the D-game. It DOES NOT matter if you are out of the D-game for months. Remember, this is your small game. What matters is your big game.

Categorically DO NOT listen to tips.

If you are down a pre-defined level within a month, press STOP for the rest of the month.

Make your own rules for yourself. To give you some kind of a guide-line, I’ve listed some of mine above.

A D-game played with proper rules can even yield bombastic profits. 95% lose the D-game. 5% win. Derivatives are a zero-sum play-out. 5% of all players cash in on the losings of the other 95%.

So, play in a manner that you belong to the winning 5%.