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What separates the winners from losers in financial blogging and trading, beyond basic position sizing and risk management discipline, is an ability to laugh off the inevitable negativity. With the way this market has been acting for much of 2011, I will let you in on a little secret that most of your resident gurus and self-appointed trader phenoms on Twitter are actually on mega-tilt and have likely, or are currently, blowing up their bankrolls. When that happens, be it in a casino at the poker table or in this social media age of the stock market, you have to avoid being an innocent bystander who gets caught up in that emotional nonsense.
If you are a blogger with tons of web traffic, like we have tons of here on iBankCoin, then of course lazy competitors are going to argue that writing one long blog every few days is “better” than multiple posts per day. In a similar vein, if you actually dare to have a short-term trading style and care to analyze the markets frequently, then of course some washed-up has-beens are going to call you pathetic. It is quite easy to sashay in and out of blogging, hindsight trading after the closing bell and declaring you are up for the year and going on vacation, but in the end you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.
Beyond that, if you have the audacity to actually post…wait for it…witty photos, then of course self-righteous readers are going to pipe up and declare that they are offensive to “all readers,” when the reality is that my reader base and web traffic has done nothing but get off to a huge start and exponentially grow every single month for two years, being linked to constantly by the The Wall Street Journal, Abnormal Returns, TheStreet.com, The Reformed Broker, among others along the way. You see, there simply are not enough hours in the day to fight all of these battles against negativity, especially when it comes to trading, blogging, and the stock market. And that might as well apply to anything else in life. So, the idea is prioritize and to focus on what matters most, while laughing off others losing their heads and capital. In this life, some people are undeserving of your sympathy.
Currently, the stock market has broken down from a widely-watched consolidation pattern. There seems to be a good deal of talk about whether this is actually a trap and not a true breakdown at all, but objectively speaking we have seen a nasty reversal on Wednesday and downside follow-through on Thursday. So, the bears have the ball for now and it is their to lose. With that in mind, two short setups to watch are in the seemingly perpetual laggard-ridden engineering and construction sector. FLR and FWLT look to be quality shorts upon further weakness, indeed.
A sense of humor goes a long way in life. You can laugh off trivial things like some idiot cutting you off in traffic, without escalating the situation into a road rage felony crime, as just one example. So let the haters keep hating while @RaginCajun and I, along with 230 of our closest friends, keep outperforming this market and having fun along the way inside 12631.
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Words of wisdom, beautiful girls and chart porn to boot.
Love your posts. Always full of passion and thought. About the sexy girls offcourse
Spot on! This may sound like a cliche or similar, mum used to say never get angry to the point you want to smash somebody’s face in. I said no problem, I’ll happily do it whilst laughing!
Still finding the balance, just want a simple blog.
Have a great weekend all.
Regards
In a similar vein, in the working world (normal job) people remember that you handled something with style, grace and good humor long after they forget the “huge massive” problem they were so freaked out about at the time. On the other hand, be a jerk and that is remembered forever.
Awesome post…like usual
Like usual, I didn’t read a word of it
just kidding
Winship.
Ignore douches, keep doing what you do.
Who is giving you a hard time?
And who is the babe? Nothing makes you feel more out of touch than not knowing who the current eye candy is. I find that happening to me more and more these days…
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you are the sober voice of reason. never too excited. just what is needed. don’t change a thing. and keep the pictures coming.