A Lesson in Style

In any sport, you as a player grow into your own personal style of play, and that style as you become better and better becomes your trademark. In the stock market, the same is true, and it is important that you stick to your trademark style regardless of how “good” you really believe you are. I have found that my trademark is based on the technical trading of stocks priced anywhere from $.02 a share to $2.50 a share. Recently though, I let my confidence become bloated with a trade, but my trademark style was no where to be found; a costly mistake.

I was up over 20% for the month of January, and wanted to go out with a bang. Instead of trading my signature style, I decided to go big or go home on a short play (which I have very little live experience in). I made the right call on the stock, and it did fall, but not before running up 5% and forcing me to cover. Not only did I leverage myself on margin to make the trade, but I also gave up all of my gains from January. The mistake was a big one, but an important one because it made me realize that regardless of how “good” I think I am, changing my style with three minutes left in the game isn’t going to help me make the game winning goal.

I was thinking about it at 3 AM (a time when I have a lot of my epiphanies about life) and thought of what I think to be a good analogy. In hockey, players will change skates, change sticks, or even change diets to try to get better. All of these enhancements though are centered on that player’s personal style. Just because they have a new stick, doesn’t mean they are going to skate at the net any differently to shoot. With your personal stock strategy, you will make a lot of adjustments to improve your win percentage, but that win percentage is still centered on your trademark style. Making a total U-turn will only take you in the wrong direction. My realization then is this; don’t let overconfidence take you to change your trademark style when that style is what made you so successful in the first place. It is good to be confident, but remember only to tweak that style, not do a full 180; you’re only going to run into on coming traffic.

Take this lesson to heart; it may save you money down the line when you think your skills are at their peak. I know it personally was a big blow to my portfolio, wiping out my huge run for the month. But, that’s the way it goes sometimes. Now to start driving in the right direction again…

Closing Thought – “Don’t let overconfidence take you to change your trademark style when that style is what made you so successful in the first place. It is good to be confident, but remember only to tweak that style, not do a full 180; you’re only going to run into on coming traffic.”

The busy get busier, but risk comes with reward

I have been averaging about six hours a day working on the FIO. Our new site at www.falkininvesting.com is just about completed, and we have a lot to look forward to. This whole experience is an adventure, and I must say I am enjoying it quite thoroughly. To know that the busier I get, the more reward there is for my risk is a good feeling; I live for a high risk to reward ratio. The risk comes in dedicating so much time into something I believe in so strongly, when I could be putting it in where else but the stock market.

There is a lot I still have to learn about the World Wide Web, but every day I am creeping closer to a well developed knowledge base. I added a new live chat system for our community forums, and man was that a project. What was supposed to be a simple, “upload these files to your server and then install,” turned into 10 hours of education, agony, and frustration. The outcome though was well worth it, for now our members can connect with one another any time of the day, regardless of where they located in the world.

Speaking of connecting members, I can’t begin to understand how cool of an experience it has been to see members grow and develop. It is an honor to know that your dedication and time has helped to change someone’s life, and what better life to be then someone who supports your same passion? Each day shows a new opportunity to affect someone in some way, and that knowing is something that drives me to succeed. I love the saying that, “the race does not go to the strong or to the swift, but only to the one that endures until the end.” My pace is turtle, but I make sure each step I take is one of appreciation, dedication, motivation, and leadership. Make way, for the turtle is coming through.

Closing Thought - How big is big? What defines big, for big to you could resemble 1,000 followers, but big to the person next to you could resemble 100,000 followers? Makes you wonder if we are predestined to walk the path we are all on…

To the future always,

-Blain