Want me to tell you where to buy and sell?


Then walk a way now, cause it ain’t going to happen!

My focus, and the focus of this blog, is trading education. It isn’t, and will never be, trading signals or anything like that. It’s that whole give a man a fish, teach a man to fish thing. If I tell you what to do and when to do it then basically I’m just managing your money for you. If that’s what you want, give your money to someone to run on your behalf or put it in to a fund. You’re not looking to be a student.

I’m here to help you learn how to trade, not to tell you what to do. I don’t know you or what your situation is like. If I started telling you to buy here and sell there it would not be in your best interests as a developing trader, and potentially could be bad for your account balance because what I tell you to do may not suit your needs.

I see questions from time to time along the lines of “Should I buy here?”, “I’m long XYZ now. Where should I put my stop?”, and “I have a short position on. Should I keep it or close it out?”. If you’re asking someone else these questions – especially blindly in a trading forum where you don’t know much about the responders – then you need to back up because you clearly don’t have a defined trading system or methodology which suits your needs (or at least one you trust) and are trading randomly.

Looking to other people for buy/sell advice or recommendations is also a way to push the responsibility off yourself and on to someone else. At least that’s what a lot of traders attempt to do with it. The bottom line, though, is that you make the final decision to enter or exit a trade and how big to make the positions. The responsibility is yours, and no one else’s.

So don’t look to others to tell you when and how to trade. Look to yourself. Certainly get information and advice on the application of techniques, but make your own decisions and take responsibility for them. That’s the only way you’re going to become a real trader with any chance of long-term success.

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About the Author
John Forman, author of this blog, has traded for more than 20 years, is a professional market analyst, and authored The Essentials of Trading. He is an active participant in trading forums, consults for trading related businesses, as published literally dozens of trading articles, and has been quoted in a number of books and in the media.
** See John’s full bio.

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The Coming Paradigm Shift in Higher Education (Wall Street Daily, 1/27/12)
The Hidden Dark Agenda of Public Education (the Underground Investor, 1/13/12)
The Hidden Dark Agenda of Public Education (GreenLightAdvisor Views, 1/13/12)
Read more on Sell, For You, Education in the US at Wikinvest