{"id":3500,"date":"2017-09-15T22:27:51","date_gmt":"2017-09-16T02:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/?page_id=3500"},"modified":"2017-09-15T22:45:06","modified_gmt":"2017-09-16T02:45:06","slug":"message-to-grasshoppers","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/?page_id=3500","title":{"rendered":"Message to Grasshoppers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Coach actually told me not to start trading. He thought it would be too stressful and time consuming to have to follow the stock market, manage trades and have a full-time job. Although I totally understood his reservations and concern, I found this to be contradictory to the exact message he was trying to convey to his readers. The only problem is that I had so much confidence in his knowledge, experience, and coaching skills, that I decided to challenge him and myself, start studying and become his first successful student.
\nMy goal is to share lessons that I have learned, and continue to learn, in my limited trading experience as a Grasshopper<\/span><\/a>. I studied for a year, paper traded for a full year and funded my account with $25,000 on January 1, 2017. As the Coach discusses, everyone has their own comfort level when it comes to trading, as you will see. Some paper trade for years before risking real money. Once I familiarized myself with a platform I liked, I started making very basic trades with the relatively small amount of money I put in my account. More of a rule of thumb, than a lesson- don\u2019t invest more money than you can afford to lose. Of course no one likes to lose money. And, trust me, if I lost $25,000, I would be devastated, but it wouldn\u2019t ruin my life. From picking other investors\u2019 brains, I knew it would be a battle to make money on this initial investment, but this is the amount that I felt comfortable with.
\nIt may not be a weekly post, or even monthly, but if I feel like an invaluable lesson was learned during my journey, I will share it and hopefully my struggles can lead to your success.
\nListen to everyone, but heed the advice of a few. Ultimately, it is your money and your decision. Listening, in the literal sense of the word, doesn\u2019t hurt. It\u2019s your actions that have consequences, in trading and in life. Once you learn that lesson, the fear of hearing, \u201cI told ya so\u201d, will dissipate.<\/p>\n

The first lesson I learned is broad, but something your mother has been telling you since kindergarten- Do your homework<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Before delving into \u201chomework\u201d, I think it is important to ascertain what type of trader you want to be. Then you can develop a strategy and approach it accordingly. The Coach\u2019s strategy is to sell Call options for premium. Ideally, he doesn\u2019t like to hold on to a stock for more than a week or two, if even at all. (Despite what some might say, holding any stock is a risk). Without putting a label on it, this might be considered swing trading \u2013 a short term trading method that can be used when trading stocks and options. Positions typically last a few days to two weeks. Day traders open and close positions the same day. An investor will buy a stock and hold on to it for months or even years. This is relevant, because what type of trader you are will dictate many things\u2026even how you plan your day.
\nWhat moves the market? The simple answer is, everything. More specifically: relevant news on a stock, earnings, interest rates, politics, FDA approvals, natural disasters, etc. If you are a buy and hold type of investor, an earnings date might not be as important to you as an active trader. But, regardless, it is important to keep your ears open and your finger on the pulse. Before entering a trade, I research a stock thoroughly. My homework entails checking several websites, gathering as much information as I can. I look at the technical analysis, read what analysts are saying about the stock, look if there were any upgrades or downgrades and if any news just came out. It is also important to be cognizant of what sector your stock is in. The sentiment of an entire sector might affect your one stock and you won\u2019t realize it without doing your homework.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Grasshopper<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Coach actually told me not to start trading. He thought it would be too stressful and time consuming to have to follow the stock market, manage trades and have a full-time job. Although I totally understood his reservations and concern, I found this to be contradictory to the exact message he was trying to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3500","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P75MP0-Us","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3500"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3506,"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3500\/revisions\/3506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mainstbeatswallst.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}