Maybe it's time you get a MAC. I did and I run Parallels for all of my Windows stuff. Awesome!!! The built-in camera even works for 6' 7" people like yourself!

Maybe it's time you get a MAC. I did and I run Parallels for all of my Windows stuff. Awesome!!! The built-in camera even works for 6' 7" people like yourself!

Hey Jeff:
I do not think you have to worry about the blog traffic. The reason you are not seeing excitement is that a lot of people are afraid and confused.

The Blog is excellent, You could ask for everybody's email and send a link every time you post a new recommendation.



David s

Hey Jeff

I wouldn't take it personally, speaking for myself - my trading has dried up while I wait for the market to figure out what it's gonna do - I've been holiday-ing. I'm sure that's all that is going on with the blog. We still love you and think it's great here!
As for recommendations - I would love to know more on pattern and candlestick analysis. I've read the archives and you had mentioned you would do more - it is time Jeff!
David's idea was fantastic also!

Thx
Happy Trading!!

Jodi
Canuck

Jeff,

Love the blog. Love the video, images are better than text, but like recommendations over nothing :-)

Possible improvement suggestions - What is a condor? More thoughts on what you think the market will do (direction and size of moves and why). Not so much to see if right, but to understand your thinking.

I have not been posting because I am still getting over the burn from last week. I am watching as my march calls slowly climb back to 50% value and am mentally focusing on when to sell (market up last couple days vs. time running short on these options).

My account needs to climb back up...

Positions taken in a past few days:

Long GT, RSH, UNP

Short Teva, MA, ADBE, SNDK, CME

Stocks - NM and APKT

Between this blog and the cast, I'm sure many of you are tracking some of these as well.

Not recommending anything (a bit gun shy after last week), just sharing my thinking

Hi Jeff,

You're blog is great - and I love that you give us a lot of trades to pick from. I would like us to focus on exit strategies as well. Maybe some of the trades that you take you can give a review each day on if you would stay in or not. I must not be a good "exiter" as I take the same trades you post on the blog, but yet consistently am losing money in my account. I know it depends on the type of trader you are as to what exit strategy you use, but I would like to see your perspective. What causes you to exit a trade? Unfortunately it is not as easy as reaching your target or breaking your stop point. I know this because those are the rules I trade by and they are not working for me. I am very discouraged as I spent $30,000 on investools, and it has been 6 months of trading with nothing but consistent losses. I am position sizing as I should (not risking more than 2% on each trade) - I am doing everything I have been taught as a PHD student, but still something is not working for me. Please help if you can on some exit strategies.

Hi Jeff,
It's been awhile since I posted but I am a faithful reader of your blog and all the wonderful comments posted by other addicts. Don't worry, you are still loved even know the traffic is slow. I agree that most traders are still in shock from last weeks crush.
I survived it well with 2 puts and 1 call on Radioshack (RSH) which was the only of the day last Tuesday, and still moving higher.

I agree get a MAC!! they're the best. I've been at advanced options w/stacey in L.a. but am always with the blog in spirit.

What do you think about FFIV for a bearish trade?

Sarah
Santa Fe,NM

Are you kidding?!! I read this blog everyday, sometimes a couple of times a day. I just rarely post, still am learning and sometimes (most of the time) I feel like anonymous'post. Trying to do things right, but consistently losing money. I seem to have to paralysis of analysis and when I do pull the trigger it's always the trade I didn't take that's the winner and not mine!!!!!!! Oh well, I am determined to get it right and not lose all my money in the process.

Debbie

Jeff,

Just another silent blog supporter saying thanks.

I find it amazing that you spend so much time on this, in addition to your normal work - and the recent personal commitments you have. Congratulations by the way.

I don't know that you realize how helpful this blog really is to new traders.

I agree with everyone else about the reasons for slow traffic. I was kicked out of all of my trades during the correction, and am struggling with getting back in again.

Thanks again.

Jeff M.

Jeff,
I have been re-evaluating as well and looking to fine tuning my rules over the past week. Also was with Sarah and others at the Adv Options past two days. I met a couple other blog fans among the 300+ that were there so I think you have a good strong following. Currently, I have been stopped out of all but one position (CAL) as I adopted the move my stop up a $1 Dave Johnson style and so a couple of put stopped out this week.
Jeff, the videos are great, your picks are great and I think some of us just thought give the guy a break he just had kid number three. Oh and we are still hurting a bit.
I think it is great the openness that people are sharing here and up until last week Pam and I thought we where just getting it. Eban Tuesday told me that I was behind and that I should have made that $30,000 back and boy I sure have been trying but now it is $37,000! Then he tried to sell me the active investing, which my rules for Investools are no more until I learn what I have in front of me and am profitable. Oh and I met a guy who was "pushed" (his word) into currency before he even started trading real money and now is very frustrated as in his view it took him away from what he original goal was...
Bob H.
CA

Jeff,
As a frequent blogger I'll ditto mostly all of the comments so far. Anonymous' comments ring very true to me about it taking a while to get the hang of things. It's a constant fine-tuning and redifining (as with a huge 25% loss to my meager account from last week's dip). Still plugging away though and rely heavily on the blog.
Becareful for what you wish for...taking it to the "next level" sounds like a potentially more time consuming investment.
My suggestions are:
1. keep up the video
2. have an "affordable trade of the week" with a less than $1,000 investment trade (preferrably around $500 since my account is down so much)
3. Also have an audio file that we can click on where you spend 5 minutes responding to the blog questions that have been posted.

But, codo's again for what you are already doing.

Gary
Boston

I'm also an avid blog reader, but I don't post often. My husband and I have been in Investools since April 06, and we are now FINALLY starting to recoup the initial cost of the 21K tuition. This is of course after we lost ANOTHER 10K making stupid "real money" trades when we were only a few months into the program. Even though the instructors all say "papertrade first" does anyone really do that? After taking Basic Options, we knew just enough to be dangerous, but not enough to be profitable! It wasn't until after the 3 day live that we truly understood risk management. We didn't let our winners run long enough to make up for our small losses. Also, the commissions we were paying on trading one contract ($26 per trade at OptionsXpress) ate away our capital. Thank God for TOS!!!

Bob, whether or not you've made back the inital cost of the program depends on your trading capital. Someone with a large account could make 30K back in one trade. But if you are only trading a 10 or 20K account like me, then it's highly unlikely to make a 300% return in your first year of trading. So who are you "behind" the guy trading a million-plus dollar account?

Strat, a condor is an advanced option stragegy. I like iron condors which is two OTM credit spreads:one above and one below.

Long: pcp, de
short: otm march bear call spreads on cme, goog, ffiv, oex, crox

Love the blog, love the videos, enjoy the charts and you picks early in the week. Just been too busy to comment with work, but I am here everyday.

Thanks, for all your efforts!!!

Gray Mac

Jeff,

I took the lack of traffic on the blog as a sign of respect to you and your family. I am sure everyone felt you needed time to adjust to another child and to have uninterupted time to bond with the new baby. I was quite impressed that nobody posted on the blog for days even though I can assure you we all checked multiple times per day (at least I did). Anyway, it is nice to have you back.
I know all or nearly all of us lost significant money after "Black Tuesday" which was hard to predict. What I got out of it was to more evenly allocate money to calls AND puts and to not completely rely on mental stops.
I also wanted to respond to the paper trading topic. I paper traded for about 14 months (yes, 14), which I now know is a mistake. There are certain liberties you take with paper money that you don't with real money no matter now hard you justified your paper techniques. I am much more conservative with real money and much more focused. So, my advice is paper trade for up to 4-6 months but you have to get in the game. I have been told to expect to lose money at first and I have lived up to that. I was up until the 416 point loss on the Dow and my loss was my fault. I learned though and do not plan to repeat my mistakes.
This blog is invaluable and if we all keep at it, as we all improve, and with Jeff's help, I truly believe we can make money. Let's just hope Jeff's next child does not have the same effect on the market!!

Sean M.
CA

Great job on the blog. You do so much for all of us. The only way it could be better is if we could give you our account #'s. Also if any of your picks are losers if you could give us an insurance policy so we could get back our losses.

It is sometimes hard to not ask WWJD sometimes.

What has worked for me is at the start of my tradeing I traded in a paper account and traded alot. Take the trades that look good, take the ones that look bad,AND WRITE IT ALL DOWN. If you can have 20 paper trades rolling at one time you will lose alot of money in the paper account. You will also see what works and what doesn't.

I went on a losing streak about 3 months ago (real money) and closed all of my positions. Then only took the ones I was certain on, IE After the bounce, after the retest and bounce. I had very conservitive goals and just tried hitting every ball for a profit. After about 15 trades I was more confident to streach my entrys and exits out again and be able to take small losses.

Mike Drew talked about learning how to trade like learning to drive a car. An experianced trader sees things the novice doesn't and slows down. Last Monday night I saw the dow at support and doubled 3 of my positions. Took a big spanking the next day. Looking back I can now see how extended I was at a time when alot of people and instuctors were talking about caution. My mistake. I love the feeling the other day though, when everyone at work was talking about how far down the dow was going and LEND and NDE were making me $$$$.

Thanks again for the blog.

Tom DeGroodt
DeGroodtt@qconline.com

I sure enjoy the community on this blog. So often I read a post and think, "Yup, me too." The thread today on struggling with trading is a perfect example. I feel like I'm well on the road to making every trading mistake possible, first in paper trades and now with the real account. It's rare that I've hit the sweet spot on a trade but the couple times it's happened it sure is rewarding.

For me anyway, there seems to be an unavoidable learning step that is only won with experience and real losses. The learning process is certainly accelerated with the help of mentors, instructors and community on this blog.

We'll keep rolling along and working our way closer to those goals of (very) profitable trading.

Mike - Seattle

Jeff,
You are doing great. I really enjoy reading the blog as well as all the comments from other readers.
Last week we were leaking our wound.
I am long on JWN, MHK, HUM
short on NFLX.

Thanks for all your efforts.

Janine

Hey Jeff,

As you know I usually send you direct emails but will be happy to communicate on the blog. Like many I look at your blog every day--sometimes more often and frequently replay your videos. By listening to you and your assesments of charts it has given me new perspectives. I hope to have the "sight" that you have some day when looking at the charts. After a year of trading I'm about even. Not where I'd hoped to be but am grateful the learning process has not cost me more than the money spent at Investools. I consider it money well spent but like others would like to earn the money back spent on education.

You're doing a great job and as you can tell by all the comments you've got a lot of fans out here. And so does Jordan!

Suzanne

jeff,
this community is great. i check it often and leave my thoughts when i can. you do an awesome job and its a pleasure sharing and joining with other like minded professionals. thx
brendan
ca

I hope CME crashes, burns, and fries today....Maybe then I will remove the noose around my neck!!!

PCP did real well for me..anyone else?? Time to let the market give back what it took from us last week....

Following my theme of yesterday maybe some of you that have made back your Investools investment could share some of how you did it. If that is ok with Jeff and the blog rules. I plan to be a huge cheerleader for Investools once I get enough eductaion to be profitable and know I am on that path. Looks like SPX keeps hitting that magic 1400! Since I just heard Stacy I am paper trading her index options system one contract at a time and so far the rules are working for me (all of one day though). I have not back tested yet.
Cheers, and I am LONG on a great weekend.
Bob H.
CA

Jeff,

Your blog has been a tremendous help for me. I really didn't have an understanding of how to spot price patterns in a chart before I started reading your blog. Ever day I read your blog I get better with my technical analysis and trading. I can't express how much help you have been for me.

Bob S.

I find myself drawing trendlines to cause stocks to move a certian way, as if my trendline has any influence. I have even tried using my pointer to cause a stock to go one way or another, as if trying to drag a stock pirce up or down...and at times have even yelled at my computer screen. Anyone else try this strategy??