THE TREND IS YOU FREIND AND OPERANT CONDITION IS YOUR ENEMY

[#1]

The market is not a place for pithy aphorims. While they may sound true and sagacious for everyone of them there is an equally true and sometimes even more useful saying. So the trend is your friend but it can also turn on you and if you have problems in being able to identify a trend and apply the correct timeframes to it it can be rapacious ennemy. I speak from experience here when I talk about operant conditioning (being constantly rewarded for doing one thing and being punushed for doing the opposite...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operant_conditioning..). As traders we sometime do not believe the trend change when it has already happened and we do things like "buy the dips" or "average down" because thats what has worked for so long. Make sure you can identify a trend as much as a trend change. Im so sick of people saying you cant call tops or bottoms...or time the market...its what we are paid to do as traders....dont make it out as if there is anything wrong with it....rather identify whether you can do it or not.

[HungryPunter]

Good post.

[Fredsed]

Usual self promoting copycat irrelevance. Wow, he looks intelligent? Complete with his own admiration. Meanwhile he been waiting a year for his short to arrive, and goes chest thumping berserk at every dip in the ongoing bull trend. Tut tut Bonzo. Get real.

[Russ]

Here's a good one-don't buy the dips if you haven't got the chips.Think about it.

[Rams]

And don't put your chips anywhere else but in the dips!