Читать книгу Psychological Analysis - Adam Sarhan - Страница 53

Speculators are traders who look for stocks experiencing strong price movement in the market in one direction (either up or down). On average, these traders will likely take a long position in stocks that are moving up and short stocks that are moving down, and they will have a strategic exit point planned for when they sense the ride is over. Stocks seldom experience sustained price movement for long periods of time, so by nature, most speculators tend to take short‐term positions.

At the end of the day, speculators take a view on an opportunity, risk their capital, expect a positive outcome, and manage their risk accordingly. Some trades are profitable, but—and this is important—most are not. That is the reality of this business. The trick is to win big when things go your way and keep your losses small when the market moves against you.

I believe that both investing and speculating are good and healthy for global capital markets. I consider myself both an investor and a speculator, but when I identify opportunities, I make a very clear distinction between investment opportunities and trading opportunities. I apply a different strategy for each and, perhaps more importantly, I don't confuse the two as I execute my strategy. A big part of knowing what mode to operate under (trader or investor) is to understand the time frame during which I'll be trading a particular asset. Another tactic I use is to have different accounts for different strategies. This way I know that one account will be used for trading and another will be used for investing.