Introduction

http://www.actwin.com/kalostrader/

I have been trading mutual funds and stocks for quite some time, with various degrees of success and/or sophistication - see the introduction on the site.

Can anybody remember what it was like before the internet and personal computers?  How did people compute moving averages?  How did they trade? How did people get to Bethesda without their on-board navigation systems? Does anybody remember the typewriter?

Internet is a vast resource, as well as a pitfall and a temptation, causing large changes in our lives.

Horrible Advice from Motley Fool - it never occurs to those guys to look at a chart.

Warnings, perhaps from Morningstar, about "Chasing Hot Funds", which usually amount to point out that what did well last year may not have done will this year.

A warning flag:  Somebody gives a presentation and says "for the ordinary investor...".  Do you want to be ordinary?

Mechanical Investing (or Mechanical Hibernation, as I call it) at the Motley Fool, with fixed holding times.  Trading should be event-driven, not calendar-driven.

Rebalancing

From Suze:  Question 1: Pick the better investment:

A.  A super sexy tech stock that gains 80 percent in one year and then loses 50 percent the next year.

B.  A snorer stock that gains 5 percent in one year and then gains another 5 percent the next year.

"Research has shown..."

The idea that trading = speculation or gambling.

The Efficient Market Hypothesis, which "proves" you cannot do better than an index fund.

Brokerage houses that sell a product (e. g. a mutual fund) instead of a service (e. g. trading ability).

TV Shows tout stocks, but they never tell you when or under what circumstances you should sell, or worse yet they pick stocks "for this year."

Nevertheless, the individual small trader has an advantage over the large institutions because he can trade without influencing the market.

Individual has all of the tools and technical indicators readily available.

Access to web-based brokerage services which are both efficient and cheap.

Very little on the site or in this presentation is original with me, and I am not an expert.

Resources at FT-Talk.

Various other sites (see the links).

I still consider myself a novice.