The last few weeks have been a bit frustrating from a trading
standpoint. The market has continued to march steadily higher despite being
overbought and having to deal with breadth and seasonality issues. The most
frustrating thing for intermediate-term growth traders has been the lack of good
setups on the long side in rapidly growing companies breaking out of solid
basing formations. While there have been breakouts, they’ve lacked the buying
enthusiasm you find in a more favorable environment. The choppiness has made it
difficult to stick with many of these trades. Therefore, underinvested is where
I have found myself along with many other intermediate-term growth traders.



What traders need to remember is that they are managing money on an absolute
basis -- not a relative basis. Therefore, there will be times when the market as
measured by the major averages performs well, but your particular strategies
struggle. Just as there will be times that your strategies will perform
wonderfully while the market stinks. If your strategies aren’t working well,
that’s really all you need to know about the market. One of the worst mistakes a
trader can make is to trade too aggressively when the market is moving higher
but your strategies are underperforming. In the case of intermediate-term growth
traders, they will frequently find that the lack of solid setups and the poor
action is a sign of market weakness.



Becoming more aggressive as the market weakens means you will not only
underperform on the way up, but you will likely lose money faster than the
market on the way down. Patience is key. Nobody outperforms the market over
every time period. If you trade only when the odds are favorable and the wind is
at your back, you should perform very well over the long run.



Best of luck with your trading,

Rob

Rob@HannaCapital.com

For those who may be looking to expand their
knowledge beyond just market timing, my
Hanna ETF Money Flow System utilizes the VIX in generating trading
signals for spread trades.

Rob Hanna is the principal of a money
management firm located in Massachusetts. He has spent the last several years
developing and refining methods for trading in stocks across multiple time
frames. He selects stocks using both fundamental and technical criteria, and
then trades them using technical analysis techniques.