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Monday, September 8, 2014

State of the Union

Hello everyone and thank you for visiting my site. So far this past week, I am running 100%, although I will not be staying at 100% because I am not a psychic. However, what I am doing is stacking the deck in my favor by looking at several factors: The technical analysis, the fundamental analysis and the expectations for the stock based on analysts. The latter is one of the most powerful tools that I use because I use it to turn against the crowd.
For example, when I think that the Nasdaq will continue to climb over the next week or two, I look at the earnings calander about 2 and a half weeks out. I then isolate stocks that are expected to earn way above its industry benchmarks and the S+P, and who have had big earnings suprise pops over analysits recommendations three out of the last four quarters. Now right there you have a ticking time bomb. Because the public can see this same information, with a stock like this, 8.5 out of 10 times, this stock will do a two week climb in price leading up to earnings, then if earnings arent spectacular, will sell off. So the contrarian thing to do, (guys like me who trade against the crowd) is to get in right before the two week climb, then ride the stock up as the public begins to pile on more and more, with the majority of the crowd incorrectly piling on the last 3-4 days before earnings, as they see the stock has been climbing, showing up on thier computer screens. I then sell the stock 2 days before earnings before advance insider earnings start to leak out ahead of time and cause price erosion, and take my profit, while the majority of the crowd gets in 2-3 days before earnings and loses thier money when the stock reports and it falls in price. I've said it again and again, people buy on the rumor and sell on the news (providing the news isnt fantastic)
Or, when I think the Nasdaq is going to drop over the next several days, I look at the Earnings Calendar 3-4 days out and look for stocks that have crap deep in the red numbers vs the industry, sector, and s+P with no or very little earnings surprises out of the last 4 quarters. Then I look at its candlestick charts and if I find a stock with these bad numbers climbing over the last several days to a week leading up to its earnings report, then 8 out of 10 times this is a momentum play and its dead wrong. I then sell it short or purchase option puts on it right about at the money or just out side of it, and when it reports, the stock shoots down in price because the earnings. Yes, there is those two times out of 10 that there was an inside play happening where a select group knew about something good coming up and the stock started to rise so then the public started to pile on it as well, but that's only 20% of the time, and thats why in my previous post about burn money, I outlined that you should split up your trading funds into 10-20 piles, and if you find someone that is picking stocks with about a 80% win ratio (such as me) you will make money in the long run even though you lose every now and then. No one is perfect. Shit happens. Its just that the deck is stacked in my favor, much like the deck is stacked in the casino's favor.

Well guys, more picks tommorrow evening, thanks for reading, Until then.

Mark

Friday, September 5, 2014

About the importance of "Burn Money" and an 80% win ratio

Just the other day I watched the Matthew Mcconaughey movie "Two for the Money" (2005) and I noticed that an underlying plot to the movie was something I see in sports betting, the casino, and the stock market.
People don't know how to bet in proportion to their bankroll. In Two for the Money McConaughey's character worked at a national sports betting picking service and pushed his clients to go all in almost all the time with as much as they had. This is a recipe for disaster, because no one is right 100% of the time and there is one scene where one of his clients calls him back from a payphone after he lost everything. I see this at the casino, and I've had friends that bet like this.
For example, I had a friend who started with 2 grand and put all his money into one option play. It worked out and he had 5 grand afterwards. Then he took that 5 grand and used it all for another play. He won and then had 8 grand. He did this several times and then on the 6th time after going all in he lost it all...the option expired worthless. If you have an 80% win rate with your picks in the stock market that means statistically out of 10 times you will win 8 times and lose 2 times. Now in those 10 times you roll the dice, you will not know when the two losers are going to pop up in those 10 different bets. If you bet 100% of your entire pile every time, you will have 100% chance of losing all of your money, as 2 times out of those 10 (providing that you can even keep a 80% win rate) you will lose. I see people pushing it at the casino at the craps or blackjack table and I see people doing this in the stock market. To me, they come off as degenerate gamblers. They are not doing it to actually see a profit, they are actually doing it because they get a rush putting thier money and risking it on the line, it makes them feel alive.
This site is not for the latter. If you need a thrill, go play craps. If you want to profit long term using this site then this is what you do:
First of all I recommend that you separate your money into 10, preferably 15 or 20 different piles. Then pick a site online or trade for yourself with your broker but no matter what site you decide on using, only use 1 pile per pick. Now if you have done your reasearch and you can find a site that you feel has a winning record of 70% plus, and you only use 1/10 or 1/15 or 1/20 of your money per pick, this means in the long run, you are going to make money. You will be able to absorb hits every now and then. Also not every loss is going to be a total loss, as most sites will not allow the option trade to expire worthless. If I see my trade is going wrong during the excepted time window I do things in, I cut my losses and take the loss, very rarely is the loss total, but some fraction thereof.
I am an armchair theorist first, I do extensive research into a system because I never jump in first and then figure things out: I am not a risky gambler. As a matter of fact, I dislike putting my money at risk. However, you have to endure risk in order to realize profit or loss. Risk is a part of life. In order to have an extrordinary life you can't play it safe. If you do you will have a boring little uninspired life.
It took me about 10 years to come up with this contrarian style of trading. I learned the basics first from Contrarian trading experts from the 70's and 80's and through trial and error, I learned what works in the market and what doesnt work. And believe me, most things dont work as the expert traders in the market have attemped to make trading an insider club to the fullest extent of the law in order to make money off the masses. There are timing aspects that I follow in order to compensate for this and also this helps me to trade against the crowd in the market. The crowd often is wrong, I find these situations where the crowd is wrong, and I take advantage of it. Again, to see some of the things I went through with the market during the time it took me to learn how to trade, you can watch the below video. Its about 20 min long, and yes, the production value is pretty low, but the information that is contained in it is priceless and will save you about 10 years of grief in your learning curve at how to make money in the market:



                                       

About Burn Money

Imagine walking up to a craps table with 500 dollars in your pocket. You have a system for winning at the table and you figured that with the fluctuations and standard deviation that occurs at the table 500 dollars should cover it. The only problem is that it is your last 500 dollars or close to it. 
You start to play and you are hitting a cool streak and your bankroll is now down to 390 dollars. Because you don't have much money, you start to worry about the 390 dollars you have left. You start thinking about your rent. How you could use the money for other things you need around the house. About your water and light bill. This causes you to start locking up and slow down your betting, thus defeating the system that you use at the craps table. Your money works its way down to 350 and you get cold feet and decide that you can't risk this money, that you must be nuts risking this valuable money. 
What just happened here is that you went and gambled money that you couldn't afford to lose. This in turn caused further loss because instead of letting the standard deviation play out ( letting the money swing up and down continue) you cut it off at 350 dollars. The deviation swing if allowed to continue playing could have continued down to 200 dollars but then could have swung back up past 500 dollars to eventual profit. But since you truely needed the money for other things, you stopped in the middle of a downswing in the deviation and walked with a loss.
Burn money is a concept where the 500 dollars you have with you to gamble you can afford to light on fire. You can only gamble if your rent is paid, your bills are paid, and everything that you need for the most part is satisfied.
Furthermore Burn Money also is replaceable money if needed. Say you lose the 500 dollars. Do you have the means to throw another 500 dollars at it? Then another 500 dollars if necessary THAT is the concept here of burn money. What this does is loosen you up when you are gambling it, thus providing the intelligent gambler and easier ride up and down the standard deviation, preventing you from tightening up and gambling in fear, causing a restrictive and fear based form of gambling that almost always loses.
Again, gamble in your means, and it is always luxury money. Money you had left over on the side and money you can afford to lose. Never gamble off of a credit card, never gamble your rent or utility money, have a replaceable stream of income for your gambling activities. 

More to come and have a nice weekend, more picks on Sunday.

Mark

Thursday, September 4, 2014

Well guys, apparently I am MONEY

Im just kicking ass and taking names. I sold Shoe Carnival a win and that pharmaceutical stock I bounced over night for a big W. This contrarian thing really works. What is a Contrarian trader? Go to some of my previous posts. Also go to the Sandbox and watch some of my cartoon storyboard videos. Their production isnt too slick but their message is dead on and WILL make you RICH IF FOLLOWED TO THE LETTER>you have to do the opposite of what the trading crowd does. More pics to come: right now Im stepping out and spending some of my cash. This Winter Im going to Vail Colorado and renting a lodge. Stoked! Come back tomorrow for more.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

Todays midday Pick

I love pharmacuetical stocks,  because the public is almost always wrong. Case in point, INFI. Just had a lot of cash thrown at it by ABBVIE in order to be thier partner when thier anti cancer drug hits the market.
IF it hits the market, as in if the FDA approves the drug. If it doesnt approve the drug, then the stock is dead in the water. Abbvie took a risk in order to get to the front of the line and be there first in case the drug does get approved. Below are some clippets of the article:

Today, Infinity (NASDAQ: INFI) has announced a big deal with AbbVie (NYSE: ABBV), which has agreed to shell out as much as $805 million to help the Massachusetts biotech get its drug through clinical development.

As in, they don't know. It might not ever come to market. And some more: 

AbbVie will pay Infinity $275 million up front to grab rights to duvelisib, and has attached another $530 million in potential milestones to the deal. In return—assuming duvelisib makes it through clinical development and wins FDA approval—the two companies will co-commercialize duvelisib and share U.S. profits. Outside the U.S., AbbVie will own rights to the drug and will cover commercialization costs, with Infinity getting royalties on net sales ranging from 23.5 percent to 30.5 percent.
Inifinity will fund the trials it conducts, while the two companies will equally share the costs in the trials run by AbbVie. The two aim to run several mid- and late-stage trials testing duvelisib over the next several years in a variety of blood cancers. Duvelisib is currently in Phase 3 testing for patients with relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), with another Phase 3 study testing duvelisib in tandem with rituximab (Rituxan) in follicular lymphoma expected to begin later this year. Infinity is also running a Phase 1 trial for duvelisib in patients with other advanced blood cancers as well.

As in, they really hope this happens. They have to be approved for Phase 3 Testing, then they have to go through Phase 4 testing. Maybe it will get approved. Maybe it wont. Maybe something will come up.

While it’s unclear at this point just where Infinity’s drug will fit into the crowded field, AbbVie is showing today that it believes duvelisib will find a niche.
“We believe that duvelisib is a very promising investigational treatment based on clinical data showing activity in a broad range of blood cancers,” said AbbVie executive vice president and chief scientific officer Michael Severino. “The addition of duvelisib will complement AbbVie’s emerging oncology pipeline and expand our research into combination therapies to generate improved outcomes for cancer patients. We look forward to working with Infinity to bring duvelisib to patients worldwide.”
RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee added in a note to investors this morning that the AbbVie deal puts “a stamp of validation” on Infinity.

As you read the above, it also mentions that the field is becoming very crowded with the anti cancer drug from other companies. Plus, this might not make it through all 4 Phases of testing by the FDA. 

So this is an example of how the 'crowd' is wrong. Look at the last sentence two paragraphs up. " RBC Capital Markets analyst Michael Yee added in a note to investors this morning that the AbbVie deal puts "a stamp of validation" on Infinity." 

TRANSLATION: This puts an emotional spin on this stock that is not based in fact as of yet, but more optimistic hope for the future, priced right in the stock.

It is my belief that the trading crowd will come to its senses in the next several days and realize that this stock is only in Phase 3 of testing and it will be a while before this drug treatment, if even approved, will make any money. Therefore, if am buying put options on this stock, specifically the October 14's. I went an extra month out due to the fact I believe this will be close to a week before the stock starts to drift back down to more realistic levels.

Dont forget to go to the sandbox to get the exact orders.

Happy Trading,
Mark


Update 9/3/14

Ok, guys, shoe carnival is going up a bit and it is going to announce tonight. I dont like the fact that its still rising. If it was going to have a crap earnings report, advance leakage would have already gotten out to insiders and the stock should have already started to drift down. We are just going to have to wait and see what this stock does tomorrow, as it is not going to announce today until after close. So far our option is down by about half, but could easily bounce back tomorrow if the stock is down due to poor or lackluster earnings. This is exactly why you need two things, burn money, and separate piles of money, I recommend having 10 to 20 stacks of money for your trading and only use one stack at a time, as I am running about an 80% success ratio for my picks.
I am now going to look at the lists for today to see if there are any bounce plays opportunities for today, and if there are, I will post my pick within the hour.

Stay Frosty,
Mark

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Today we sold FRAN for a profit, picked up Shoe Carnival Options

Well, today we unloaded Fran. We purchased our option at .95 last week and today we sold the contracts for 1.45. We are also shorting/put buying Shoe Carnival today as they are going to report tomorrow. Looking foward to making some cash, more picks to come.

Mark