THOUGHT FOR FRIDAY 6 JUNE 2008
From top share author MALCOLM STACEY
Hello Crazies,
Timing is probably the most important thing about buying, selling and holding shares. But it's the hardest thing to get right.
Ideally, we should all sell at the top of the price range and buy at the bottom. Very few people achieve this more than a few times in a lifetime.
I can count the number of occasions I've sold at exactly the right time on the fingers of one hand. And gang, I do trade an awful lot of shares.
Buying at the bottom is even more difficult. You know what nearly always happens. We buy when we think the share can fall no further. It just ain't possible. And the minute the deal is done, the stocks get even cheaper. It's hugely annoying.
But if we wait too long to buy, the bottom stage goes past in a flash and we're forced to buy the share at a higher price than it was yesterday.
How can we judge when the time is right to buy and the time is due to sell? Well, I look for channels. If a share is near the top of the same high it seems to reach time and time again, before falling, I sell then. And if the share is approaching the same bottom it's reached many times before , I choose that time to buy the stock.
Sadly, not all shares have fairly fixed high and low marks, but many of them have. I search Sharecrazy. com for those little beauties. It means a lot of studying of graphs.
Of course, as soon as I spot the targets they sometimes change a long-lasting habit and alter their channels. But you can't win em all. Just win slightly more than you lose, and you'll do very well. Rocking on.
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