Welcome to 2009...

First and foremost, Happy New Year to everyone. With 2008 officially over, I am eagerly waiting to see what 2009 will have in store for us. Despite how difficult 2008 appeared to be, it offered traders plenty of opportunities to make a decent return. It all depended how long your time frame was and how patient you were. Traders with shorter time frames were given thousands of opportunities to make a killing with an over excited VIX and many ultra ETF's that could have mimicked a double or even triple percentage move in a major index. And for patient traders, there were several opportunities to take advantage of, such as Oils climatic top (remember PDO and TGC, anyone?) and several bounces in the market which led to small rallies in battered stocks such as F, GM, TSN, TTM, etc. If anyone had taken advantage of these situations and sat tight during the downturns, you could and SHOULD have made at least some sort of profit. And when I mean "sit tight", I really mean that you shouldn't be trading at all during certain market periods where the indices are plummeting and the VIX is steadily rising. And above all, you shouldn't be trading when there aren't any good stocks out there that are setting up strong bases and chart patterns. Of course, this logic does not apply to day trading. In day trading, you may always find some sort of hidden chart pattern under the microscopic lens of a 5 or 10 minute chart. But you better be quick and nimble and out of there ASAP. I don't day trade. And I am not knocking it. If you like day-trading and are good at it, by all means, continue doing it. I realized that it wasn't my style. I always ended up over-trading and missing out on the bigger moves when I tried day trading. I then realized that I was better off as an opportunistic, longer term trader. I don't mind sitting on a position for weeks, months or even a year, as long as it delivers me a killer return and profit. It isn't rocket science or anything. I just cut my losses in my laggard stocks and add more funds to my top performing positions. I also let my winners run. You know what they say about Rome. Big profits aren't made in a day either. I plan to continue my new strategy into 2009. Why? Because it works. I don't care if the market tanks and there isn't a good stock in sight. I'll wait, days, weeks or months for a decent stock or two to surface. And when it does, better believe that I'll be all over it, taking maximum advantage of the situation.