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Stock market analysts don't exist to tell you want to 'buy', 'sell' or 'hold'

Image result for STOCK ANALYSTMaybe the best thing I’ve read this week is today’s column by Matt Levine on stock market research analysts and what they’re really doing.

You might think their job is to give investors advice on which stocks to buy, sell and hold. You would be wrong, as Levine explains:

Here are two models of sell-side equity research.

Model 1

  • Sell-side analysts are in the business of finding out what stocks will go up and then telling you.
  • They tell you to Buy stocks that will go up, Hold stocks that will stay flat (why?), and Sell stocks that go down.
  • You believe them, and do that.
  • Sometimes they lie to you, but it is always a shock when they do.

Model 2 

  • Sell-side analysts are in the business of helping institutional investors get access to corporate management teams.
  • They flatter management teams by giving most companies good ratings, to maintain access.
  • They help their clients, because investors who meet with management tend to outperform investors who don’t.
  • The clients aren’t too worried about the Buy/Sell/Hold stuff.

… “If you believe that the job of a sell-side analyst is to tell people which stocks to buy and which ones to sell, you need to stop believing that right now, because it is not true.”

He goes on to detais how analyst ratings basically exist to flatter management so those analysts can then set up meeting between large institutional managers and top executives.

Some examples of Overconfidence

  • OverConfidenceA person who thinks his sense of direction is much better than it actually is. The person could show his overconfidence by going on a long trip without a map and refusing to ask for directions if he gets lost along the way. 
  • A person who thinks he is much smarter than he actually is. The person could show his overconfidence by not studying for his SATs, ending up with a lower score than he could otherwise have received. 
  • A person who thinks he has a photographic memory and a detailed understanding of a subject. The person could show his overconfidence by deciding not to study for a test that he has to take on the subject, thus doing poorly on the test due to lack of preparation. 
  • A person who thinks he is invaluable to his employer when almost anyone could actually do his job. The person might show his overconfidence by coming in late to work because he thinks he is never going to get fired, or by being overly demanding about getting a raise and threatening to quit if he doesn’t get his way. 
  • A person who thinks his spouse or partner will never ever leave because he or she loves him too much. The person might try to take advantage of the spouse or partner due to the overconfidence, thus driving the spouse away.  (more…)

Trading Wisdom – Paul Tudor Jones

Paul Tudor Jones
Turned $1.5 million into $300 million in five years
“That cotton trade was almost the deal breaker for me. It was at that point that I said, “Mr. Stupid, why risk everything on one trade? Why not make your life a pursuit of happiness rather than pain?”
I had to learn discipline and money management. I decided that I was going to become very disciplined and businesslike about my trading. I spend my day trying to make myself as happy and relaxed as I can be.
If I have positions going against me, I get right out; if they are going for me, I keep them. I am always thinking about losing money as opposed to making money. Risk control is the most important thing in trading. I keep cutting my position size down as I have losing trades.

(more…)

Six steps for Traders

  • Define the question
  • gather information and resources
  • form hypothesis
  • perform experiment and collect data
  • analyze data
  • interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for a new hypothesis.

1. Define the question: What is it exactly that you are trying to achieve? Are you shooting for high returns with high risk, long term gains with minimal risk, day trading, swing trading, position trading? Are you trying to make enough money to buy a new car or enough to buy a yacht? First define what it is that you want out of your trading!

2. Gather information and resources: What will be the best route to achieve your trading goals? Are you going to be a stock trader, a futures trader, a forex trader? Maybe everything? Doing the necessary research and taking the time to really get to know your market/markets is absolutely key to successful trading. Some people make great futures traders but horrible stock traders and vice-versa, while others are able to dabble in a little bit of everything and be successful. One way to see what fits you best is to try trading a little bit of everything and see where you feel the most comfortable. Start with small accounts and see what fit is a good one for you.

3. Form hypothesis: This is the fun part and where you get to design your “system” or “rules” by which to trade. Does your trading hypothesis revolve around chart patterns, trendlines, support and resistance, or are you more of a numbers kind of person that trades strictly off price? Do you use indicators? Maybe you are a programmer that has developed an algorithm. Whatever it is I believe it is important to form a hypothesis and then… (more…)

10 most common biases affecting the psychology of investing

Read on below for our list of the 10 most common biases affecting the psychology of investing.

 
 

1) Anchoring & Adjustment:  This combination occurs when initial information unduly influences decisions by shaping the view of subsequent information.  Once the “anchor” or initial information is set, there exists a bias for interpreting other information around the anchor.  Car salesmen frequently use this tactic when presenting an initial sales price, making the subsequent negotiated prices seem lower than the initial price even though they are still higher than what the vehicle is actually worth.
 
2) Attribution Asymmetry:  The concept here involves people’s tendency to attribute success to internal characteristics (such as talent and innate abilities) and to attribute failures to external factors (like simple bad luck).  Research has shown the reverse to be true when evaluating the successes and failures of others.  The lesson here is most valuable when you hit a “hot streak.”  When you experience speed bumps, don’t be quick to write them off as poor luck – there could be a fundamental problem with your strategy.
 
3) Choice-Supportive Bias:  By distorting recollections of chosen courses of action versus the rejected courses of action, people tend to make the chosen outcomes seem more attractive that the foregone ones.  Just as people more frequently remember “good” memories than they do “neutral” or “bad” memories, the belief that “I chose this option therefore it must have be superior” can lead to a false recollection of the ultimate outcome.  Learn from your mistakes – don’t forget them.
 
4) Cognitive Inertia:  This is just psychological speak for the unwillingness to change thought patterns in light of new circumstances.  Quite simply, do your homework and keep up on your investments.  If a company slashes guidance, for example, perhaps you should consider altering your investment accordingly. (more…)

Madame Market

If you have the feeling that the market has a split personality, one day out to shower you with peace and blessings and the other to punish mercilessly, it can only mean that on some level you are still taking it personally.

Think of it this way – there are too many players with too many conflicting ideas about market direction for it to ever form one cohesive personality. The only exception I have witnessed to this rule is when fear clearly dominates the scene, and ironically these are times that are the easiest to trade.

The highest attainment for a traders developing psychology is to achieve what has been called “intellectual purity” – that is the state free from emotional reactiveness to market behavior; the ability to accept both reward and punishment with equanimity and understanding.

That said, we know that big players perform ‘market sweeps’ to take out stops at sitting duck levels, so we can at least attempt to protect against that. The main point though is to struggle against any dimly forming impression of the market being a single entity with a personality.

That is an illusion.