How to Improve Your Long Term Investing & Short Term Trading

Posted by Tyler Bollhorn & Michael Campbell

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Michael Campbell: Tyler Bullhorn who will be speaking at the World Outlook Conference now joins me. Before I ask you a couple of questions Tyler, I want to thank you for your great help with the Money Talks Trading Contest. People can just simply go to MoneyTalks.net and click on the trading contest banner centre column to compete for lucrative prizes inluding 5 – 1 oz Gold Coins from Border Gold, a $2500 rough cut diamond from Indicator Minerals, a $13,320 Salmon Fishing Trip by WestCoast Fishing Club, Silver Jewelry from Teck Corp & 50 1-oz Silver Coins from Endeavour Silver. There is still time to enter and win and I hope people are taking advantage this great way to learn and compete.

Tyler, what are one or two things people do that are big mistakes when they approach the markets?

Tyler Bollhorn: Well of course there’s so many mistakes and most of them revolve around some kind of emotion. But one thing that I think people should take to heart at this time of year in particular is to learn from your mistakes. As you come into a new year, it’s a good time to review the trades that you’ve made and analyze them. I always like to say that the market is cruel because it gives the test first, and the lesson second. Losses are essentially tuition that you paid for and you need to learn from the mistakes you’ve made.

So everyone should at this time of year just go through everything that they did in 2010, analyze it a little bit, and figure out if you’ve got some common problems. People tend to sell their winners too early and hang on to their losers too long. From the lessons that you’ve learned you can modify your trading plan so that you improve your overall performance for 2011.

Michael: And again that’s one of the reasons I like the trading contest, because you get to practice. I’ve learned a lot of things over the years and sometimes I’ve been too slow to learn that’s for sure. I’m always amazed at my ability to learn the same mistake a few times over, and he Trading Contest is a great way to do it. given the only money you have on the line is the $19 entry fee. Besides the instruction you’ll get about how to be successful and the valuable prizes. I look at Jim Dines who has been in the business for five decades who always has his Dinesism’s, which is another way of saying; this is a big mistake I made and this is what I learned from it.

Tyler: I think that the Trading Contest really helps people to learn because you’re doing it.  You’re not just reading it out of a book or talking about it with your friends, you’re actually in there doing it. But the main thing is that you’re not risking your capital when you’re playing a game. And why would you start trading with your real money if you can’t make money in a simulation like we have at the Money Talks Trading Contest, a game that I’m doing here where 100% of the entry fee goes to Special Olympics?

Michael: What are the best trades you’ve made?

Tyler: In the Trading Contest there’s a lot of very short term trading going on. For myself I’ve done about eight trades in the game so far this year in conservative stocks like Ford where I’m up 8% in ten days. In more rocket ship type stocks I’m up 26% on a company called Biodel, symbol BIOD, so far only on a two day hold. The game rewards you for percentage’s gained, but also for the rewards you get for the risks you take. We’ve had some people notch some 100 point scores on relatively short term trades, so  people still have the time to get the 15 trades that they need to do in order to get a full ranking and be eligible for that $5,000 gold prize.

Michael: One of the things that you do in the game is show people entry points and exit points through playing the game. So if someone’s a novice they’re not thrown to the wolves. There’s lots of information on the site thanks to Disnat. Your StockScores.com helps people as well, and that’s the whole point. To learn  your entry points, your exit points and risk control.

Tyler: Yes, we have a leader board posted so you can see the top 20 people in the game, AND you can click on their name and see the trades that they have made, actually see the charts of the trades they have done. Where they entered, where they exited, plus the reward for risk lines that we draw on those charts. So if you’re someone starting out in trading and you maybe don’t know a lot yet, it’s a great learning tool because you can follow some of these great traders across Canada that are really making some superb trades in and out of the market.

Michael: That’s great Tyler, we appreciate your help with it. It’s going to be a great new year and we look forward to seeing you at the World Outlook Conference, in the meantime people can go to www.stockscores.com to enter the Money Talks Trading Contest.