Choosing the right mentor

Just like what a wise creature from a galaxy far, far away once said, there is always an apprentice and a master or mentor. That is the way things work in the universe, wherever you may come from.

In the current stock market setting, multiple mentors have come up in the hopes of guiding or showing newbies the way to profits or even just respectable trading. These mentors have come in all shapes and sizes. 

Given the variety of choices, how do you choose which mentor is the right one? Well, here is a simple analogy on how my mainframe chose to be mentored by the entity known as Zeefreaks. I'll make it easier for the basketball loving fans out there, let's say you were given a choice of being mentored by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs or Phil Jackson of the Chicago Bulls/LA Lakers and now NY Knicks.

Here is a list of their achievements:

Gregg Poppovich 5 time NBA champion 3 time NBA coach of the year

Phil Jackson 11 time NBA champion 1 time NBA coach of the year

It looks like a tough decision huh? Like choosing apples and oranges as they say. One doesn't seem to be so different from the other. Both of them are extremely and highly qualified. Their achievements speak for themselves. So they passed the first criteria. Moving on to the next checklist.


Here is a list of their NBA tree (a list of general managers and coaches in the NBA who have trained with either one):

Gregg Poppovich

Phil Jackson

Click the images for a better view

As you can see, the NBA tree of Coach Pop is much more diverse and it's branches have reached to almost a third of the NBA teams. That is quite an achievement! As for Phil's tree, it doesn't look to have too many branches. There seems to be something that limits the passing on of his success to others. 

This trait is what my mainframe puts more weight on. A good mentor should not just be good and inspiring and all that. They should also be able to train people to replicate their success. For what is the point of following or learning from a mentor if you are left in the same state as you were in before following them. The best mentors should take you under their wing and help you to take flight by yourself. 

This is why I think the ZF system stands out from all the rest. There have only been several batches yet the number of successful students have been increasing with the passage of time. We may not have achieved ZF or Kap's level of consistency or foresight but we have all been taught to stand on our own. And I know for a fact that we will continue on our journey in the stock market. Some of us even turning into mentors for new batches as well. 

And that is the mark of an excellent mentor.

Enter the Double Dragon: DD

This stock has always been on my cross-hairs ever since it's IPO, back in my pre-charting days. Only problem was my cyborg unit was never able to get any shares. Back then, because of my lack of knowledge on how to enter a winning trade, I could only watch as it moved from strength to consolidation to strength again.

Fast forward to the present, I am now better equipped with the tools and weapons to get into stocks like these. And here is a short breakdown of the trade I did.

3.2.2016

Having made a clear breakout from the all time high, I made my entry right at the breakout point.

Just adjusted my trail stops for each day and watched as the it made new highs every day. Once the stop was hit, I sold for a good profit. 

3.14.2016 (Round 2)

After consolidating at the highs for a couple days, it made another breakout and I struck again. But I was more cautious this time since my average was now higher. 

This time I didn't sell because of a trail stop but because I saw a doji candle at the top plus the fact that the psychological target of 40 seemed to be too hard to break. 

So I wasn't able to sell at the highest price but it was a good two rounds. It's still consolidating right now so who knows, maybe there could be a round 3. 

Funnymentals

There are two schools of thought in the stock market. The fundamentalists vs the technicians. In the past, my cyborg unit used to try it's hand in dabbling in fundamentals. 

It would wait or hope for corporate disclosures, earnings reports, news of acquisitions and buyouts. Even speculate on backdoor operations. All in the hope of catching the next big move. 

How it felt before while waiting for those disclosures 

Well, it was all a spectacular fail. Why? Because even if there were disclosures and others that did come out, my cyborg unit couldn't make heads or tails on what it all meant or how it would impact a stock's prices. I mean honestly, how many people out there really understand how all the computations or news will affect a stock? 

Would it be a sell on news? 

Buy on news? 

Or no reaction?

Just like playing heads or tails. 

I'm not saying that these do not work. There are people out there who make money being fundamentalists. Kudos to them! Unfortunately, I am not one of those people. So I switched tactics and learned how to be a technician. From one of the best. 

So after having been trained in the ZF system, the results were tremendous. Just being focused on the chart would tell you if there was accumulation being done or if a big move was imminent. How to set your own target prices or trail stops and more importantly, setting and following cutlosses.

Nowadays, whenever I see, hear or read about people trying broker analysis or stay up late to watch how the US index performs or even some who look at the prices of commodities like gold/nickel/silver etc or those who keep hoping for earnings disclosure, I can't help but feel that I made the right choice. Because why should I use up important energy and resources in monitoring too many things that are beyond my control? Looking and worrying about all those external forces each and every day could lead to analysis paralysis. 

So now I just stick to the charts. Sometimes it's the simple things that are the best. IT certainly helps this robot to power down peacefully at night. 

Running of the bulls

This has been stewing in my processors for quite some time now and my circuits just keep going haywire everytime I read this certain guru say that we are in a bull run. WHAT BULL RUN!?! Maybe for a few certain stocks but definitely not the index as a whole. 

Such irresponsible comments could bring newbies to more losses, debt or even make them think that the stock market is not for them. 

So take heed and scrutinize the people that you follow on social media very carefully. Maybe you were expecting this bull run:

When in fact, THIS is the bull run that you will encounter. 

 GAME

SET

 MATCH