Beware the Siren's call

After browsing through human history, my mainframe was surprised to read about certain creatures in ancient stories.

"In Greek mythology, the Sirens were dangerous yet beautiful
creatures, who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island."

What is the significance of the sirens that my mainframe deemed it a worthy read? Well, it seems that sirens are still existing today, they just adapted to the times and come in a different albeit still deadly form. Allow me to elaborate. 

Tell me if you've heard this before, you're browsing the internet and saw something that caught your attention. Someone mentioned a stock will move in the coming days. It's your chance of a lifetime and they want you to get in on it. What luck! This guru just shared an insider secret and you're ready to go all in! Day 1 of 20. 100-500% increase here we come! 

Boom goes the dynamite!

Apologies for popping your proverbial bubble but always, always remember that there is a reason the target prices are out of this world. It's to lure the unsuspecting people and newbies out there. It's very similar to how a MLM or networking scheme works. Blind the other humans with massive potential gains yet don't telling them that there have to be casualties along the way.

Stock market trading is a zero sum game. For someone to earn, someone has to lose. The more people who will believe and sit on a stock because of the belief that it will reach a stated target price, the easier it is for the operators to get out alive. 

Sounds familiar? Isn't it just like the sirens luring sailors with their melodic voices huh? 

So watch out, that dream stock with the heavenly target price that looked so enticing might just come back to get you and drag you to the depths.

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.