Every man has to know his limitations. He needs a code to live by.
This is true with trading as well, which is why 10 years ago, I wrote up “Christian DeHaemer’s 55 Rules of Trading.”
Like the ribs of a boat, a man needs a set of rules by which to frame his life.
Here they are, with a few minor updates:
Rule #1: The market is always right.
Rule #2: Never buy a company run by a medical doctor. Doctors have a confidence that is great on the operating table but lousy in running a company. Buy companies run by salespeople.
Rule #3: When investing in Canadian resource companies, assume they are scams unless proven otherwise.
Rule #4: When a disaster occurs in an emerging market country, find the company that has sold off the most and trades in the U.S. Buy it.
Rule #5: It is better to not make money than to lose it.
Rule #6: Always leave money on the table.
Rule #7: Never apologize for a profit.
Rule #8: After you sell a position, take the ticker off your screen.
Rule #9: If you make a certain type of trade and it works, make it again.
Rule #10: Do not hope; act.
Rule #11: Don’t take sample opinions on a trade. You’ve done your research — live or die by it.
Rule #12: It is possible to make money going long a horrific company. I’ve successfully played dead cat bounces on Enron, Nortel, and Lucent.
Rule #13: Never try to catch a falling knife.
Rule #14: Have an investment goal and work toward it.
Rule #15: Use stock screens.
Rule #16: A low P/E, high growth rate, insider buying, and no debt make any stock a buy.
Rule #17: Draw trend lines. If a stock is in a downtrend, don’t go long, and vice versa.
Rule #18: If you learn only one candlestick pattern, learn doji at the top of a trend.
Rule #19: Never give a stock an even bet. If you don’t have an advantage, you will lose.
Rule #20: The market is a ravenous beast. It wants to take your life savings, chew them up, and laugh at you as you squirm in the dirt.
Rule #21: Contrarians are correct at turning points in the market but wrong the rest of the time.
Rule #22: There are four types of traders: momentum, technical, fundamental, and insider.
Rule #23: Insider trading is the most lucrative, though illegal.
Rule #24: Momentum traders are correct most of the time but wrong during turning points.
Rule #25: It is against self-interest for technical traders to reveal their buys and sells.
Rule #26: Fundamental traders want the world to know they bought and sold.
Rule #27: When you make a successful trade, take 10% of the profits and buy something tangible, like a new hat. Reinvest the other 90%.
Rule #28: When you hit 100% gains on any equity trade, take your original stake off the table and forget about the remainder. Look it up in 10 years.
Rule #29: Economists are wrong.
Rule #30: The stock market is a leading indicator of the economy, not the other way around.
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Rule #31: There is no correlation between consumer confidence and the stock market.
Rule #32: Analysts from brokerage firms have bought and want you to buy.
Rule #33: Analysts from brokerage firms are selling and want you to buy.
Rule #34: Analysts from brokerage firms want you to sell so they can buy.
Rule #35: A Chinese firewall is as useful as a Chinese fire drill.
Rule #36: Watching CNBC has never made anyone any money.
Rule #37: The only sure way to become a millionaire in the markets is to start out a multi-millionaire.
Rule #38: You are not Warren Buffett. You will never be Warren Buffett.
Rule #39: Successful options trading is like walking in front of a steamroller picking up dimes.
Rule #40: The idea that 90% of options expire worthless is a myth. According to the CBOE, between 55% and 60% of options contracts are closed out prior to expiration.
Rule #41: Visiting companies and talking to CEOs makes me overly optimistic about those companies. The media is the same way.
Rule #42: Sometimes buying a ticker because it is a good ticker is a good idea.
Rule #43: I can be long a company while someone else is short, and we can both make money.
Rule #44: In the back pages of The Economist, you will find the Big Mac index and GDP growth figures. Find the country with the most undervalued currency and the highest GDP growth. Buy it.
Rule #45: Monitor insider buying.
Rule #46: Small-capitalization stocks always lead the way out of a bear market.
Rule #47: High volatility among small caps signals a top in the market.
Rule #48: Moves after a sideways market go up or down vertically as far as the sideways chart went horizontal.
Rule #49: Fifty-two-week highs are bullish.
Rule #50: High-volume up-days with no news are bullish.
Rule #51: The best times to buy and sell are at 10:30 a.m. and 3:45 p.m.
Rule #52: It always takes longer than you think for a reaction to occur.
Rule #53: Use 20% stop-losses on equities and 35% on options.
Rule #54: Trend lines work better than support and resistance.
Rule #55: The market is always right.
All the best,
Christian DeHaemer
Check us out on YouTube!Christian is the founder of Bull and Bust Report and an editor at Energy and Capital. For more on Christian, see his editor’s page.
