1 new question or answer this week. You have to register for the forum! If you have an account, you have to login.

1) How long does it take to become a competent trader?

Do you have a question for me? Use the free forum. Links are below!

I created three scenarios in the last newsletter: NASDAQ will sharply pullback to the EMA 21, sideways consolidation or slow downtrend. The NASDAQ decided to pull back, but did not reached the EMA 21 yet.

I think that the chances are high that we will see an outperformance of the Russell 2000 in the upcoming weeks. That would be my dream scenario! When the broad market will move higher, the chances are very high to make good money with my style.

If I look at the stocks on my watchlist I see new leadership emerging. New, aggressive growth stocks look like they are ready to move higher. The volume shows me that institutions are buying aggressively like they are afraid of missing them.

Of course you want to be prepared for the opposite scenario too! The market can change anytime and you must prepare yourself to react to a change.

This week I have 33 stocks on my watchlist, 5 less as last week. I try to focus on the leaders now and ignore everything else.

Would you like to learn how to find stocks like below? Look into my video course Growth Traders Toolbox.

There is a quote in a book from Jesse Livermore which I like very much. He was talking to a person in a bucketshop called Old Turkey. My friend Olivier Tischendorf came up with the quote in his great membership newsletter:

"If I sold that stock now, I’d lose my position; and then where would I be?"

Why is this quote so important? It sell you something about getting scared out of a position in a bull market because of fear!

If you are fearful it's very difficult to follow your rules. You are focused on the fear and start to ignore every other scenario. You look at your profits, the extended stock, the extended market and you are afraid of losing your profits in another pullback. You completely ignore the fact that the stock can move up another 20%, 50% or even 500%! Nobody know the future, nobody will prevent the stock from doing that. If there are enough buyers, the price will move up. Prediction is a very costly game in trading!

The market will never shake you out of a position. It's always your mistake and the most mistakes are based on emotions.

I got scared out of big winners in the past very often and sometimes I make the mistake today! That's normal. The question is how fast you correct your mistakes. It's no problem to put on the same position again to correct your mistake immediately.

The most emotional errors are based on position sizes that are too large. If your position size is too large, you are tempted to sell to early because of too big profits or too big losses, although the stock still has potential to the upside. Be aware of that! For me it's better to trade a 15% position and let the profits run instead of having a 30% position and micro manage it!

Another mistake is predicting the top. A stock which looks extended can easily consolidate for 1 or 2 weeks and move higher. It's much better to sell a part of the position instead the whole position. Take some profits off the table, so that you don't feel the pressure anymore and follow your rules again.