I’m NOT running a Black Friday sale
... but I will wax poetically (and talk about trading)
The Markets close early today (1 PM EST) due to the holiday. Make sure you adjust your trading accordingly.
I’m old enough to remember actually standing in line at a brick-and-mortar store in order to get a Black Friday deal.
If you waited too long to get there, you’d likely be out of luck.
Black Friday was one day.
Sure, it started at like 6am, but it was still one big day for sales and then the rest of the Christmas season happened.
Now Black Friday is almost an entire month!
I suppose it was inevitable that this would happen.
If I had to guess, it probably started with “Cyber Monday” and the rise of internet shopping. Suddenly you didn’t need to be physically present to get a great deal. And the companies craved the wallets of their consumers.
So the doorbuster day bled into a weekend...
... and then into Thanksgiving day ...
... and now it’s been weeks of “Black Friday” deals.
We’re almost at the point where Black Friday won’t mean anything at all. (As if a “holiday” around discount sales could actually mean anything. 🙄)
What I should say is that, as a buyer, I’m basically at the point where I don’t trust the sales anymore and I don’t want to wait around for the best Black Friday deal.
Instead, I’m starting to lean more into the mindset of “if I want it and the price is fine, then I just get it.”
(Unfortunately for my family, this makes me hard to shop for. I keep buying the things I want. 😆)
I feel like there’s some freedom there.
Not being whipped around by the whims of marketing & salesmanship. Choosing to (mostly) ignore the sales and make decisions based on the current information I have.
Why wait around for some future deal later? If it looks good now, then it looks good now.
I think you can see the parallels to trading here.
A lot of newer traders try and wait around for the best entry possible.
Even worse:
They hold on to winners too long, trying to call the absolute top of a trade so they can squeeze out every possible profit — like crushing a lemon for all its juice.
I used to do that.
I thought that the perfect trade would be one where I got the lowest possible entry and exited at the highest possible profit point (before the ticker turned around on me).
Spoiler alert:
That perfect trade does NOT exist.
Oh sure, I’ve come kinda close a few times, nailing the top of the trade with a fantastic exit. But even those didn’t have the perfect entry.
Besides, that’s a super stressful way to trade.
Worrying about all that.
I’d rather set up some simple parameters, wait for a ticker to meet them, then jump in.
My biggest bane in the early days of trading was dealing with the big swings of winners and losers. Most trading strategies force you to trade in a way that your winners are bigger than your losers.
I hate that system.
I’d rather just win.
... like, a lot!
🤑
In fact, this preference for winning a lot and not dealing with losers is why I now trade my slow-and-steady way.
Yes, I put a ceiling on my winners. Meaning there are some trades where I leave “a lot of money on the table.” But I’m cool with that sacrifice in order to avoid dealing with losers (at least, less than 2% of the time).
Anyway, this is starting to feel like a sales pitch and I did promise that I’m not running a Black Friday sale.
(I mean, I do have a Course + Community offer for sale, but it’s not on sale. It’s the normal price.)
So I’ll leave you here.
— Ricky Ketchum
P.S. Reminder: the Markets close early today (1 PM EST) due to the holiday. Make sure you adjust your trading accordingly.