The majority of my equity is in my mechanical systems. A small portion (5%) is reserved for what I call "side bets". These side bets are used to satisfy my trader side. Satisfying my trader side allows me to patiently ride my systems ups and downs. Well, at least sometimes. Ha! My current side bet was placed on GSH a few weeks ago.
I've been thinking that in addition to my side bets...further diversification is warranted. Except for the PennyLag system...most of my stock positions are in mid caps and small caps exhibiting the tight-riser effect. Tight-risers are stocks in extremely strong uptrends with low volatility. Part of this idea was obtained from Gary Smith in the book, "How I trade for a living". Granted Smith used mutual funds and I'm using stocks...but the idea is nevertheless the same.
So, the majority of my money is in the same type of stock and strategy. To combat this effect, I've been paying attention to mutual fund managers and newsletter authors with great records and strategies much different from my own. My hope is to allocate a small portion of my equity to a few of these investors...allowing me to participate in other opportunities in the marketplace...and at the same time smoothing out my equity curve a bit.
I'm still in the process of finding great funds and in particular great fund managers. As well, as newsletter authors similar to the post I wrote yesterday.
This is why Jim Schier interests me being from Topeka, Kansas. I like investors who are out of the so-called Wall Street grapevine. As Doug Kass often opines...I'm looking for the variant perception.
Daily System Updates
Current open system positions:
- 1 QQQQ (BBLower) long with current profit of +0.99%;
- 1 QQQQ (Tii100Low) long with current profit of +1.47%.
2 comments:
Small and mid caps have been a good play. Did you see Gary Smith's buy weakness vs. strength column back in December? Kind of an interesting notion to a buy the breakouts camp.
Yes, that Gary B. Smith column on buying weakness was very interesting. I have that article saved in my trading systems notebook. One day, I'll get back to all these ideas and start testing them. Maybe create a new system or two. That is...if I can stop eating x-mas candy long enough to see straight. Ha!
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