In today’s meeting, I’ll be showcasing my "Trend Strength" indicator — a tool that measures how much the market favors a stock, scored from -100 to +100. This isn’t just a technical number—it’s a way to see through the noise and gauge the market’s true sentiment. 📊 I’ve prepared a screenshot of a current example—but I want to stress-test it on more names. 💬 Got a stock in mind? Drop it here and I’ll run it through the indicator live. Let’s see if the market’s whispering or shouting.

Jumping Strategies Too Soon Is a Common Cause of Failure A key reason traders and investors fail is abandoning a sound long-term strategy during short-term underperformance. Amateurs often chase systems that seem to always work. When their strategy hits a rough patch—as all strategies eventually do—they quickly shift to something else, hoping for immediate results. In professional money management, this behavior is called style drift—changing strategy when results dip. It's viewed as a red flag by institutional investors because it signals lack of discipline and conviction. Strong performance comes from consistency. Staying with a strategy through cycles—while measuring it with long-term data—is what separates professionals from performance chasers.

Is “Buy the Dip” Really a Winning Strategy? According to What Works on Wall Street by James O’Shaughnessy, buying the worst-performing large-cap stocks—those down the most over the past 12 months—didn’t lead to gains. In fact, the data showed that buying the bottom 10% resulted in declines over the following year. The takeaway? Momentum and quality matter more than bargain hunting. Sometimes, what looks cheap just keeps getting cheaper.

The markets are one of the most powerful tools for putting money to work efficiently. But they can just as easily erase capital when approached carelessly. Blind faith in luck, overconfidence in so-called "blue-chip" names like Enron or WorldCom, or trusting high-fee investment funds that barely track the market—these are classic pitfalls. Success in the market requires more than optimism. It demands discipline, skepticism, and a strategy built on risk management and performance, not hope or reputation. I’ve seen traders achieve solid returns through a combination of hard work, structured routines, and the right coaching. It’s not about guessing the market. It’s about putting in the effort to learn, staying disciplined, and getting feedback from those with experience. Results come from consistency, not shortcuts.

Psychologists have long observed this bias: We tend to attribute our wins to skill — and our losses to bad luck. It’s human nature. But in trading, it’s a dangerous trap. 🎯 If you take credit for every win and blame luck for every loss, you’ll never grow — only protect your ego. Own your process. Learn from both outcomes. That’s how real traders evolve.

Hope you're doing well and finding your rhythm in the market again. If you're currently not engaged, or if you're struggling to stay aligned with what’s working—pause and ask yourself: What’s the real reason? What are you missing? Is it a lack of conviction? Are you still stuck in the last market cycle? Have you done the work to adapt to current conditions? Every cycle demands a different version of you. If you’re on the sidelines, figure out if it’s strategy, mindset, or structure that’s holding you back. Because when opportunity knocks, you don’t want hesitation to be your default.

It’s a paradox. The only reward a trader should truly care about is a growing account balance. Yet many obsess over achieving it through their own strategy, their own process, their own “genius.” Why? Because they want to feel relevant. They want the credit. But here’s the truth: The market doesn’t care who designed the strategy — only if it works. Profit is proof, not pride. Let go of the ego. Use what works. Master it. And let your results speak — not your attachment to originality.

Partial discipline is just a polished excuse. Real discipline is all or nothing. The belief that a perfect strategy is out there — waiting to be found or built — is one of the biggest risks to your progress. It’s a timewaster, a distraction, and a subtle form of procrastination. Worse, it can become an endless rabbit hole that keeps you from ever truly executing. There is no perfect strategy. There’s only a robust one you understand, follow, and refine through experience.

Partial discipline is just a polished excuse. Real discipline is all or nothing.

Some funds know when to reduce exposure and when to act