The anguish of profit taking

For most of my twelve years trading on the markets I have enjoyed long trending moves with sharp market collapses to provide a bit of relief. I have not witnessed these broad channel movements. I am having to learn the art of profit taking. In Hong Kong I took profits after just two days and cashed in a useful chunk of money.

It was harder to cash in my UK shares but cash them in I did. That also yielded a very useful profit after just a few days. Here it was the odds that made me decide. The chances that they would fall after such a sharp rise was the clinching argument. Look at the chart and the signs that the odds are lengthening and we are now unlikely to get more upside movement.

I don't know if I will be quick enough selling my US shares this afternoon when the market opens. My performance in the US market has been marred by buying a group of shares using one of VectorVest's search systems which was inappropriate for market conditions. I was lured into believing that a system which had done well over 5 days and then the latest day would yield well performing shares. I was wrong and had to cut some horrible losses. Nevertheless going back to picks based on criteria which I had selected as ones which work well in a recovering market I managed to squeeze out an overall profit - albeit one that remains to be cashed in. Here are the UK and Hong Kong shares that I picked and the profits they generated in a very few days. I will post the US share list once I have booked the profits/losses. (HK shares have numerical codes.)

So if all goes well at the US open I will have cleared another third of my peak loss and with luck and a following wind I will have cleared up the mess I made earlier in the financial year.

The next task is to read the next phase of the market correctly and to trade it well. Will we continue up to the top of the channel and then break out, or do we have a period in the doldrums inside the channel to live through?

There was some damage done to the US profits on the open but I did close my positions and cashed a reasonable profit. I now wait to see what happens next. Gold and silver are contributing well. I wonder if that will go on? Here are my US picks including those ghastly ones from the VV Derby winners selections.