The StockTwits® Edge: 40 Actionable Trade Set-Ups from Real Market Pros

CHAPTER 1

Find Trends, Ride Them, and Get Off

Howard Lindzon, @howardlindzon

LESS IS MORE

In 1987, after earning my undergraduate degree, I took a job in the back office at a small brokerage firm in Toronto called Davidson Partners. I was in order entry. Brokers would fill out tickets and drop them in a box for me, and I would enter the orders to be filled. Two months into my job, the market crashed. I saw people lose everything. I was on the ground floor of a panic, and I was hooked.

It is now 2011 and I do not have the same 24 years to catch up on all my mistakes and wins, so I want this chapter to be about speed. My goal is to get you to an “aha” moment about the value of trend following whereby you can catch big moves in stocks and markets.

I trust everyone and trust no one. I can do that because I have tried just about every type of investing known to man. Today when I invest or trade in the global markets, I am in control. I make every decision. I take responsibility at some level for every made or lost dollar of mine in the markets.

I believe the markets are opportunity machines. We built StockTwits to offer investors and traders an endless supply of ideas with more context and less opinion. It will mean different things to different people, but your goal should always be to seek out investors and traders who make your job easier, and to give back when possible.

I believe investors should swing for the fences. If you invest properly, your best investments will become trades ...