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

CHAPTER 41

Change Is the Only Constant

Steve Gomez and Andy Lindloff, @todaytrader

Steve Gomez is a great guy and a friend living his version of the American dream. He lives in California, trades, and has a motorcycle. Steve was an early adopter of StockTwits. He is a generous trader, sharing ideas and trades with a large following.

Remember, it [the market] is designed to fool most of the people most of the time.

—Jesse Livermore

IT'S A METHOD, NOT A SYSTEM

This is the answer people usually get when they ask us about our trading style. Both my business partner Andy and I have been trading equities since 1998. In fact, we met on a retail trading floor once known as Cornerstone Securities. Together, we cut our teeth in a group trading environmental stocks back in the days of the tech bubble. The allure of trading with direct access to the markets without having to move to the big city was a calling that neither of us could pass up.

Since we were both new to the game of direct access trading, we were learning to trade a popular style of buying pullbacks and adding to those positions as they went through new highs. For all we knew, this was how you made money trading in 1999. Some of the veteran traders had been doing this in their accounts since 1995. They literally became programmed to trade this way for big profits, for a long time. It was the only way they knew.

All that changed in March 2000. Abby Joseph Cohen at Goldman Sachs was making a major call to lighten up on equities. ...