Avoid Trading Out of Boredom | Podcast Episode #59

0:01
Hey everybody, this is Ryan Mallory with another Swing Trading the Stock Market podcast episode for you guys, and today I’m gonna, I’m gonna talk about being bored when you’re trading because right now in the summer months, and I talked about it last week too, I talked about summertime trading, I definitely say that one’s also worth listening to.

0:16
They’re all worth listening to, to be completely honest. But um, But yeah, I, I kind of want to continue to build on that because right now, this is the time of the year where we get ourselves into some really not so good trading messes because we get so bored with the market, it just doesn’t want to move that we start getting into higher risk plays and we start trading unnecessary, um, Or when the, when it just doesn’t permit us to trade, when the market doesn’t give us a valid reason to be trading.

0:41
And right now we are in that and it’s, it’s driving me crazy. It really is. I mean, it is some really boring days right now. Today’s episode, I just want to talk about some of the things that I think may, may help you get through these really, really uh difficult and just tiresome days of trading because there’s just not a lot, there’s not a lot to keep you.

1:03
Keep you glued to your screen and it’s just really boring. So, I’m just gonna give you guys some pointers. I want to talk about what I do to kind of get through these days. Of course, I run shareplanner.com. So there’s, there’s a lot of work there and days that are boring like this, I, I can probably get a lot more work done, answer a lot more emails and stuff like that.

1:22
So that does help me, but not everybody, you know, runs a financial website. On, on top of their trading. So, in fact, most don’t, and, and so I want to talk about what, what you can do to kind of help with that. First off, and I do this every, every day too.

1:41
I take a walk. It’s just, it’s, it’s too boring. Not to, um, on days like this. I, I get like when the market’s opening up like 20 or 30 points higher and it’s rallying and stuff, you don’t have time for that kind of stuff. But in today’s kind of market, it doesn’t hurt, you know, when the market opens or, you know, at some point in the morning time when the market starts to settle in, go take a walk.

2:00
I took, I took a walk this morning. I took about a, you know, a 12 minute walk. And, and it’s good. It just kind of gets you out of there. It gets you out of the funk of just watching a, a tape that just doesn’t want to do anything. The second, the second thing that’s been nice, and I have these going on every day.

2:15
I have one of my TVs that’s playing the MLB ticket. I’m, I’m a big fan of the Houston Astros. I really like watching them play. I think they got one of probably one of the best hitting lineups in the history of baseball, if you ask me. I mean, 1 to 9, they’re just totally solid. In fact, They got people on their bench that that that would be starting for almost any other major league team that can’t even find crack the batting order.

2:35
So it’s really fun. I, I think they’re strong candidates to, to win the World Series this year. So I’m, I’m, I’m excited about that. But no, what I’m, what I’m trying to say though is is that I stream the baseball games in the morning. I don’t watch them the night before and then. When I come into the office in the morning at around 7 o’clock, I just start like streaming it and, and sometimes, you know, these games they can go 34, maybe sometimes even 5 hours if they go extra innings.

2:58
And so, while I’m not necessarily sitting back cracking a beer in Watching the game, I am, you know, got the game on and it’s kind of providing a little bit of interest for me as I’m going through the day. So that, that kind of helps the day go by.

3:16
You have a little bit of entertainment there when the market’s not providing much action. But I would also say too, outside of these, um, Little tricks and gimmicks to kind of get you through the, the, the market session. Don’t add more positions to your account simply because the positions that you have aren’t, aren’t doing anything for you.

3:34
It’s one thing if you say, you know what, I’ve given this trade, I’ve given this stock enough time to try and do something. It’s not, it’s dead in the water, it’s not moving. OK, go ahead, swap it out, put another position in, but just go on and it’s like, OK, I’m gonna keep adding until something starts moving my portfolio starts making me more money. That is not the The position that you want to take, it just doesn’t, doesn’t work that way.

3:56
That’s how you set yourself up for some really bad failures, because when the market does eventually move, it can move to the downside and all of a sudden you got this portfolio stacked with stocks that haven’t really been making you much profits, but they’re going to all sell off on you and they’re just going to absolutely brutalize your.

4:13
Your portfolio portfolio and the capital that you have in your account. So don’t do that. A lot of times during this time period, people start questioning their trading strategy and whether or not they’re, they’re on the right page with the market and whether or not they should be adopting another kind of trading strategy. Don’t do that either. Um, Avoid trying to trade big movers every day, like right now, GH has been a big, big, uh moving uh stock, right?

4:36
You know, I mean, people buy in the morning, they’ll try to sell in the afternoon, or they’re short, people do that with Beyond Meat, BYND. Look, I get that there’s a lot of action in those stocks and that it’s kind of enticing to want to trade those because everything else just isn’t moving right now, or if they do move, they just don’t move in any kind of like rhythm because the market doesn’t really have a rhythm right now.

4:55
Avoid day trading the big movers simply because you need the action. So two additional points that I just mentioned. Don’t add more positions to your portfolio because your portfolio is not moving. If you do, make sure you’re swapping it out with something. The other one is to avoid day trading just big movers because you’re getting bored with the market, OK?

5:12
Boredom trading is really bad. Um, it can really mess up. Your portfolio because you’re trying to fill this need of wanting to do something because what you’re doing right now isn’t really doing much for you. Believe it or not, um, a lot of people lose a lot of money in boring markets.

5:27
So being able to keep your composure to stay patient is, is huge. You want to keep managing your portfolio, but don’t force the issue on the market. The market’s not giving you a lot of returns like right now, the bread is not that good. The breadth in the market is, is really putrid. There’s just not a lot of stocks moving up when the market does move up, and when it does move down, it can’t sustain anything.

5:47
So shorting doesn’t really provide much of a return either. Now we have the FOMC statement coming out today at 2 o’clock and then there’s a presser at 2:30. The market’s been really, really low. It’s always been low volume for all of July. It’s been just boring as can be.

6:03
May was like that too. Uh, June was like that. But it’s been even more so, uh, yesterday. The day before and then again today heading into the 2 p.m. presser. But once that presser does come out, uh, you’re likely to see a huge amount of volume. That’s why you don’t want to be stacking your positions.

6:18
That’s why you don’t want to be overloading it simply because what you got right now isn’t do anything for you. The market could sell off big time once the FOMC comes out, or it could rally big time. But either way, just let the market do it and then respond, respond to it accordingly. If the market wants to rally, then start adding a couple long positions there.

6:34
If the market doesn’t, then, then start either shorting or or take some of your long positions off the board. That’s gonna do it for today. If you have any questions, feel free to hit me up, ryan@shareplanner.com. I also encourage you to try out the swing trading Trading Block. It’s a, it’s a great place. A lot of good traders in there, a lot of people putting in ideas.

6:50
Whenever somebody has a question or if they want me to highlight a chart or, or draw it up, I always do it. Uh, you have a good trade, sometimes I’ll find myself going ahead and jumping into that trade myself. But it’s a great community of traders, people who are willing to help each other out. They’re friendly, they’re enjoyable to be around. I highly encourage you to try it out. It’s free the 1st 7 days, so go ahead, give it a shot, and have a great day.