It dawned on me this morning that now I know what it feels like to be a bull.
And, no, I don't mean unattractive, simple-minded, and clueless. I mean I know what it feels like to be in control of a market.
When I was "fighting the bull" (market, that is), it was incredibly frustrating. I felt my analysis was sound, my trading was prudent – – and yet I kept getting smacked. I felt a lot of anger and resentment. I hated the market.
That must be what the bulls feel like now. Because now I'm totally at peace with the markets. And I am not feeling the "flip side" of the ugly feelings above (that is, boastful, vengeful, etc………not even vindicated!) So now I know what it feels like to really be on top of a market and feel confident about what it's going to do next.
The strangest thing of all is how easily I am able to take losses. I can drop $30,000 in portfolio value in a single day and not be the least bit upset about it. Is it because I don't like money anymore? No; it's simply because I know I'm going to make twice as much back the next day (or thereabouts). So I don't get rattled by "losses", because I know the setback is extremely temporary (such as when I was down $30k on Monday and made three times that much the very next day).
The real trick, of course, is to be able to transmogrify into a bull whenever the market truly does turn. Because I don't want to spend the rest of my life being happy with the markets only on those rare occasions when we truly are in bear mode!
Just for the hell of it, here's the LEH chart.
