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Behind The Spread

Corey Rosenbloom, CMT (Chartered Market Technician) is a trader, educator, analyst and the founder of a prominent investment site named Afraid To Trade.

He has been investing for a decade, discovering the addictive world of trading during the wicked bear market of 2001-2002 and began actively trading the market short-term mid-2003.

After some bad trades following some early large successes (due to overconfidence and over-leverage), fear gripped me to the core and he spent the next three years oscillating between love and hate for the trading world and committed to learning as much as he could before committing more money to the active trading of the markets. He fought a constant battle with perfectionism and fear, and wanted to reach out to others beginning their trading careers who may be struggling as he did with “fear of the order entry screen.”

Education

Educational Experience: The University of Alabama in Huntsville

Master’s Degree: Political Science/Public Affairs (concentration in Business)

Research Areas: Cognitive/Perceptual Influences on Voting Behavior; Use of Emotion in Political Campaigns; The Economic Cycle and Presidential Preference

Bachelor’s Degree (with highest honors): Dual Degree: Psychology and Political Science Research area: Cognitive Psychology. Topics: False Memories, Perception, Emotional Interference

Professional Organizations

Affiliate Member: Market Technician’s Association (MTA)

Chartered Market Technician (CMT)

Level I - passed (November 2007) Level II - passed (May 2008) Level III - passed (December 2008)

CMT Professional Designation Granted April, 2009

Stock Market Conferences

Corey has attended various conferences, continuously pursuing further involvement with the community.

Trader’s Expo: Las Vegas 2005

Trader’s Expo: New York 2006

Trader’s Expo: Ft. Lauderdale, FL 2006

Trader’s Expo: Las Vegas 2006

Trader’s Expo: Las Vegas 2007

Money Show: Orlando, FL 2009

Trader’s Expo: Los Angeles/Pasadena 2009 (Speaker)

Afraid To Trade.com

Corey Rosenbloom manages an investment site called Afraid To Trade focusing on investment education and premium services. Site features daily market analysis as well as educational tips for investors. Site also offers newsletters and mentoring program for those who wish to further educate themselves.

Interview with Behind The Spread

Corey has recently interviewed with BTS, giving the readers more insight on his background and trading strategies.

Thanks for your time participating in the Q&A. First thing I want to ask you is "how in the world did you get into investing as a high school student? Most high school students are watching movies and playing World of Warcraft with friends nowadays"

Haha - it's not like I sat there the whole time playing the stock market! I was a normal active high school student who happened to talk stocks from time to time with my father, who is an avid market enthusiast and investor. Our school took part in a stock market challenge where we teamed up and competed against other teams to pick the best stocks over a 6 or so month period and our team happened to win which got me thinking how fun this could be. Plus, that was around 1997/1998 when the market was rising so it was easy to pick winning stocks and feel good about it.

"How has your investing career been since? Success stories? Big mistake stories? Being an investor myself, I made some big ones myself"

Well, if you don't make mistakes, you're not really trading. With my enthusiasm, my dad started taking my input and we were analyzing stocks together mainly using news and fundamental analysis. We made money like everyone else until the market peak in 2000 where things started to turn sour. Keep in mind, back then, the prevailing mentality was "buy and hold" and of course we suffered like everyone else as the market fell and we kept holding 'fundamentally attractive' stocks. That's when I discovered Technical Analysis - even at simple levels - adds value to investment decisions. I then developed a hybrid investment style which selected fundamentally attractive stocks that were filtered through simple technical analysis scans... and I would continue to shift more towards the technicals as I learned and researched more.

"I believe you're a more aggressive trader using techniques like swing trading and momentum trading. Do you still believe these techniques are better than the traditional 'buy-and-hold' strategies?"

Depends - in May 2009, we were at levels not seen in 12 years in the stock market. That meant had I just put my money in the market and held it when I first started in 1998, I would be no better or worse (assuming I received no dividends) after 11 years of 'buy and hold.' Losing 50% from 2000 to 2002 and then again losing 50% from 2007 - 2009 (both from peak to trough) is risky. However, most people don't realize that the market rose 100% from 2003 to 2007 - it doubled. That shows that - while buy and hold might not be as 'risky,' you could have performed much better by exiting the market in 2001 and buying back in mid-2003 then selling in early 2008 and perhaps buying back in early/mid 2009 - which could have been determined by the 20 month simple moving average on the monthly charts.

Trading isn't for everyone, but in my experience, you can profit much more by short term swing trading or even aggressive intraday trading if you have the skillset, strategies, knowledge, and mental stability to handle the risk and opportunities.

"A little bit about your blog.."are you currently investing and blogging full-time?"

Yes, both, but I focus almost exclusively on the short term and intraday trading since being full-time in late 2006. I analyze multiple markets on multiple timeframes and often hold ETF positions, but I somehow even manage to morph those into short-term swing and scalp trades as well. I also highlight intraday opportunities and trade set-ups both through a subscription service and on the open blog - the blog mixes multiple timeframe technical analysis of all markets, major indexes, and stocks by request (though I focus less on stocks now and more on broader indexes).

"If so, "what do you think led to your success as a full-time investor/blogger?" "What are some of the challenges you've faced along the way?"

hat's a big question - I initially started the blog as a way to reach out to people and share ideas as well as catalog my strategies and things I had learned. It was a way to connect with people with similar goals and experiences and combined trading psychology/emotion with market strategies and daily analysis showing how these strategies play out in real time - with a focus on education. I'm a natural analyst and teacher so I think people responded well to me sharing these concepts and breaking them down in simple terms using multiple examples. I've learned so much and solidified my knowledge by doing so. In the beginning, it was sometimes difficult to find things to talk about but as the traffic grew and people gave good feedback and asked for chart requests, the ideas flowed - now the challenge is not sharing too much!

The blog has grown organically through the generous links of other bloggers, to which I'm all very thankful.

'Lastly, "do you have any advice you can give to the investors, both new and experienced? Any must have tools that give you the edge?"'

Becoming a successful trader takes time, so it's most important to protect your motivation, enthusiasm, love of the market, and psychological capital. You won't learn all the lessons you need to and find the strategy and market that best fits your personality without some trial and error - and you need to stay motivated through the early years - don't give up easily.

Focus on concepts, not indicators. Realize it all comes down to supply and demand and that price - not your opinion or analysis - is key. It's all about probabilities and risk/reward. Either increase your accuracy of your trading or more importantly increase your monetary edge, meaning make more statistically when you're right than when you're wrong - you can have a 50% accuracy rate and do quite well when your winners average around 2 or 3 times your losers. Oh, and try to have fun. Again, you have to love trading to withstand the drawdowns and frustration - it's worth it if you stick with it.