Every so often I will write something like this to give you my big picture thinking, think of me as your quarterback.

I want to talk about one of out Private Wealth Clients, who is someone we can all learn from. I certainly won’t mention any names as all client relationships are confidential. The size of the trades are irrelevant for this illustration, only the execution from the right side of the market matters.

Demographic

Older gentleman who plays an inordinate amount of golf…I’m too polite to ask his handicap or if he wins. It’s enough for me to know he enjoys it.

He has been a client for over a year.

Like many people out there, his trading preference is Buy and Hold . “In a perfect world,” he would like to own high yielding big cap multinationals over a longer time frame.

Execution…

He uses a big full service discount online broker. The platform is Apple compatible. He can call in, or manually execute trades 24 hours a day from his I phone or I pad.

As with all things new, he had some ups and downs. One of the big lessons he has learned is patience. When advised to exit all his long stocks May 2, after another massive 20% run in a short 2 week period in his portfolio ( OXY…was a big long weighting), he complained of missing out on that last fake rally up to 1350. Not one of his holdings made new highs!

All that noise soon stopped! He learned to take the low risk trades or “looks” that were available. There were a lot of 4-10% winners. Some he took and some he didn’t. That was more a function of which Tee box he was on, versus not being interested in doing the trade.

What impresses me most,is his progression as a trader and thinker.

He has a list of Risk On and Risk Off trades he is comfortable with. When the markets get to big inflection levels, he automatically tightens his risk parameters. (He takes a little off to pay for his stops which lowers his risk profile)

When the market is Risk Off he will tighten up his stops so he loses no money.

He does not mind getting stopped out of Risk positions. He now realizes he’ll always get another opportunity if he remains patient. He realizes the world is no longer a simple buy and hold proposition!

He does not mind being in cash.

A specific example…

Tuesday, when I put out the Apple piece with 40 minutes to go in the trading day, he started buying.

I am using this illustration for a couple of reasons:

First… and foremost…Just because I state that I have no current holdings does not mean the majority of my clientele don’t! The biggest part of what I do is to keep you trading from the right side of the market at the right level.

You’re job will always be to pull the trigger and execute. My job is to keep you in step with the macro flows.

The bulk of my clientele are professional traders, they get it!, and they pull the trigger.

Second…To illustrate how a neophyte can learn to use a simple system of Risk management, Keywords with matching macro levels to blow away a traditional money manager.

The remainder of the portfolio was purchased 10/5-6

He started paying for his trades and selling chunks of his longs just before 2 P.M. CST today 10/6.

AAPL shares in at 360.00

DIG in at 32.96 stop 31.69

OXY in at 74.68 stop 72.98

QQQ in at 53.89

SSO in at 39.11

Client Quote

” Not used to being called an older gentleman. I like to think that 65 is the new 50 or so!”

What is most impressive is that he is an adult..takes responsibility for his own decisions, and pulls the trigger. He understands that when an instrument shows you a quick 10% move it’s time to lighten the load. He will then look for an ancillary trade with a lower risk profile.

He is highly cognizant that there will be some losers. Fortunately, those have been relatively small due to the nature of our style, which is to trade with tight stops.

Our particular trading style is to scale out in pieces or units. We prefer to try initiating at big macro levels looking for significant moves. These are the trades best suited for this type of client.

We take a significant part of any position off at our tgt’s and then leave on a residual with a trailing stop to see if the direction will continue.

Everybody has their own style. This just happens to be ours.

We are always interested in feedback from our clients on what style is best suited for their individual lifestyles or needs. We are a custom shop that has full capabilities for different needs.

Our clientele run the gamut from High Frequency Trading, to the less frenzied Macro Trader.