 Everyone and welcome. This is Melissa Arma with the Stock Swoosh and today I wanted to talk to you a little bit about the importance of having a trading strategy if in fact we're going to risk money in the market. So a lot of people trade the market and they do not have a trading strategy. Then there are also a lot of people who think that they have a trading strategy but they're doing something that really isn't a strategy whatsoever at all. So I think when you decide that you want to make money in the market you have to get serious about it. And this has nothing to do with the number of hours that you're going to spend trading. You could spend one hour week trading and you still need to have a strategy. You could be doing this part time and you still need a strategy. You could be doing this full time, you definitely need a strategy. The point is in order to make any money at all consistently you need a strategy in order to trade. So you have to consistently do the same thing over and over and over again to have consistent results. Your risk should also be consistent, okay? And I find that a lot of people just trade on a whim. I mean I can't believe the number of people that emailed me that they ended up buying Tesla into the stock split and Apple as well. What was the strategy there? Nothing. A lot of times two people would hear news on something and they'll short the stock or go on the stock based on the news on a whim. And very often the way the stock trades has absolutely nothing to do with what comes out with the news whether positive or negative, very similar to earnings. So you have to look at the chart and what I do is based on technicals. I look at the gap. The gap is what happens to the trading action happens in the post market or the pre market or both. Then I use a rating system to look at the daily chart of the stock at the price of where it's gapping and then I rate it using a 26-point rating system. That tells me before the market even opens, before I even take the trade at all, if the stock is going to move higher or lower and that is what I do and I replicate it over and over and over. That has allowed me to very accurately read the stock market and when I say the stock market I mean the SPI which is ETF for the S&P, the QQQs and the diamonds ETF as well. So that also helps me know when to take profits in trades, when to hold trades, when to get out maybe a little bit early if I'm in something. If I had the market with me or against me. So all of this, the gap analysis that I do has really helped me read stocks long-term, short-term and the market too. So gaps are a strategy, particularly my rating system is a strategy. Just doing things on wins without even knowing what you're doing is not a strategy and also the jerkiness of people that are changing things all the time doing different stuff day in, day out. I really think that this particular market like starting right now, like now, last week into the rest of the year going into this election cycle here, it's going to be very, very tricky for traders. Traders are going to lose money, get hurt if they don't know what they're doing particularly because of the fact that again the volatility is, you've seen this volatility in the last week. I believe that it continues, continues into this end of the spirit of the year 2020 and people that might have made money and the last month or two or even in the summer are going to have a tricky time here going into this last period of the year. Remember you can make money going long or going short. Either way, you still have to know what you're doing. You have to pick the right stocks. I make the picks daily in the morning in the pre-market. That's how I determine what to do and in what direction. Again, please if you're trading the market or risking your own money, you have to have a strategy. If you don't have a strategy and a strategy that works, you're going to lose and I hate to see people lose. You really, really have to think about what you're doing and consciously think about it and have a strategy. If you're interested in more information or taking my class or learning from me, email me at Melissa at thestockswish.com. The class is called the Golden Gap course and I teach it once a month. Have a great day everyone.