Philippine Stock Market Tips for Beginners

So I’m still in Manic Episodes of my Bipolar Disorder and my current obsession? The Philippine Stock Market. Don’t worry! PSE is not new to me as I’ve been in and out of trading for 8 years already. When I’m in the mood I’m actively trading/investing but when I’m not. I just rely on bluechips! (Further Reading: PSE Trading for Beginners)

Joining these growing FB stock trading groups is really insightful and beneficial! One legit and helpful group I can recommend is TAP (short for Traders Apprentice Philippines).

TAP was formed by investment banker Tony (twitter:@Tony88981) Herbosa with fellow traders/investors:
1.Roy (twitter: @senyores) Reyes- Swing Trading
2.Atty. Christian Del Rosario – Wealth Preservation & Estate Planning, Legal Aspects
3.Kithe Ortiz – Insurance & Risk Mngmt.
4.and “Yours Truly” – Position Trading, Speculation, OPM & Leverage

Our GOAL is to reach out to younger Filipinos on HOW to create WEALTH thru consistent trading and investing. TAP is a Classroom Module set-up. It is not blogging only in the FB site. The FB site is only to compliment the classroom and backdoor discussions, not the other way around.

TAP’s basic beliefs as espoused by its TAP founders are as follows:

1) You cannot be a “one dimensional” wealth creator, just like you cannot be a ONE DIMENSIONAL MMA fighter in a chaotic battlefield. You need to have varied skill sets,- striking, wrestling, kicking & submission, but more importantly the ART of Fighting itself, including that ability to read your opponent. So you cannot overstay in the casino, nor can you “over depend” on stock trading or mere “savings” to become wealthy.

But stock trading, when used to surf the PERFECT bull market waves 1 & 3 or even 5 – or a specific stock play, can speed up your capital formation.

2) The key to a good FIGhTER or a good TRADER is BALANCE. You cannot be a wealth creator & not have balance: TA vs. FA, long term vs. short term, swing vs. position, being cool vs. being edgy, financial vs. real assets, safe vs. riskier (but higher return) instruments, incremental plays vs. strategic home runs in Waves 1 and 3, downsizing bets in waves 2 and 4 and strategically “up sizing” for waves 1, 3 and 5.

Also everything must be aligned: 1) your Knowledge/Skills, 2) your understanding of Markets and Chaos, 3) the various Asset Classes ( i.e. the Wealth vehicles), and most significantly your 4) understanding of How the Game or POKER is played (i.e. the Art of Betting).

On top of these four (4) above, most important of all is your MENTAL GAME, your INSTINCTS & emotions, your ability to be detached from fear or greed when the time comes, your “Situational Awareness” gravitating from small to bigger bets in face of market chaos and panic, your ability not to brood over losses and move on. Part of this MENTAL GAME is to learn how to think out-of-the-box, not to be linear and simply “think differently”. Because CHAOS and the fruits of chaos is not often linear. A stock will typically go down just after you BUY it, – because you most likely liked it just about when everybody else was BUYiNG it

The LINEAR dudes, CFA’s sometimes even MBAs, get creamed out all the time. They too LOGICAL in a non-linear MARkETS full of CHAOS. In school you study hard you get high grades. Can you simply study stocks to make money in stocks? Hindi yan nadadaan sa aral.

3) The key to making wealth is not simply avoiding RISK, it’s understanding risk and embracing it. To learn to fight, you have to SPAR a lot. For instance, if you turn over your money to UITF guys or the banks, your chance of making money short term is higher. But longer term, you will not develop the right ‘life or death’ instincts. To learn to fly a plane, one cannot be on AUTO-PILOT. You need that learning curve.

4) There is no such thing as a 5-year horizon in stocks. It depends on the bull cycle wave. You can be 5-year investor if you came in 2009. Crazy to be 5-year stock investor today when we are on Elliot Wave 5 and QE is about to end.

5) You have to embrace CHAOS. Chaos in markets is your friend. It is the one that gives you a chance. Without CHAOS, only the most logical, linear, deep pocket guys will make money. Like billiards, “the game is to spot the next 4 shots way ahead”,- not the immediate shot at hand which any dude can figure out (i.e. this is a Jesse Livermore quote).

TAP is the opposite of GO NEGOSYO. If you want to get rich without making bantay a restaurant 24/7, keeping temporary ADHD employees, running after sales quotas or receivables – TAP is for you. You may not be as wealthy as the founder of Jolibee Foods, but you will have more time for more important things like – family time, ball time, mah jong time, beach time, mall time, coffee or “tsismis” time with your kumare or people you love and cherish. Life is too short, isn’t it? Having your TIME is what it is all about, hopefully with enough MONEY

Let me ask you, didn’t Manny Pacquiao have a “Go Negosyo” strategy? What if he just invested P5Billion in 2009 (start of supercycle Wave 1) in this stock $DMC? What would that amount be now if he merely had a Trader’s Apprentice strategy? >>> answer : How about P70B by now!!

I like how TAP explains things in layman’s terms! Hope you enjoyed these tips as well as I did!