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About this blog

Martin Time is running fast and it has been 16 years since I started this blog. My original intention was to share my knowledge with my readers and maybe even provide advice on how to invest and trade successfully in the stock market.

I thought I knew everything and it would be a piece of cake to trade, make hundreds of thousands of dollars (get rich) and tell you how I did it.

Boy, how wrong was I. The last five years were incredibly difficult for me and in many ways I learned the hard way. I found out that I didn’t know anything about investing and that little I knew wasn’t enough to be successful. But it wasn’t because of lack of that little knowledge I had, but because in many occasions I refused to admit to myself that I was wrong.

This blog helped me a lot to find out.

I want to continue this blog as my personal investment journal. But it is not an easy task to write about money. There are millions of other bloggers doing the exact same thing.

What is this blog about?

The main goal of this blog is to be my personal investing/trading journal. I will continue writing about my goals, plans, dreams, decisions and opinions about the stock market, stocks, my trades and investments, my achievements, and my investing performance.

Time to time I will write about my personal opinions and ideas not necessarily related to investing.

Be an example to others

When I reach my goals I am happy about it and I would like to share and help others. I learn a lot from other bloggers and investors and in many times I am amazed what knowledge about investing they have. I would like to be able to set the same example with this blog. I hope I will be able to present my ideas, so those investors who started learning about investing can find advice and help on this blog.

I believe that the best way to learn about something is to teach the topic. I will try to teach on this blog, to learn myself.

Create a network of friends

Another goal of this blog is to create a network of friends from other blogs about investing, share ideas, and help each other in blogging, investing, trading, and saving. Maybe, one day we can organize a potluck, meet together, and have fun.

Make money

It would be hypocritical if I say I am doing all this blogging just to tell the world “hey here is another sucker who is trying to invest his cash”. I must admit, that I am doing all this to create another stream of income.

Why Hello Suckers name?

Have you ever felt like all you were doing went wrong? I had that all the time. When it comes to investing I soon realized how little I knew and that I quickly joined the group of suckers who tried to invest but almost always lost money, because they were doing everything backwards – such as investing in hot tips, having no money management, ignoring risk, trying to time the market and thus selling low and buying high, and many other bad habits.

Jesse Livermore, a genius investor of the last century, called these people suckers and many times he said that he was going to rip the suckers off of their cash. And they would happily give their cash to him.

If you feel like it is also about you, then welcome here. It is a great step to realize that you have it wrong as I did and it is time to change it.
I am changing myself and this blog should reflect it.





18 responses to “About this blog”

  1. Gabe says:

    Good morning,
    Great description of the “Wheel”. Would like to discuss. I’ve been using it for 2 years now, and have had 23 consecutive months being profitable. This month (aug’21) will be the test. I follow your outline for the most, with the following differences:
    1. I use a watchlist made up of the “aristocrats”, “kings”, and the “champions” only, and I never go outside that list.
    2. I scan for the absence of dividends before expiration, I avoid drug companies, and I sort by yield.
    3. I choose options with a minimum prob of being OTM at exp of 85%
    4. If assigned, I sell a covered call a little OTM (one strike ?)

    I’m struggling to understand the optimum way to use margin, and I end up sitting on too much cash.
    Maybe we can find a way to help each other.

    • Martin says:

      Hi Gabe,
      I pretty much do the same as you do, except I do go out of the dividend aristocrats list from time to time. As far as margin goes I struggle with it too because it fluctuates it is hard to manage. One day you think you are safe the next day you get a margin call. So I decided to save in cash enough money for the margin fluctuations. I calculate my max portfolio drawdown and that is the money I want to keep in cash, then I go fully invested. In order to separate the cash to cover my drawdown, I invest in cash equivalent ETFs. I found a few such as ICSH, SCHO, VGSH, or BSV and I keep that cash there. When I see being hit by a margin call, I simply sell a few shares from those ETFs to raise cash again. When the storm is over, I raise the reserves back to the required level.

  2. Angel says:

    Hello Sucker! a new visitor here, sometimes i just keep thinking about the fact that no matter how much you know think you know about stock trading, more are the other factors that actually carry the result you’re looking for.This is the case of a new investor that just know the right thing, in the right time, could outperform a nerd stock trader!

    • Martin says:

      Not sure what you are trying to imply. If assuming that I claim that I know a lot or everything about stock trading then absolutely not. I don\’t.

      If you are referring to new investors nailing it and outperforming the old guys trading for years, it is a known phenomenon and it is called \”beginners luck\”. I recommend reading Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas who writes about this extensively in his book.

  3. Kirti says:

    Wow! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

  4. Kami says:

    Hi,

    I just stumbled upon your site and find it quite interesting. I was looking for flow charts for options strategies. I found one for covered calls and another for selling puts. Do you have any others, by chance?

    Regards

  5. It’s amazing how quickly the time flies.
    I also started my blog to be an example to others and to track my mortgage debt, but my site has taken a whole new focus since then.

    I also love how open and honest you appear to be, it’s a rare trait in the online world – best of luck man, if you have any hot tips feel free to pass them on.

    Glen

    • Martin says:

      Glen, thank you. I try to be open although sometimes when my results turn bad I feel embarrassed posting them and thinking I may skip this time. But that’s what keeps me to improve and not to repeat the same mistakes.
      Thanks for stopping by!

  6. S. B. says:

    Livermore was a sage. Reading “Reminiscences of a Stock Operator” changed my investing perspective forever.

    • Martin says:

      SB, I agree. I was (and still am) fascinated by this investor. Although he was more of a trader (operator) than the investor as we refer to it today, I tried his approach but wasn’t successful in it much. I realized that I was actually acting like the suckers he was referring to throughout his memoirs. So I am sticking to dividend investing rather than trading. But who knows, maybe later in the future I will be able to start trading again.

  7. Jonathan says:

    Thanks for the follow, I like that you’re showing your progress and goals transparently. Good luck on your 2013 goals.

    I like the name of the website too. ;)

    • Martin says:

      Jonathan thanks for stopping by. I like your blog and your achievements a lot. Mainly your emergency account fully funded. It is truly impressive.So I am happy that you stopped by. It is an honor for me. Thanks

  8. Hi! THanks for commenting on Fearless Men earlier this week. When I click on your link it takes me to your homepage where it tries to auto launch some app and my AV blocks it. Do you have this intentionally set up that way? Cause it seems like malware.

    John

    • Martin says:

      John, it is not a malware. I have a scrolling stock ticker running on top of the page and it is made in java. If you have your setting on java security set at high (anything higher than medium) your browser will block it and pop up a warning message. So it is intentional, although the warnings and app issues are not. I am still working on this how to by-pass it.

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