S&P 500 Still Holding Near Monthly Highs...

European markets are up this morning as we await January jobs data here in the US.  The past few BLS reports have been solid, and I'm thinking this one should be strong as well.  However, the Dow, Nas, and S&P 500 are all trading at monthly highs.  And more importantly, we're now approaching last years highs in all the major indexes.

That means the markets are prone to a pullback in coming weeks.  We've seen solid gains so far this year, and the odds of the markets breaking through last years highs without seeing some hefty profit taking are extremely low.

That's why I've been lightening up on longs and applying a few more hedges over the past few days...

A few energy related stocks I'm trading today:

CLNE
NOG
TPLM
LNG
DUG

Disclosure: long positions in all

Trading Psychology- Lose the fear by accepting the truth about trading...

Where does fear come from?

Of course, since this is a trading blog the fear I'm talking about is trading fear.  Every trader, from novice to experienced, to professional, knows exactly what I'm talking about.  If you haven't felt it yet, you haven't been in this game for very long.  It's the lump in your throat, the queazy feeling in your stomach, the heart palpitations, or a mixture of all the above- right before you put on a trade.

So why does this happen?  Why are traders prone to 'freak out' right before putting on a trade?

There are multiple reasons for trading fear, and we're going to cover all of them over the next few weeks.  But more importantly, we'll cover ways to overcome fear.  And it's with a simple tactic... accepting the truth about trading.

More to come on this deep subject...