Full Q&A With Investors and Traders on Twitter

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Q&A with Jim Gobetz (aiki14):

Name: Jim Gobetz
Twitter Alias: aiki14
Followers: 911

Jim is a Managing Partner of The Wallingford Trust. He posts frequently on Twitter as aiki14. Here is full Q&A.

Q: What instruments do you invest in besides stocks?

A: I trade options regularly, and have investments in bonds, Real Estate, Structured Products, and Oil Limited Partnerships.

Q: How long do you normally hold your stocks?

A: In my trading portfolio I have historically held days to weeks, but for the last 6 months I have been taking very short term hold positions in ETF's and some very liquid stocks. I have a couple of swing trades on but do not typically hold overnight these days.

Q: How do you identify which stocks you want to buy?

A: I look for High Beta, Liquid stocks or ETF's in the current market environment.

Q: How do you hedge against risk (options, stop loss, etc).

A: Depending on the position I'll use stops, position size management, or options positions. I may take long or short options positions based on both the underlying and the price and liquidity of the options.

Q: When do you take losses and profits?

A: I use a very simple system, candlesticks, slow stochastics, and volume to determine buy and sell points. I monitor market depth to assess volume trends. I assign a level of risk to the trade, then determine what percentage of my portfolio I am willing to lose on it. Next I decide how much to place on the position. If I believe the position is worth risking .5% of my portfolio I might put 10% of my capital into the position and use a 5% stop. For the upside I use technical criteria. I am looking for overbought conditions based on the stochastics and fall offs in volume, if either indicates a reversal I am quick to move up my stops or exit. I also reduce positions to lock in profit as the price goes in my favor.

Q: How do you use Twitter each day for trading?

A: Intraday I use Stocktwits to see what the people on it are thinking, I believe it gives me a pretty good sense of what the general market is thinking. It's the discussions outside of market hours where it is really of value. A source of good ideas I can put through my due diligence, or that spark an idea that is actionable.

Q: What Twitter widgets, applications, tools and services do you like using?

A: I use Tweetdeck, and really like it for keeping things manageable.

Q: If you had to recommend our readers to follow one person, who would that be?

A: There are many great folks who post, and to pick one is very difficult. That said if I could only pick one I would pick Fari Hamzei. He is HamzeiAnalytics on twitter. Even if these don't get in, Agwarner , ToddStottlemyre, alphatrends, and stevenplace contribute an amazing amount of actionable information.

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