Understanding the condition of the overall market is essential to trading successfully.  Most individual stocks move in the same general direction.  The Wyckoff method provides a wonderful framework for understanding the behavior of individual stocks as well as the overall market.  The next mistake occurred in late 2015 as I entered a stock that eventually became a big winner – just as the overall market went from an uptrend to a down-sloping re-accumulation trading range.  Here is a weekly chart of the Dow Jones US Total Return Index at the time.

INGN was a recent IPO with a revolutionary product.  It had established itself as a leading stock.  I recognized its potential.  Unfortunately, I did not recognize the consolidation that the broad market had already entered.  The weekly chart below is annotated with both my trading mistake and a Wyckoffian analysis of the structure.  Interestingly, the stock bottomed out the first week of February in virtual lockstep with the overall market correction.

It is essential to understand the condition of the overall market when committing to trades in individual stocks.  Thanks to Roman I have become much better at market analysis.  I am now in the process of developing a trading plan.  The back-testing I have been doing on both the market and individual stocks has been tremendously helpful.  I am seeing things that I was oblivious to before, and I have no doubt it will have a beneficial impact on my trading results!

I am not afraid of making mistakes.  Everybody does it.  I will take the lessons learned and improve my future trading results.