You'll see that the indicators are bottoming when it is a good time to buy, and topping at the time to sell. I try to use both RSI and MACD in tandem. I'll also look at STO (stochastics) too, but the mathematics for STO and RSI are virtually the same.

I also use my experience in that if I observe the Talking Heads really pumping the stock at the time that the technical indicators are reversing down, or that they are bad-mouthing a high quality company when the indicators are already depressed, I take that as a confirming signal.

Moreover, I use common sense in that I look to see if there is an ex-dividend date or reporting date coming up, and I look at similar charts of stocks of companies that are in the same or similar industries.

After a while, you too will get to see that trading is like participating in a dance. There is an ebb and flow to the action.

All that I have said to this point is just about the timing of an entry or exit point. I also use my studies of the fundamental and quantitative data to determine whether or not to hold the stock, and I look at the overall market momentum, too, always looking for the possibility of reversals in cycles and trends, and thinking of the possible drivers for change.

More than anything, I recommend to any new trader that the most critical approach is to be disciplined in looking at all the data as much of the time that you can afford. And I recommend that until you master a lot of the tools you could possibly put into your tool kit, stay away from zeroing in on one methodology, like using RSI exclusively, for instance, or Elliott Wave.

The more tools you have mastered, the easier you can see the capital markets for what they are, and the less likely you are to get fooled.

You will get fooled too. It happens to me every day.

The key is managing your trades so that you have more winners than losers, and bigger wins than losses.

Problems usually start when you try to pick tops and bottoms of cycles. Your strategy should be merely to stay on the right side of trend, and to be in the stocks of the best quality companies when you are long.

There is a landscape to the capital market, and, in trying to get some place, you'll likely not get there without a map.

As for me, the name of the game is to build positions in the stocks of companies I happen to respect the most for a good business model, a solid management track record, and so forth. Then I am always trying to lower my cost base in those securities so that (1) the risk of future loss is always getting lower, and, (2) for the dividend payers, the "yield-to-cost" is always growing.

With respect to the latter, it's an understated concept. Too much, the sell-side wants you to focus on the future, and the stories they are offering, but you need to be focused on the past. If you are building positions in say ten stocks over a twenty or thirty year period, you need to be looking only at what your cost base is, and the steps you can take to reduce it, for those ten stocks.

That's why I say, for example, that options trading is so helpful. Writing puts or calls, at the appropriate times, is an important tactic.

Worrying about oil prices that are going up or down, or what a central banker has to say about matters, is not so important as keeping a sharp focus on precisely what assets you do own.

Clearly, studying the trend and cycle phases is important to me, but it is not the be-all and end-all.

That about sums it up.