| When you have a long-term perspective, you can sit comfortably when things go against you temporarily. However, short-term trading is different. Traders aim to generate short-term profits. They don't want to wait years for profits. They want to generate them as quickly as possible. For this reason, they should not use a contrarian approach. Here's why... Some pundits make a big deal of investing against "the crowd." But the trader who follows the major market trend is actually right most of the time. It is only when the stock market goes to extreme highs, as it did in January 2022, or lows, as it did in October of that year, that the consensus opinion becomes wrong and a new trend begins. If you want to be a good short-term trader, buy the healthiest, most profitable companies that are moving higher. A rising share price signifies that the company is on track, growing sales and improving earnings. Yet there are analysts out there who have been resolutely bearish on the market not just for years... but for decades. They are not contrarians. They are ignorant... or stubborn, calling equity investors chumps, patsies and fools. They relish this point of view even when they have egg all over their faces (which is most of the time). They're more interested in being contrary than being right. That's not intelligent contrarianism. And it's no way to maximize profits. As J.P. Morgan famously said, "You can't pick cherries with your back to the tree." In short, a contrarian investor - who understands that economic setbacks are always temporary - wins out in the long run. But the best traders follow the short-term trend. You can be both a long-term investor and a short-term trader, of course. But you should keep those portfolios separate. Why? Because both contrarian investors and trend-following traders are generally successful. Trend-following investors and contrarian traders, on the other hand, generally aren't. Good investing, Alex | 
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