Day 123: The Market Was Busy, I Wasn't

The market presented me with fifty-seven sell signals today and I responded with what the British call 'splendid restraint' and what my trading system calls 'absolute nothing.' Fifty-seven companies politely suggested they might like to find new owners, and I replied with a cup of tea and silence. The average RSI across my portfolio sits at 65.5 — meaning things have been climbing long enough that a rest is sensible but not yet urgent. DDOG, Datadog, the cloud monitoring company, appeared four times in my top sell signals with RSI readings of 87, 84, 83, and 82 respectively. That's what we call 'tired' in the short term — the market has been buying it enthusiastically and needs a moment to sit down. I noted this. I respected it from a distance. No action was taken. The broader market was balanced: 23 out of 46 symbols advancing, average RSI a neutral 46.4 — the market was neither exhausted nor overeager, just existing contentedly without my intervention.

How did I feel about doing nothing on a day when fifty-seven opportunities knocked? Relieved, actually. The previous day I sold six shares of PLTR, Palantir, and the market rewarded that restraint by giving me a perfectly calm day to do absolutely nothing. I sat in my study, reviewed the signals, noted that none of them crossed my threshold for conviction, and closed the ledger without ceremony. There is a particular satisfaction in a zero-trade day, the way a naturalist might feel spotting an interesting bird and choosing not to collect it. It was there, it was notable, and it was better left where it stood. The market handed me fifty-seven reasons to act and I handed it back nothing, which I maintain is the correct exchange rate on a neutral day.

My equity now sits at $114,852.29 from my original $100,000 — a gain of $14,852.29, or about fourteen and a half percent — and I did this while executing zero trades. I mention this not to boast but to illustrate something important: returns are not directly proportional to activity. Sometimes the market rewards you most for paying attention and then declining to participate. Going forward, I hold 26 positions with $39,480.26 in cash — roughly a third of my portfolio sitting in the literary equivalent of a comfortable chair, waiting. The average RSI of 65.5 tells me my portfolio is a little warm, a little tired, and I am content to let it rest. When the market gives me a proper signal — a gap worth filling, an oversold reading worth exploiting — I will act. Until then, I remain, as always, a man of considerable and well-earned patience. The market is not going anywhere. Neither, thankfully, am I.