Playing Defense with Dog Collars

For serious investors who want to learn an investing technique built for markets like these

As I see it, every investor learns to play OFFENSE. But few truly learn to play DEFENSE. I'm trying to change that, through education and conveying my own experience in almost real-time.

I write a lot about investing, and I've been investing professionally for 30 years. And this is the nuttiest market I've ever seen, for many reasons. So I decided to do something about it.

I run an investing group on Seeking Alpha. Each week, I run a live session for our subscribers that covers market views, things I'm thinking about doing in my own portfolio (that they see through the service), and I answer all of their questions. I just don't provide personalized advice, since I retired from that 5 years ago.

This is a short segment from this past Monday's live session with subscribers. Why am I sharing it publicly, especially when it includes a look at one of my actual trades in my own account? Because the approach I have been introducing to both subscribers to our investing group and to the broader Seeking Alpha audience through my frequent stock and ETF articles is something I think can be a true game changer for investors. In particular, those who are baby boomers like me, and Gen-X as well.

This video is me describing a specific technique I call the "dog collar." It combines owning a stock with the ability to determine upfront my maximum loss for a stock. Collars have been around for a very long time, and they are a popular part of options investing. All I've done is to try to demystify it, removing the fancy options jargon, and applying my more than 40 years of stock charting. The mission: take a lot of the risk out of taking a risk.

The technique is straightforward, but it does involve learning the basics of options. This video is not intended for investors who think of stock investing as a game, or whose goal is to make a quick buck. It is something that hedge funds and other professional investors are more familiar with than self-directed investors. But I'm trying to change that, through my work at Seeking Alpha and through posts like this.

I welcome your questions, comments and feedback after you watch this 7-minute video. And, click this link if you want to learn more about our investing group on Seeking Alpha.

I'm no stranger to manic markets, but this one is a bit different. So I'm reaching out in ways I normally don't, to try to help investors find ways to increase their comfort and confidence at times like this. It works for me, maybe others will benefit from it too.