If you are going to make New Year resolutions, here are a few to consider.

1. Buy low, sell high. Most people actually do the opposite. True we do not know what is high or low but a little common sense should give us some inkling as to what that means.

2. Wait for a completed pattern or for a stock to get to a “logical” target.

You may still get it wrong but chances are you will do a lot better!. Best Buy is a good example. It has completed a huge a-b-c down from about $55 to $11, a drop of 90% or so. It has also gone to the 4th of previous degree and appears to have completed a full EW cycle, 5 up and 3 down. And if you happen to like technical analysis (EW is not!!) the RSI and MACD seem to be supporting some turn soon. The p/e is at 3.76 and the yield around 5.8%. For contrarians, and you should be one most of the time, 10.4% of the stock is sold short.

There are no guarantees that this will work each and every time, but if you keep doing it you will do better than listening to hot tips from your neighbour.