Has the market bottom out yet?

Many investors like to use the term "bottom fishing" to describe their action in bargain hunting for under valued stocks. In essence, what they are doing is to try to catch bottom. However, for many experienced traders, catching bottom is a dangerous action. Here is why:

Market bottom is a process, not an event.

Why you can't catch the bottom. For investors, your only choice is to buy stocks on the uptrend, not downtrend. Let other people find the bottom for you. Just sit back and watch them fight it out. Conserve your capital and avoid taking unnecessary risks.

Just look at the mistake I made on Chip Eng Seng. I thought when the price dropped from over $1.10 to $0.83, it was a good time to enter. In the end I had to cut loss at 0.59 (yet another mistake for not sticking to my rules of cutting loss at $0.75). During the market crash, the sell down can be fast and furious. If you are not in front of the screen, you will be caught dead. Yes, I was on a consulting project during the period and when I look at it, it was already hitting $0.60. So, the notion of buy-and-keep is not always the best approach. As you can see, this counter has gone down from peak of $1.10 to $0.49 (more than 50% off) and yet still bottom is not in sight.