Another energy stock that has fluctuated greatly over the past few months is EXXI - up 43% in the past month. it seems to follow the fluctuating price of oil as do the stocks you mentioned. Noone can know where the bottom is for oil prices but there's a lot of money to be made (or lost) in the ups and downs of these stocks currently if investors can handle the fear of potential losses in the short term.

Great article. Perhaps it can be broken down to these four - the biggest mistakes traders make:

1. Lack of a trading plan. (Also not being focused on what to invest in, how frequently to buy/sell, having unclear ideas on timing /exiting a trade).

2. Using Too Much Leverage - or chasing a bad trade with more money, over reaching beyond one's financial means.

3. Failure to Control Risk - not knowing when to sell a bad trade, lack of hedging, failure to understand market volatility.

4. Lack Of Self-Discipline - enough said!

TWTR is up over 3% in pre market trading.

Teva is a great company with almost no competitors, their stock deserves to go much higher again this year.

Market cap is $48.27 bn, with revenues of $20.5 bn (2014). Three upgrades to BUY last year and one downgrade. Stock increased over 24% last year, and should continue to grow in the long run.

I think one of the more frequent mistakes that a trader can make is not knowing when to exit a trade. Too many times people see a stock going up and believe it will continue to increase. When the stock falls, fear takes control, and that is never good.

To quote Steve Clark (hedge fund manager): Traders focus almost entirely on where to enter a trade. In reality, the entry size is often more important than the entry price because if the size is too large, a trader will be more likely to exit a good trade on a meaningless adverse price move. The larger the position, the greater the danger that trading decisions will be driven by fear rather than by judgment and experience.

For all the lovers of Apple (myself included), it might look like the stock is feeling a little downtrodden right now. Last October, Carl Icahn said the stock should hit over $203, but in order to do that, it would have to aggressively increase its stock repurchasing. To lessen one's dependence on Apple, these tech ETFs don't just rely on Apple but on a wider spectrum of companies just for good measure; Technology Select Sector SPDR (XLK), PowerShares QQQ Trust (QQQ), and the iShares U.S. Technology ETF (IYW).

Sounds like an interesting approach. IMHO I think for most people who want exposure to stocks and weigh the volatility, it might just make sense to stick with an Index fund that follows the S&P like VTI (stock index) along with VBTIX (bond index). VTI is up 84% in the past ten years!! Some yrs its up 20%, some yrs its down 30%. Overall, an index fund should bring in 8% returns or more. Your idea sounds a lot like trying to time the market. Yes your portfolio had good gains of over 50%, but it also lost over 70% some yrs too. Can you tell us what the total cumulative rate of return is for the life of the portfolio YTD?

For volatility allergic investors (I know you're out there somewhere) maybe consider an ETF like PowerShares S&P 500 Low Volatility (SPLV). Its up over 20% in the past year and is probably a good long term bet if seas turn choppy ahead. Top holdings include Walmart, Stericycle, and Proctor & Gamble.

Despite all the above, oil prices jumped about 8 percent on Friday, the biggest daily gain since 2009 for Brent, after data showed the number of U.S. oil drilling rigs had fallen the most in a week in nearly 30 years. With more oil refineries being idled, its only a matter a time before demand outstrips supply and prices of oil double or triple again.

Instead of relying on the Fed's predictions, is there any precedent to using game theory or the Nash equilibrium? More on game theory here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_theory