Hey there — I’m Jamie Dlugosch, but you can call me JD.

You’re going to see my name more often starting today. I’m joining the ProsperityPub team to bring you something I call Rational Trading — a way to trade short-term moves without losing your mind in the chaos.

I’ve been doing this for decades — through crashes, booms, manias, quiet markets and everything in between.

Side note: Remind me to tell you about what happened just two days after I took my Series 7 exam — let’s just say it was one of the worst days in market history, and it hit me like a brick. Shaped how I see the markets to this day. But we’ll get to that another time…

Along the way, I developed a simple, disciplined framework that helps me block out the noise and focus on what matters right now.

I call it the Four Pillars of Rational Trading(if you haven’t picked up your FREE PDF book, you can grab it right here) — and it’s built to help you trade without guessing, without overreacting, and without needing 12 monitors and a Red Bull IV hooked up directly into your arm.

The Importance of Trading The Right Stocks (a.k.a. Not Every Trade Signal Is Created Equal)

I talked about this in today’s video — because it’s one of the most important lessons a trader can learn:

Not every buy signal is a buy.

Let me show you what I mean.

I’ve been working on a new tool I call the Green Diamond Dashboard.

It flags stocks that meet certain rules I look for — basically, stocks that have a statistically repeatable setup with a strong edge.

Today, two recent examples tell the whole story.

Example 1: Gilead (GILD)
This one triggered a green diamond last week.

It’s a high-rated stock — stable, widely held, fundamentally sound. So I took the trade.

And when the market spiked today, GILD moved with it — just like I expected.

Example 2: Sweetgreen (SG)
This one also triggered a green diamond…

But I didn’t take the trade. Why?

Because Sweetgreen is a low-rated stock.

It’s thinly traded, erratic, and doesn’t behave in ways that support a repeatable edge.

What happened?

While the rest of the market — including GILD — rallied today, Sweetgreen dropped.

Let me say that again: It actually closed lower on a huge up day.

That’s the point I want to drive home:

Don’t just trade the setup. Trade the right stocks.

It’s not enough to look for signals. You’ve got to ask:

  • Is this stock well-behaved?
    • Is this a chart I can trust?
    • Or is this going to fall apart the moment something weird happens?

My job is to filter for that.

That’s what the Green Diamond Dashboard is designed to do — and I’ll be sharing more about it soon.

For now, just remember: Signal does not equal Setup. And Setup does not equal Trade.

The difference is what makes a rational trader.

What to Expect from Me

In every issue of my newsletter, I’ll show you:

  • What I’m seeing in the data

  • How the big stories (like the Fed, Trump, or earnings season) are driving the market

  • What I’d be watching today if I were sitting in your seat

If you’re tired of hype, drama, and prediction theater, I think we’ll get along just fine.

Talk soon,
JD
The Rational Trader

P.S. If you want a sneak peek at the Green Diamond Dashboard, take a look at this video.