Yes, I lost lot of money being short; yes, I let many chances slip by; yes, I'd be better off just investing in mutual funds or sitting in cash. I did the exact the wrong thing by being shorts and owning puts in this relentless bull rally!
- Now is not the time to give up.
- I can cut loss, I can change, I can reduce trading. But I will not give up.
- I can stop trading, I can watch the market and learn from sideline. But I will not give up.
- I need to write these lessons, document all my losing trades and post it on my computer before I do another trade. But I will not give up.
- Maybe I don't have the talent to be a trader, but I'll try. ETFs, stocks, options. I'll continue to learn from failures and correct myself. I did lot of things right in the past, I'll build on these.
- Sometime, I wish I'm not in the game, I wish I spend time doing other things. I spent time doing this trading thing and lost money. But I will not give up.
- Life is a long journey, don't doubt myself, I still have time, money and energy to do something in this life. Don't give up. Don't ever give up your dream.
- I'm not a religious person, but now, I have to have faith in myself. I know God is watching me.
- I can't promise success in the future, I can't promise I won't lose money again in the future.
- But I can promise I will work really hard, this I can do. There is no shortcut in life, you have to earn it.
- I will research more on trading, I will not trade until the odds are great.
- I promise I'll use sound money management, I will cut loss quickly.
- I'll use good judgement and I will not be greedy and I will not be fearful of losing again.
- Maybe trial after trial I still can't do it. I would if I could but I can't, then just give up trading as the main way to make money, and do something different in life. But I will not give up my dream.
- I'll give myself another year till July 2008. Use current fund as a base and see if I can beat or match the market. All past losses are forgiven. I have to start fresh.
- Try to make up the losses is one of the main reasons I became greedy and fearful at the same time: I lost good judgement. So let's use today as the starting point.
- Trading is not gambling, it's playing the odds in your favor, it's finding the inefficiency in the market.
- So many people in history can recover from total failure, I'm in far better shape. It's not easy, it's very difficult. But I will not give up.
- I can work hard until I have exhausted myself researching. I can be smart and sharp in trading, don't be a sitting duck.
- Let's try my best and succeed.
4 comments:
Thanks for your sharing. Yes, do not give up.
I suggest you only short this market when it is over bought. It took me long time to learn.
Good luck.
You can email me @jzhang0525@yahoo.com, we can have more discussion.
money losing is always tough to swallow. you have to fight the ego and human weakness, and sharpen the tools. i think you are on your way to success.
Your self analysis and catharsis is an important step in regaining your balance and outlook.
I have been in the markets for 40 years as an investor and trader, and since I retired 15 years ago, my entire income has been dependent upon my ability to make money from my trading and investing ability. Needless to say, no matter how strong ones' financial acuity and experiences are, we are all hit with periods where we make either bad stock selections or try to impose our preconceived economic timetables on the markets to the detriment of our own financial health. Whether you are 30, 50, or 70 years old, there will always be times when you are out of synch with the markets or just plain wrong. Don't expect anything different.
In order to overcome the inevitable down times it is critical to always evaluate the risk vs reward ratio (in the good times as well as the bad times) and have portfolio allocations (i.e. - sector exposure, income exposure, beta exposure etc), and most important to increasing financial wealth is to always take some profits during rallies. Greed is a killer. My dad, a former stock broker, taught me never to get too greedy when a stock is going up. Make your trade and leave room for the next guy. Less equals more. Opportunities always abound. Your first loss is your BEST loss. Never be afraid to take a loss. Especially if you buy a stock for a particular reason and news comes out in opposition to your reason for purchasing, then you SELL because your premise was wrong.
Keep it simple.
hlgold at portfoliomanager@comcast.net
That was a great post for Friday. I got stopped out this week with the QID and SDD and I realize my ability to pick tops and bottoms in the market is very weak. This market will correct at some point and I'll wait to go short with positions like QID until the market is in a confirmed downtrend. It isn't yet.
For now I'll focus on a few natural gas plays which have more upside potential than downside given the time of year and the current valuations (CHK, NGAS, EPEX).
I'm a slow learner but I'm learning!
David
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