I've been trading stocks for 3 years i originally started with 5,000. I was going to invest in sprint (S) when it was at $9.15 but one of my buddies had a "lock" on a penny stock QBID. So i investd the 5,000 there. You probably know what happened. So determined to recoup my losses i then deposited another 10,000 and started using wizetrade ( a $2000 stock trading program) which did not help whatsoever. And within a few months of up's and down's of penny stocks Poof 10g gone. With the dedicated never give up attitude and some loose change i ran to my broker with another 20,000 this time i waited for a "good" stock and within a couple of days a buddy of mine with a degree in accounting tells me about SIRI so on the rush to get my money back i buy 20,000 @ 2.90 and wait. Within a few months howard stern announces he is going to the satelitte company and the stock nearly triples. Me being the noob dumbfuck decide to HOLD thinking it will climb higher than rival XMSR which was at $38.00 at the time. Hoping to retire the stock begins to slide. What i was thinking is beyond me. As i sit daily in front of the T.V. wathing maria bartiromo and an unforgiving ticker i dump 2/3rds of my share's take my small profit and reinvest in some small cap companies, Which all lose in percent daily. While in this process i start to notice more good news about SIRI Sub growth and profit gains. With rejuvinated faith and me down to my last 20,000 i decide to take a last ditch effort and let it ride on siri at 5.60 it tanks. I sell half of my share's and invest it in 4 or 5 blue chips. They begin to lose percentage daily. SIRI begins to lose daily i hold. i Take my loses from the blue chips and invest in other blue chips which gain in the double digits ($10,$20,$30) per month. Which no where near makes the money back in what i have lost. I now hold 1500 shares of SIRI, 15 shares of BBY, 10,000 shares of MOBL (my biggest loser which is a whole nother story in itself) 15 shares of HNP, 30 shares of XMSR, 20 shares of C and hoping that DALRQ would come out of bankruptcy which it did and begin to rise i bought 1000 shares at 1.90 it tanked they cancelled the symbol and reopened in the NYSE at 22.00 a share how i lost thier im still trying to figure out. In conclusion my portfolio is worth 7,500 most of it in SIRI waiting for the big merger. And the stubborn entrepenuer i am makes about $200 a week playing poker. Hoping that one of my many business plans makes me some money someday.