Dear fellow traders, It has just occurred to me that I have been an active member of this board for 2 years. Hey Baron,do I win a t-shirt or something? I am not starting a journal. Just recapping my experience in this game. It's funny to think that this whole thing started almost by accident. I won't go into boring details. One day in 1996 I didn't know what an option was, a few weeks later I'm taking the series 7 test. Then I went from a boiler room(just like the movie) to the biggest firm on the street. I made it my life. I had no rich uncles to open accts for. There were days that my manager would praise me because I made nearly 1000 cold-calls. That's no exaggeration. A few times I actually strapped the receiver to my hand with a rubberband. And to be honest, I happen to be in the right place at the right time. I built up a book of business just as the bull was really picking up speed. And by 1998 I was maxing out my 401k contributions and tossing money into tech funds (Munder NetNet, remember that one?). And then again I seemed to put myself in the right place at the right time. By the spring of 2000 I had clients that were doing strange things. Unsolicited orders into wacky stocks. Again, I'll leave out boring details, but I figured I had enough money to start making a living from trading. There have been ups and downs. I've learned many things about the markets and about myself. And the lessons keep coming everyday. This is the best game ever. It provides a challenge each day. Thanks you fellow traders who have provided help and guidance.(You know who you are). I like forward to many more years in the game and on ET. Happy Trading. Uptik2000
I check my date, next month is my fifth, pre y2k I didn't have enough sense to hang out here instead of raging bull board.
Great story, you should speak to a publisher!!! Ha, how are you my brother, haven't spoken to you in a while. Still kickin' it and causing trouble in Albany? I'll be back this summer for a visit. Todd.
Thank you friends. There are many experiences that I may re-cap on this thread in hopes that I will get more insight into the game. And perhaps a newbie will learn somehing too. I think lessons are difficult to learn vicariously in this game. People can tell you how hot a stove top is but you don't know how badly it burns until you touch it yourself. Fall 2000 I had started by trading 500 share lots of CSCO and ADCT by using RSI. Buying when the RSI was coming up from the bottoms and selling in the reverse. I thought it was so easy I went up to 1000 shares by week 3. I was picking up 1/4's, 3/8's and 1/2's with ease (this was b4 decilmalization). Things were going well. A month or so later I had noticed that (EMLX) was gapping down about 5 points because they missed est. by a bit. Hey, if I grab a 1000 at the low and take a point , sweet. Well, I grabbed and it dropped. I watched the candle stretch down fast hoping it would snap back. Within 60 seconds I reached my pain limit and sold for a $2000 loss. My palms were sweating. I grabbed an old 9 iron walked across the street into Washington Park and started working on my swing. After the realization that I wasn't ready for the PGA set in, I went back inside to see that not only had EMLX bounced back to my entry, it had almost completely filled the gap. Lesson learned: Don't pick bottoms in stocks like that unless you see support. More importantly, set your stops.