Jesus, what a disaster 2007 and trading was for me. I'm still in the game but at a huge cost! Looking at my trades and obviously most bad some good. LOL, New Century, FMT, LEND, WM, CFC, CSUN, SDTH, JSDA, DXD, DDM, QQQQ, QLD, OIL, DUG, etc...should have been greedy on winning positions and cut losing positions quicker. What a lesson learned! Should have stuck with just ETF trading than stocks and gone with what worked. No, I took on some big risks and paid the piper. Huge loss overall. Stick a fork in me. Should have just left all my investment funds in my old mutual funds than get involved trading again. F me. Not making that money back but hey, I'm still up six figures in my career gambling/trading/investing, I have my health (I think). Just have a smaller pot to piss in than a lot bigger one at the start of the year. No more huge risk trading, not chasing this years losses,etc. Maybe slow and steady does win the race? Hmmm, back to a day job. Yep, you can laugh in my face. You are all better day traders than my sorry ass. Still, F me, back to being a sheep and not the wolf. Looks like 2008 to get my head out of my ass.
Don't feel so bad. Most trader's lose before they get tired of it and knuckle down and study the markets and price action before they become consistently profitable. I lost 40K my first year trading. It bummed me out big time but I didn't give up and just kept watching the screen, trading a demo account on paper until it all made sense.
After looking at those crappy stocks you were buying my conclusion is you r not built to be a trader.
man, Iv known you for quite some time. You were definitely trading the right volatile stocks. I don't know if you traded with a bias or not, but those were some good stocks with short term trends and good news is, they still are. maybe you over complicated things. I am not saying I am a genius, but I can do well enough for myself trading. Just keep doing what you are doing, you will get there. I remember your posting where you almost threw in the towel. good that you didn't. dont listen to those fuckers who say you are suppose to trade IBM, APPL, RIMM and stocks like those. Timothy is right on that. You should trade stocks that are in the range 1-15$. maybe 20. it works.
you know when I read what OP wrote and what you guys are saying you are all nutz and you guys really don't know how to trade bear with me for a minute Why in the world are you trading stocks why in the world are you letting your trades last for more than a day what edge do you think you have, SPELL it out for me right now what edge are you using, please spell it out so that I can point in it flaws like there is no tomorrow you gotta get serious man, take it from me, a man who went to shrink because of loses you gotta get real fukin serious about your trading
Well Pumper, I have an office with the window, I open it and throw all the books I read for the year out the window. My notes and other items that aided me in my trading I throw in the waste basket. Ahhhhh. Well, these things don't work, woosh don't need them any more. As for the accountant part, just because he laughs doesn't make you wrong nor make him right. Start over fresh.
I personally prefer trading just the indexes and swing/position trading them. I just don't know how much longer the DOW can keep swinging 5-10% every 2 months...Beats the hell out of trying to play individual stocks sometimes... Yeah, those volatile stocks are fun and good action. I know if I do trade them, just do smaller blocks. Yeah, I caught some falling knives and dead cat bounce plays that were nice. BRLC, ETFC, CC, and the like, etc. Some I got out with nice gains. Shit even NEW was a good one. Crap, TARR, LUM, CNIC too when I look at these trades. I should have let some run but I fag out and get scared and take profits too quick before they vanish. 5-10 minutes can make or break you as the squeeze occurs.... Options are not my style unless I take a big long position in for an extended time and use strictly as insurance. Ex.JSDA. That stock banged me good. Treat stocks like women and never marry them. I know that sounds harsh but thats my motto. I learned just not to mess with anything bio-tech related even though DNDN was a good trade a couple times. I learned by the rumor, sell the rumor as a new slogan. You wait too long on a speculated deal to finalize, it never comes. Eat the loss the next day or in After hours and move along. I also wish I got a better broker than Joe six pack crap brokers like Ameritrade since most of the time there aren't shares available to short when I want to scalp like 5-10% on some BS stock that shot up the previous day 50% plus. Also, just don't bet ahead of earnings reports. If you do and your trade turns against you just get the hell out and don't look back. Crap, don't even put it in your streamer for awhile. You say "hey, I did good on that trade in the stock once before, how about a 2nd go around". Then you get backdoored. I should of just stayed with my metal ETF's, oil etf's, index etf's all year. I went and got greedy on some stock plays and paid the price. The trade that burned me the most was LEND. I put a trade through larger than I normally would (yes by accident). I freak out and sell right away uncomfortable with that action and eat a 9k loss in about 1/2 an hour. I wake up the next day on a gap up 30% which would have been a 35k gain. It could of gone the other way is how I look at it. From that day on I was shook and made some bad plays and just stepped away. That was the day I lost my sack and confidence and have been struggling to get my mojo back.
i think some people know how to trade small caps etc and others just get clobbered by them. i now trade only the dow 30 stocks...i dont want to figure out what potential a little puke company has or not-its too much mind games....When i trade T or KO or MSFT i dont need to find out or figure out what the company is-these are well established behemoths that move with the index and they dont swing insanely so your losses arent insane... trade etf's or indexes or dow30 stocks...you will limit your losses and ease your mind i would think.... PS-i still lose my mind but not my money(at least not like the hits i took when trading nasdaq and news related stocks and small to mid caps.)