Personally I learned the hard way not to put all my eggs in one basket! It's been 5 years now and I am still not confident enough to jump back into the game. Would love to hear about yours.
This Horse Is A Bit Long In The Tooth, I Wouldn't Buy it, I Would Sell It. My Biggest Mistake Is Trading On What I Think. Trade What You See, Get Two Setups And Wait On That To Happen. But I'm A Trader, So If Your An Investor, Don't Be Quick To Run With The Crowd, (BULLS) there is No Mo Money Left To Be Made. IMHO
That no matter how much information you give people that helps them help themselves, they are too ignorant to do anything with it because everyone is gaming everyone. And knowledge is power.
I jumped into the market during the crazy exciting financial housing crisis days -- I made some profit, but eventually pulled out after I lost approx 40% of my account relatively quickly. Like you, I also took a really long time on the sidelines reflecting/studying/paper trading in my head. I just couldn't seem to have it in me to go back into the game. Here's a good movie line quote from Even Money 2006: "Like I said we're all chasin somethin. More money. More love. What we're really looking for is more life. But sometimes you go looking for more, and you wind up with less. It's a beautiful world. We ought to be satisfied. But the truth is... we all want more. Some take a chance for the rush of winning. Some for love. But you can't have your dream without laying something on the line. The key is not to risk what you can't afford to lose. You might think you're different. But someday... you're gonna want more too. The question is... What are you willing to lay on the line?"
patience , managing stress reactive patterns , avoiding self sabotage , emotional desires , fight ,flight or freeze , need to be right = perfect trading , revenge trading etc etc mindset required for trading. to sum it real traders will find " master the inner enemy is the most difficult "
Don't fight the market! I can research night and day, write algorithms, draw endless trendlines, apply every mathematical formula out there, say to myself "this doesn't make sense!" 1000 times, or <insert strat here>, but if the market is moving against me, DON'T FIGHT IT. It's a battle I can't win! As Livingston said, if a train is coming at you, get off the tracks! Steer your speculative ship along with the tide, and let it take you and your portfolio to the next level.
I learned to never have the attitude you are only betting with the houses money. One year I had a big profit and a few months into the next year I had vaporized all of the profits swinging for the fence on a big trade when a terrorist attack sent the market free fallin while I was out partying some where. I had to pay $180k in short term capital gains. Sucks when not one dollar ever touched my hands - just a virtual profit. Had to revisit the poor house and claw my way back up from a big hole - now doing better than ever had before. Thats why I harp on risk mgmt so much. "Sometimes you're flush and sometimes you're bust, and when you're up, it's never as good as it seems, and when you're down, you never think you're gonna be up again. But life goes on. Remember that. Money isn't real, it doesn't matter. It only seems like it does." film Blow
I saved up 5K after about 6 months solid savings. Then I lost it all on my second trade. My first trade broke even, my second was a disaster . Just start of with very small amounts of $$ for a new strategy, trading plan until you get used to it. Or as you said, don't put all ur eggs in 1 basket.