Dumbest thing for me was getting deeply into systematic trading and software involved in this. Although I had learned a lot in the beginning, then I was working hard with myriad of of patterns, combinations, formulas and so on, and slowly got addicted to trading software. There was a time that I gained a lot of knowledge, working like a dog and my results were still mediocre. The best think happened to me in my trading life was to break free of software, tech supports and dozens of time consuming computer operations.
So you saying you went to a less systematic method of trading? Now you are trading discretion or automated?
hah i'm starting to get into system development and software too :/ so i guess im a few steps behind you on that path heh.
JM, I trade options now, but software and spreadsheets give me just additional details, whereas core strategy is based on simple logic.
This is great lesson to see how hard is to make money, but don`t get blinded by impressive performance reports.
Spent money on fast cars & women. That, and trying to pick the low on 9/11. Another dumb one was going short JDSU in summer 2000, with a 10% stop, instead of buying the back month puts which was my original plan. Needless to say, I got stopped out and then it collapsed 90%+ just as I expected. Since then I always use puts for long-term shorts on bubbles.