Thursday, May 31, 2007
Saturday, May 19, 2007
ARGHH!!!
Ok i took a risk and did some short term trading, which you should NEVER do with money you aren't willing to lose! Cause boy did I lose!!!
So with the last few weeks, i took up positions in AVNR, MTOX, GRMN, SPN, BWLD, CMG, NOV, CRDN, JSDA, ROCM, VOLC, all on whims, either earnings or speculative. AVNR, MTOX both had huge breakouts which I tried to ride to capture some profits. The problem was i entered before a dip and my trailing stops kept hitting, when I'd rebuy, the stock would swing back to it's original position! I didn't lose much for each, maybe 8% total.
The real killers were my long-term prospects, ROCM and JSDA. both of which were STUPID plays, JSDA was an attempt to gamble earnings and ROCM was a hope that it would flip since the stock was taking at least a 40% drop in price from peak. Basically i got greedy and both stocks plummeted horribly, both losing me well over 18% each!
Ironically, it wasn't the losses that was the problem, it was the gains prior to ROCM and JSDA that did me in. I speculated good earnings reports from CMG, BWLD and SPN, which turned out to be all spectacular, CMG and BWLD both posted HUGE increases, almost 20-30% each. This gain fogged my rationale with greed, and the mistake i made was increased my positions in JSDA and ROCM once i discovered the so-called weakness in price... *sigh*
My play portfolio is now trashed and i am now hanging around even for overall return (from being 20% up). The slight market correction last week and earlier this week did NOT help at all either. Ah well, live and learn, and glad that i was rational enough not to do the same with my Roth IRA (which is still up a nice 12% return so far).
Lesson RE-learned from last month: Don't fcuk around with day-trading type activities, do your homework on a stock WELL and THOROUGHLY before making a rash decision and buying! Once a decision is made to purchase....buy in THIRDS in case of market fluctuations, definitely spaced between 10-15% differences in share price. A good idea is to always determine an exit point for the stock as well. Timing exit is equally important as entry!
More to come later...
So with the last few weeks, i took up positions in AVNR, MTOX, GRMN, SPN, BWLD, CMG, NOV, CRDN, JSDA, ROCM, VOLC, all on whims, either earnings or speculative. AVNR, MTOX both had huge breakouts which I tried to ride to capture some profits. The problem was i entered before a dip and my trailing stops kept hitting, when I'd rebuy, the stock would swing back to it's original position! I didn't lose much for each, maybe 8% total.
The real killers were my long-term prospects, ROCM and JSDA. both of which were STUPID plays, JSDA was an attempt to gamble earnings and ROCM was a hope that it would flip since the stock was taking at least a 40% drop in price from peak. Basically i got greedy and both stocks plummeted horribly, both losing me well over 18% each!
Ironically, it wasn't the losses that was the problem, it was the gains prior to ROCM and JSDA that did me in. I speculated good earnings reports from CMG, BWLD and SPN, which turned out to be all spectacular, CMG and BWLD both posted HUGE increases, almost 20-30% each. This gain fogged my rationale with greed, and the mistake i made was increased my positions in JSDA and ROCM once i discovered the so-called weakness in price... *sigh*
My play portfolio is now trashed and i am now hanging around even for overall return (from being 20% up). The slight market correction last week and earlier this week did NOT help at all either. Ah well, live and learn, and glad that i was rational enough not to do the same with my Roth IRA (which is still up a nice 12% return so far).
Lesson RE-learned from last month: Don't fcuk around with day-trading type activities, do your homework on a stock WELL and THOROUGHLY before making a rash decision and buying! Once a decision is made to purchase....buy in THIRDS in case of market fluctuations, definitely spaced between 10-15% differences in share price. A good idea is to always determine an exit point for the stock as well. Timing exit is equally important as entry!
More to come later...
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