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...