Learn from this! That is why I am posting this.

My profit chart is a total mess right now. At one point i was up $60,000+ thanks to DRYS and GLBS. Those big gains gave me a false sense of confidence in my trading. At that point I was able to use leverage up to $150,000. To initially get in DRYS I used up a fourth day trade and got market as a Pattern Day trader.

That leverage and medium account size helped me Make big gains but soon I lost $12,000 on a bad trade that was over extended when I bought. It got worse from there despite small wins here and there it kept slipping. Once I was below $25,000 account size it got worse because I couldn't just get out of positions. 

Last two weeks I was up as much as $8,000 on trades but couldn't sell only to find it drop the next day, HUGE handicap and big risk trading that way. 

Last Friday I went all in on IDXG and sold when this morning when it cracked below $1. At first I had a small $250 position and was up 500% from the previous day. I figured the stock would slow down on it's gains only because it was Friday and that the news was good enough to hold over weekend. Went all in on it and turned a profitable trade into an entirely new trade. $8,000 loss there. $45,000 loss total. 

Right now im only up $15,000 for the year. Not bad for having started with $3,000 robin hood account and studying Tim's videos on YouTube but it's unacceptable in my book. 

Best decision I made was cashing out $15,000 and using it to pay off my car. Second best decision was buying several dvds from Tim and signing up for profitly and the stocks to trade scanner. These are things I can't lose because I have paid for them and can't trade with those funds.

Luckily I'm married and can help advise my wife to build her account which doesn't have day trade restrictions. 

Right now I will take a break for a week or two to clear my head.

Learn from my mistakes guys. If your new to trading like me (started in June this year) and you hit it big, cash out 50% at least and put it away or pay off some student debt or your mortgage so you won't spend it. Then trade conservatively with the rest. These home runs don't come often and doing what I did and chasing them and losing appreciation for $1,000-3,000 gains on trades is NOT good for you. 

Looking back I wish I had done what I just advised you to do. Now the cash is gone. I got greedy and figured I'd reinvest most of my cash. Not a good idea if your new. DO NOT TRY TO MAKE EVERYTHING BACK IN ONE TRADE. 

Next step here for me is going back to $3,000 once I'm ready and focusing on consistent 5%-30% returns and ONLY trading when I have day trades and getting out when trade doesn't go my way within 1 hour max or if I'm down 5-10%. Hopefully by posting this I will help someone else. At the very least it will be a reminder for me to follow through with this plan to get where I want to be in trading profits. My goal is to do this full time. It is the dream job but it's not always rosy.

Its an expensive lesson but I needed it and I WILL move forward with a clear head and self control. It's funny how in a business where it doesn't matter how your dress or even act you need to study and change your own psychology in order to suceed. Its crucial and differentiates us from just another gambler in a casino. I changed my username to SELFCONTROL to remind myself from here on out.

Tim and Superman and all the other successful traders here have imense self control and we can all learn from that. I respect them big time for that.