Hey Profit.ly Users,

There aren’t any set-ups that I am comfortable with or prepared for today (April Fool’s Day), so I decided to post a review of my first month’s trading (for myself, and anyone that is interested).

On the up side, my account is up over 11 percent in the first month with only 12 completed trades.  This includes remuneration in the form of reimbursements for trades from my E*trade 60 day trial period. My really good results for the month were earnings winners that got people excited either in the aftermarket or premarket sessions and had lots of internet buzz.  So, these are the set-ups I am looking for in the future with my long positions.  The Chat room really doesn’t help me much because I like to choose what to try for myself, but sometimes it's nice to see what others are thinking and doing. StocksToTrade has been very helpful.

On the down side, I made a huge mistake by jumping back in to $ATHX in the last week of the month.  I believed that my original thesis (that it would go to $3) was correct. Anticipating that there was additional up side to the price was a BIG mistake.  One of the main problems is that I went in with a really big position compared to all my other trades.  This is where the DYNGUS DAY PANIC thrust my winning streak into the trash can.  Yes, I now know what a morning panic actually feels like!  It is much stronger than the feeling of being on the winning side of a morning spike. I don’t like it.  I need to control that some by using smaller position sizes for now. 

So, that puts me two steps forward and one step back.  And, that reminded me of an evolutionary theory called the "Red Queen Hypothesis", where, for example, hosts and parasites battle each other to survive.  Each time the host garners a bit of forward evolution and resists the parasite, the parasite overcomes this host resistance and gains some traction of its own (two steps forward and one step back).

That hypothesis is based on Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, where the Red Queen tells her  "Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"

So true, and I should have run faster to get out of my losing trade. 

All in all, It was a good positive month, and I learned a lot about my strengths and weaknesses. I would not be as far ahead if it were not for the guidance and motivation provided by the Gurus and other people that I follow on this site!  Many Thanks!!!

 

Next month…maybe I’ll try shorting.