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Strategies & Market Trends : Another newbie trader
QQQ 556.21+0.4%Jul 14 4:00 PM EDT

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To: StockOperator who wrote (10)2/14/2002 10:14:35 PM
From: Mike McFarland  Read Replies (3) of 21
 
Not TA! Seat of the pants madness...

Last week I figured I'd put something on the order of 100k into things like mlnm, vrtx, cege...and a few others.
Oh, I'd hold them no less than a few weeks, hopefully hold on to them a few months (through the spring oncology meetings) and possibly keep a couple for a few years--or so I told myself.

Well, then I got all whipped up with the idea that maybe I could open my *Useless* etrade level II screen and watch Elan...

Then I got it into my head that maybe I was really still in the bear camp, and I ought not be buying positions, but rather doing some smarty pants trading...naturally in Elan.

With no clear plan in mind...I came back to my desk and
saw BTK plunging...toward 450...this would have been around Tuesday of last week I think.

Anyway, in just a few short seconds I decided, yeah, liquidate all the stuff I'd just bought, all a buck or so
in the red, and go off to chase this Elan idea.

So I take a loss, and then freeze up and don't trade Elan at all (which is probably just as well)

Naturally all the stuff I bought starts upward the instant
I sell, and I'm a little bitter, and a lot embarrassed.

I think the dumbest thing I did was to have a long conversation with a person who should not be in
the market...and then return to my PC--to see my positions moving against me ('what the hell am I doing in the market').

So I flipped out, no pun intended.

Purpose of the thread--helps keep me honest.
Maybe the easiest person to fool is yourself,
but if you put in down on paper, so to speak,
it is harder to change the story over time and
to forgive yourself.
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