"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."

Thursday, April 9, 2009

April 9th

Well, it was a mixed day. At one point I was up about 80 cents per share. Then I decided to try to play reversals on HIG and GS. Well, that was a very bad move on a day when the financials were on a tear! Stupid, really. I constantly castigate myself privately and on this blog about playing reversals against the primary trend of the day. Yet, I continue doing it because it's familiar. I think that my relative success paper-trading these past weeks has allowed me to continue on the same path and accept these bad days as the cost of doing business. At some point, I will have to make a change to this mindset. I have some things in mind and I will be trying to implement them in the near future. It really was a day of lost opportunity... that's how I see days where the movement is primarily in one direction and I don't capitalize on it. How easy it would be to just go short the inverse ETF's or long the financials like GS. Just as Tiger Woods had early success yet changed his swing to improve it, I must follow the same principle to improve my paper-trading. If a leader in his field such as Tiger believes in changing what is good in pursuit of better, it seemingly could work for me also. We'll see. I'm not Tiger Woods, of course, but I am sufficiently motivated. I just have to be prepared for losses while "re-working my swing."
ADDENDUM: After re-reading this post, it gives the impression I am "elevating myself" to a level of competence of which I am certainly not worthy. It is meant only to imply the potential for me and all of us to learn from successful people that we can make change for the better even if we enjoy some success already.


11 for 21 wins for a 52% win rate; 86 cents per share loss.