Monday, January 11, 2010

The Undisciplined Trader

That's me. In the recent unpleasantness of last year, I called every shot right until the last one. In the maw of the panic, I was selling when I should have been buying. I've been out-of-sync with the market ever since.

That's why I'm still overwhelmingly in cash, lent out for no interest at all. It's why I still own only two stocks (GOOG and NLY), though they have both been big winners from the lows of last March.

A couple of weeks ago, I sold a thousand NLY. I did that before and was able to buy it back cheaper. This time, the stock refuses to sell off in response to my sale.

A month ago, I also bought a thousand ATPG around 14.82. I watched it go almost to 17 and then got nervous when it started dropping. Oil stocks make me nervous. I got out at 15.85. The stock then went to 20.

I could still get right with these stocks. This is where patience comes in. All I need is a good pullback in the market.

On the other hand, last week, I looked at Google at 625 and thought about selling a hundred, but I knew I wasn't going to do that within a couple of weeks of what is expected to be the biggest earnings party that Google has thrown in several years. If I had sold the hundo, I could've bought it back any time today for 595. But I don't care. I want to go to the party.

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