timbeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr, page-52

This post is directed at Sandma.

I never usually post on these the forums, just read and learn, but I feel the need to share a little something with Sandma as I think I can relate. I'm young, been trading 3 years, had a great trading plan with good balance to start off with. My trades kept getting shorter though and my plan looser as I pulled a few $10,000-$20,000 in a minute trades. It got addictive. I must say that time has taught me a few things;

1) Not everyone who's been in the market a long time knows what they're doing, but if you keep your ears/eyes open and your mouth shut, then do your own due diligence, it soon becomes clear who's a ramper full of BS and who's legit.

2) Trying to ride the spikes is time consuming and stessful. If I had've simply held a $5k - $10k parcel in each stock I thought was going places I would be about 1000% better off than I am as a result of trying to ride the spikes and, most importantly, I would've spend 1000% LESS TIME doing it. Instead I have watched many shares I have sold jump up in a moment when I wasn't watching (you can't watch all your stocks of interest on the market all the time it's open) just to kick myself for taking the "you can't go broke making a profit" approach.

3) When there's chance you'll make $10,000 in a minute there's a chance you'll lose $10,000 in a minute so you better be able to afford to lose that $10,000 if it all happens to go down that way.

I missed out on $1.5mil on FDL because I sold in and out, working with announcements, and was planning to get back in the day it went into a trading halt then spiked to 8c after the open. I didn't get in tho. I missed the boat. AND that's just one example of many. (DOM, SMM, FMG, AOE, etc...) The lesson learnt isn't that I should've held on to the big lot of stock I'd traded short a month or so earlier, its that I should've held SOME and then put SOME somewhere else, and SOME somewhere else etc... and left it alone.

I've held MAKO on and off since MAK was at 15c but I still find myself selling with the spikes out of habit and fear. Had I found HC earlier like to think I would've held as I am now. I'm a novice and an idiot. You may not be. You may find that you have a good plan, you stick to it, you make it work. All I hope is that it doesn't catch up with you and all the time you spend is worth it. It's definately caught up with me in my time and I never thought it would. Clawing back up is NO FUN.

Some of the comments from the other guys on this site are nothing short of bloody priceless. They're professionals and I really want to SAY THANKS to all of them for taking the time to post on this site so people like me can learn to trade smart and maximise profit while minimising time spent.

I think if you spent all the time you are probably spending ATM staring at Market Depth on thoroughly researching your next Small Cap bargain and getting in like so many of these guys did on MAK (at 12-15c) then waiting for what you know (with a fair bit of certainty) will happen then you'll be a happier man than you are now (and richer). I think we all have better things to do than just stare at Market Depth and worry about what our theoretic gain/loss is and how it could be gone in a moment. The guys who know their stuff on this site know that market volatility won't change the long term outlook for a strong company.

Now you know why I don't post...I can't shut up!

THANKS TO ALL YOU EXPERIENCED TRADERS HELPING ME OUT ON HC!

AND SANDMA - VOICE YOUR OPINION SURE, JUST DO IT WITH SOME THOUGHT AND RESPECT. THE WINNERS ARE THE PEOPLE WITH THEIR EARS/EYES OPEN, NOT THEIR MOUTHS (OR FINGERS SO TO SPEAK).