Just been reading through the thread and really honest...

Just been reading through the thread and really honest reflection from everyone, very valuable nuggets in there everywhere. I stareted trading about 2.5 years ago with a little under ten grand and pretty much lost it all in 6-12 months. Same old story, no research and buying tops - nothing new. Anyway, I banned myself from trading until I learnt some more and could trust myself to trade with a plan rather than gamble as I had been doing.
I kept reading HC over that time, pretty much just STT and Brains Trust and feel I'm ready so started again recently with a very modest pool of money. Going ok, I work full time and have a full life with young family and animals so want to buy early and wait for upcoming events such as drilling campaigns or shells etc.
interesting how much harder it is to buy and be patient when your money is on the line rather than when you are paper trading. I find myself in a position where I have 1 or 2 companies earmarked for a buy for a couple of weeks into the future and instead of buying now and waiting I buy something else and plan to sell in profit before getting back to the other stock. Problem is it doesn't usually go to plan and I have to face selling the interim one at a loss or missing the run on the stock I should have bought earlier.

Work in progress though and enjoying it immensely.