Good question Trix - Dot com I was much younger obviously had never made so much money so fast $250k in one day was the best obscenely stupid and the risk taking was off the charts cause I was on borrowed against the house money - HC was just a rampers paradise as there were a lot on newbies every day hundreds more and we ramped to oblivion trying to find the next more stupid person to offload too.
Then one day no more dumber people no buyers nothing managed to eke out a $20k profit lost a fortune in paper profits over half a mil which back then was like serious tear jerker money but luck was it was paper profits still made a real profit but many went bankrupt lost their houses and more.
GFC oh the GFC I was ready for that I whish I could recall the HC posts I called it a month before repeated warning HC members got shouted down - was fully in cash waiting for the big bang. Got a bit impatient about half way down and had to exit with an OK lose but got back in near the bottom made a fortune out of CBA (in in the teens from memory or vey low anyway cap raising and all) on the way back up well over half a mil so paid off the borrowed money and then some.
OK the lessons - stop lose always a stop loss the only real safeguard you need but no leniency no waiting don't treat it as money it is just a business decision cold and hard no emotion involved - easy to say difficult to do - very few can actually execute a $50k lose and walk around as if nothing happened - not natural at all but is a learned thing I have done it many times, no ego - but do not delay the decision that is fatal.
Current - took me ages to figure out the markets are not really financial at all mostly cause I tried to read and study all the media news and PE ratios and all that economic stuff that I see the most still doing - waste of time a complete waste of time. About 5 years ago I just stopped paying attention to TV to newspapers to any so called experts on finance - they are all BS well 90% anyway their job is the exact same as the original HC days - find a dumber person to offload based on a pretend narrative.
It was very strange because without the constant barrage of BS your mind clears up and you can clearly see what is actually happening (weirdest experience of my life actually) - my antagonism on HC is on purpose as it is an effective way to change the lifelong brainwashing narrative not for all but the more perceptive ones will start to ask themselves questions about the status quo.
A bit long and enough for now but one day I will write a book - The life of an arse**le trader - lol
(20min delay)