Ha. Well, I'll play.Two of my wish-I-had-that-Time-Machine do...

Ha. Well, I'll play.

Two of my wish-I-had-that-Time-Machine do overs:

Late last year, in SLR @ .185, stopped out at .16 . Didn't buy back in while awaiting retrace. Today: .815

DIO - in @ .305, took profits @ .39 . Didn't buy back in while awaiting retrace. Today .735

In hindsight, my original instincts were good and I exited both trades way too early. But I stuck to my trading plan for each trade, and I trust that more than I do instincts (which get terribly close to 'hope' sometimes). I do sometimes get stopped out earlier than I should, but having firm exit strategies has also saved my bacon on more than one occasion. Likewise, I often take profits on a leg up and miss out on some of the rise (or most of it, in the case of DIO), but am playing safe. I may not have made as many returns here as some in '09, but I also didn't take the caning many did in '08.

Mind you, I have some core stuff that I just won't trade out of (in MCO at an average now of .13 and not going anywhere).

So in response to the earlier posts in this thread - it's perfectly normal to feel good (and share the joy) when you nail a trade. But everyone screws up sometime. Having good management strategies that you follow head over heart though is nice, if not foolproof.