Not much to discuss today. Again my portfolio jumped around all over the place today. I ended up losing .36%. I dived in to Zacks Research Wizard last night. There is a lot there to play with, but I really like how things are set up. I've developed some screens of my own already that seem to have potential. I plan to start trading a portion of my portfolio with my new screens next week.

Once again the market whips itself all over the place. My charts were bouncing back and forth all day.

I haven't had a day over 1% since May 11th. Today I am up 1.52%. I've got a ways to go to recover my "stupid tax" losses.

After a three years of hemming and hawing (is that how you write that?), I purchased a subscription to Zack's Research Wizard today. I've been testing it for the past couple of weeks, and I've really discovered some time-saving ways to evaluate my screens and ideas. I used to go through reams of information (I have a stack of paper two feet tall) to get certain types of historical data. I found ways to get that same information in a few seconds.

The subscription price is $1,600 and that provides 6 years of historical data. I've talked with a lot of folks that nearly drop dead when they hear a price like that but I spent nearly that amount on my dumb '99 Plymouth Voyager yesterday and there is no way that thing is going to make me any money.

I've met a few traders out there who hurt their returns because they are too wrapped up in nickels and dimes. They are afraid to exit a $20,000 losing position because of a $7 commission. They spend all their time looking for free information when they could be making a lot more paying somebody else to do the leg-work for them.

I think there is a lot of fear out there because of shysters who have taken people for all they are worth. I'm sure that hurts the businesses of reputable companies that want to help people make money. My experience with Zacks over the years has been very positive.

I figure this is money well-spent. I'll let you know how things go throughout this next year. I hope to develop some new screens and after the summer, I'll be sharing those screens (and some of my older ones) with StockPunk readers.

A crazy day, today. Wide swings in the morning. I ended up +.10% after being up around 1.5%. I guess it's better than losing. I had no emotional swings today, however. I did everything I set out to do this morning without getting too wrapped up in the details.

I was devastated that StockPunk wasn't chosen by Charles Kirk as one of his 75 favorite websites. I thought that by posting a picture from Star Wars, I might be able to tip the scales. Of course, if I was reading this blog I'd probably steer people away from it.

Speaking of Star Wars, if you think you spend too much time obsessing over stocks, check out this Star Wars fan's website. He's done nearly the entire Star Wars movie in ASCII animation. I can't imagine the amount of time that must have taken.

When I was a kid, I memorized every line of dialog from start to finish of both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. I can still recite any part of each movie on cue. I'm such a loser.

Recently, I saw a picture in the local paper of a Star Wars storm trooper standing next to a mailbox with an R2-D2 decal on it. I read the caption and discovered that the guy in the storm trooper outfit was a friend of mine from 20 years ago who was obsessed with the Star Wars trilogy (I guess he still is). Back then he made a light saber out of a cattle prod that gave an excruciating shock if he zapped you with it. Ahhh, those were the days.

Ask StockPunk

My first ever "Ask StockPunk" will be posted on June 10th. So send your questions to stockpunk@yahoo.com. You can ask me anything you want about my screening, my portfolio management, how much time I spend trading, whatever. I've been answering a lot of mail individually and I thought it might be helpful for everyone to be able to read what StockPunk readers are thinking.

However:

• I can't answer questions about individual stocks because I'm too stupid.
• I'm won't recommend (or discourage you from buying) any particular stock.
• I won't reveal the year of the coming Apocalypse (2012), because it's too much for you to handle.

Scott

This Week With StockPunk

Not much in the way of changes this week. I'm planning on weighting my portfolio more toward one of my screens that is outperforming the others. My plan is to put 70% of my portfolio in the stocks that pass this screen (if three or more pass). I plan to put a 9% stop from the purchase price on each stock and leave it alone until it no longer passes the screen.

Please tune in daily to watch me self-destruct.

I'm trying to put together some new screens today, but I haven't been able to figure out how to backtest them. For example, for some of my screens I use the Zacks ranking. I've been printing out the Zacks ranking of all my passing stocks since August of 2006, but I have passing companies from before that. I can't figure out how to get past Zack rankings. I'd like to see what the Zacks ranking on, for example, Toll Brothers (TOL) was on February 15th 2005. I can't figure out anything from the Zacks website so if anybody has any idea let me know.

Recently, I've developed a screen that looks for fundamentally strong stocks that aren't followed by analysts. My thinking was that there are a lot of stocks out there that are "under the radar" and as soon as folks figure out that the company is kicking it pretty good they'll jump on board in droves. And because the stock isn't being followed closely by anybody significant, it has a lot more room to jump when everybody catches on.

That screen has now surpassed all my others for the year at 40.75%. Since October of 2006 it's up 164.79% which more than doubles my next best screen. Unfortunately, my data only goes back to October of 2006 and I cant figure out a way to backtest beyond that.

I signed up for a two week trial period with Zack's Research Wizard. It really is an excellent screening system, but until I can duplicate the screens I run and get somewhat similar results, I'm hesitant to go beyond the trial period. I am quite comfortable with my screens, but they don't seem to translate well with the parameters of other screening programs. I wish I could just cut an paste criteria and have identical (or at least similar) results.

Research Wizard does have the coolest and quickest way to backtest a strategy that I've come across. I do most of my backtesting by hand--looking up historical stock prices, calculating gains or losses and popping it into a spreadsheet. It's time consuming and cumbersome. I was contemplating have my pre-teen daughter do some number crunching for me, but I don't think she's quite ready yet.

Week In Review 5-25-07

Well, well, well. I got taught a thing or two this week. I lost 3.94%. My best screen made 5.11% and the worst lost 2.16%. So in essence, once again, I lost more than my worst screen trying to keep from losing. Benjamin Franklin said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." He also told people to read this blog for a practical example.

Not really--he's been dead a long time. But lately I've been the personification of insane behavior. I've written about what I should do, but I do the opposite. I thought that by sharing my experiences with people, I might be held more accountable. Thanks to the folks who have encouraged me to stop acting like an emotional idiot and get back on track.

My goal during the three-day weekend is to refocus and reapply what I've learned over the past four years.

StoxInvestor had some nice things to say about me on his blog. "This guy has developed some interesting screens and has an impressive track record. What I am most impressed about is his money management. If you read some of his older posts, he discusses how he manages and closes positions. He manages them by using a trailing stop. To close, he simply tightens the trailing stop. I think this is a great idea for squeezing some extra profits while switching holdings. You could even use buy trailing stops to get into positions. I think this is a great way to manage a screen."

He'll probably delete me from his blogroll after reading about the mess I've made of things this week.

This is where I've been taken the last two days. Yes, that's a woodshed. Today I lost 2.48%. I am still using stops (despite my ongoing realization that they mess me up every time). I got out of HDNG before it plummeted. I guess I can call that a minor victory among all of my other disastrous calls.

I wish I had more experience under my belt because I haven't quite figured out what to do once I reach a goal. My goal this year was to make 20%. When I reached that goal last month, I wondered if I should take my gains off the table. Last year the same thing happened. I reached my yearly goal by May and then lost half of it by July.

The only encouraging thing is that last year at this time I was only up about 10%. So, hopefully I won't continue to make emotional mistakes and I can end this year like I did last year. Stay tuned because maybe you'll be able to witness the day to day self destruction of StockPunk. Wouldn't that be something you could tell your kids.

Pradeep has an article about struggling traders at Stockbee. He mocks me.

Since March 13th I've avoided a -2% day. Today that streak was broken. Like last year at this time, I've strayed from my routine and from what works. I've allowed myself to get caught up in news, hype, fear and arrogance and it has taken its toll. Hopefully over the weekend I'll be able to think things over and learn from my mistakes.

The "Lost" finale is on tonight. I'm feeling pretty tired so I don't know if I'll watch it tonight or some other time. I watched the "24" finale on Monday. That show is getting kind of tiring. At least it didn't end with something crazy like it usually does.

You know, sometimes I amaze even myself. -- Han Solo

I look at my portfolio and I just shake my head. How can I know the right thing to do and still try to second guess it? Am I so flawed as a human that I can't learn from my mistakes? Why do I trust my judgment over the data when I know that my judgment is NEVER right? Is fear THAT powerful. I'm thinking that it is.

I made a choice to exclude one stock that appeared on my screens but that was making me mad--AZZ. All last week the thing lost money and I finally got rid of it. Since Monday it is up 23%.

The market is a crafty little devil. It took back my gains from yesterday, almost to the penny.

My brilliant positioning that I discussed on Monday is keeping me from big gains. I'm so freakin' smart. One of my screens is up over 7% in two days. That's for a portfolio of stocks, not just one! I've made nothing. Zilch.

I'm reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss this week. It's a bit over the top, but there are some good ideas in there about wasting time. I've written before about how my constant interaction with the market only costs me. I've got so many better things that I can be doing than constantly worrying about whether a trade I made was the right choice and trying to guess what the market is doing through my constant monitoring.

It almost seems like I'm going back to my old habits:

• Trying to avoid losses by utilizing buy stops to catch only big gains
• Second-guessing my screens and choosing the stocks that I feel are ready to pop
• Being so worried about losing that I avoid gaining
• Getting worked up about daily (and even intra-daily) ebbs and flows
• Spending too much time worrying about what everybody else is saying and doing
  
• Wishing I would have bought the latest "hot" stock that showed up on somebody else's list
• Worrying that the market is at it's top and that I need to somehow prevent a big loss
• Avoiding thinly traded stocks because I want to be able to "get out quick"
• Trying to figure things out using charts and patterns (I don't think I have the knack)
• Getting sidetracked by fancy gizmos (that TradeStation sure looks cool)

I need to shake myself up and get out of this rut. My fear is that as soon as I start trading like I should, the market will tank and it will confirm all of my old habits.

It's funny how I can write about my stupidity and still be stupid.

An OK day. Up .88%. My stop on KRSL triggered. It qualified on my screens after dropping over 30% so I thought maybe I could catch a big gain if it happened. I put a stop on it for a 7% gain and it triggered early. That scared me because I had visions of another big drop right after the bounce at the open, but it was able to hold on through the day which is an encouraging sign. I don't know what made it pop, so hopefully I made the right call.

I also obtained some ARII after it bounced up in the morning. AZZ showed up on one of my best performing screens, but of course I chose not to buy it. It was up over 7%. That screen lost 5% last week. It made all of that up today. I'm going to keep my eye on that one.

Bill Fleckenstien is at it again. He's comparing today's market to the one in 1929 here. Don't ask me.

This Week with StockPunk

Remarkably, my screens have remained pretty much the same for this week. I'm 75% in cash now thanks to my liberal (and destructive) use of stops last week. My plan for this week is to dip my toes in slowly.

Large caps are still pushing higher while the small caps are struggling. Whenever my screens get beat by the DOW I get a little defensive. I would really like to avoid any sort of nasty correction, but I am getting tired of missing out on a rally that won't quit.

So my plan for this week is to build in some stops to catch any dramatic gains (over 5%). If things tank or meander aimlessly, I'll be positioned to avoid my emotional distractions.

Week In Review 5-18-2007

A crummy week for me. Lots of mistakes and regrets. Down 3.38%. All of my screens but one did better than me. The best made .84% and the worst lost 5.72%. The small cap stocks fared the worst and I had plenty of those.

What I learned this week--

My disaster with KRSL taught me to quit trying to outsmart my screens. I was lucky to get rid of that thing with a loss of 10%. The only other stop loss that I benefited from was with AZZ. I got rid of it at $27.01 and it ended the week at $25.63. The other stocks I stopped out of went on to embarrass me SYNL, VSEA, CPA.

I let my emotions get the best of me this week. Instead of seeking comfort in the returns of my "system" I turned to the opinion of others and tried to prevent big losses by second guessing. I should have been slightly up or at least even this week. It was a good lesson for me and I hope that I will apply it to my trading in the weeks to come.

I must admit, though, that I am a bit squeamish about things right now. I went back to see where I was last year at this time and was a bit astonished to see that I was up only 8.24%. Last May was pretty rough (and so was June and July) and I would be bothered if I gave up much more of the gains I've made so far.

I'm glad this week is finally ending. Unless the market drops 10% today, all of my decisions have been stupid. I never like to be hoping the market falls just to confirm my emotional decisions. That's a bad place to be.

Another disappointing day -.88%. I've given back all of last week's gains in my attempt to keep them. I'll have to chalk up this week to another learning experience.

This is one of those gut wrenching days. I've got 50% in cash and I don't feel good about missing out on days of gains. I am tempted to revisit the stocks that I stopped out of earlier. I also see the value of patience (but not enough to actually be patient).

I think it's probably best to lick my wounds the rest of the week and regroup this weekend.

Down .26%. Must control emotions. My screen was UP 2.14%. That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about.

I'm getting some great advice from lots of you. Keep it coming in.

Burned by my emotions again . . .

Once again my "gut" has betrayed me. I stopped out of CPA yesterday thinking that the market was starting to weaken. Why did I think it was weakening you innocently ask? Because everybody said it was, and I listened to them. Time and time again, I listen to the "chatter" and diverge from my trading plan. Has it ever worked better for me to trade that way, you ask? Um, no. Why do I still do it? You might think I do it because I'm an idiot. You are right.

I went to a free financial seminar a couple of weekends ago expecting a sales pitch and tidbits of worthless information. I came away from it with some new perspectives that challenged my thinking.

One of the concepts was about how the fear of losing financially hinders winning financially. You can see that played out in my daily experience. All of my mistakes have been driven by fear. There's always that lurking pit in my gut that today could be the day that the market drops 10% and I need to be out before it does. I think by always trying to position myself to miss the big loss I have kept myself from making more than enough gains to offset the difference.

Here's what I mean. Since January, I've been combining the results of two stock screens to choose my portfolio of stocks. One of those screens has made 42% YTD and the other has made 23% YTD. Averaged together that makes 32.5% (not taking commissions or spreads into account). Last Friday my portfolio was at about 27%--a 5.5% difference in 4.5 months. So, essentially, I've lost 5.5% in 4 months because I'm scared of losing--which is what I've done. If I keep on like this my screens will beat me by over 16% by the end of the year. That's a pretty high price to pay for letting my fear control my decision making.

I think once I am able to completely control my fear, I'll be able to make some really decent returns. The opportunities are out there, and I hope to be able to communicate to everyone out there that fear keeps us from succeeding in anything.

If you are interested in listening to the guys from the seminar you can stream their local radio show here.

What a day. After nearly gaining everything back from yesterday, I ended up losing MORE than yesterday at the close. Two of my stops triggered--AZZ and CPA. It appears selling KRSL was a good decision since it backed off another 16% today. Apparently the third quarter results weren't as good as people were expecting. I wonder how much of yesterday's decline was insider selling.

Things definitely are looking sloppy now, and I'm losing my confidence in this market. I've got stops on everything now and I wouldn't be surprised to see most of them trigger by Friday.

I'm getting a bit nervous about things, so I've gone back to setting some stops. I made it two weeks without stops. Not very impressive. But right now they provide some peace of mind.

I'm interested to see where KRSL is headed this morning. Premarket makes it look like it is going further south. I'll be angry if it mocks me and rallies today.

KRSL drops 16% on NO NEWS. I'll tell you what happened. StockPunk said he was getting out. Unfortunately, StockPunk waited for it to drop 10% before bailing.

I am reminded again by the market that I am a chump. I thought I had things figured out this morning. I just needed an average day to get me to my goal for the year. The evil market knew this and decided to humble me yet again. Why is the market so mean to me?

I thought HDNG was going to be my savior again, but it ended up shedding a 4% gain and ending up in the hole. SYNL was about my only position that looked sweet.

Value Blog Revue & Stockbee

I've noticed recently that some folks who are visiting StockPunk are coming from Value Blog Review so I took a look at the site last week. I'm very impressed. It is rare to find somebody willing to educate and share information for FREE and Value Blog Review does just that. The reviews of trading books and trading blogs are invaluable. It is great to have somebody out there weeding out the worthless information and promoting practical stock blogs and books.

Another blog that I've taken an interest to lately is StockBee. I've had a few readers of StockPunk mention how much they like Stockbee as well. Stockbee has a LOT of information about screening and unemotional trading. He's got some very interesting charts and I've noticed recently that the information he shares is getting really cool. I'm not sure how he compiles the data for his Market Monitor, but I sure like it!

I need some stock trading advice . . .

Well, it's Monday morning and I'm already making big mistakes. I wrote yesterday that KRSL dropped off my screen. I figured that this morning I would keep an eye on it and sell it if things went downhill. My hope was that I would make a few more bucks.

Things went south fast and before I knew it KRSL was down over 12%. I watched it to see if it would come back and it flirted with -8% a couple of times and then went back to -12%. So I begrudgingly sold it at -10%. I should have put a stop on it before the open, but I was worried about a big premarket drop. There was one, but not as big as what I ended up losing because of my greediness. Another lesson learned (but probably forgotten in the next 10 minutes).

This Week With StockPunk

Just a few changes. KRSL and MIDD have dropped off my screen. HOC is a new addition.

My Plymouth Voyager (hey, I'm a family man) just made it to 120,000 miles. My goal is 200,000. I found a website for Chrysler owners whose cars or trucks have gone over 200,000 miles here. I read it for encouragement. MSN has some good articles here if you are trying to eek out every mile your car is worth.

I've come to the conclusion that cars are the number one reason people don't have any money and can't build wealth. It is so easy to be dazzled by the thought of owning the newest and best car. But they drain your wealth so quickly as they decrease in value.

Just so you don't think I'm a minivan driving wimp, my first car was a 1969 Buick Skylark Gran Sport. It had a 455 cubic inch engine (not the original 400) and got 8 miles to the gallon on a good day (14 on the highway). I bought it for $400 and received $1500 for it after it was stolen and wrecked. That was the only car I've owned that I made money on. I now work for the organization that reimbursed me for the damage that was done to my car. It's a crazy life, but somebody's got to live it. Or something like that.

Here is a graphic of a spreadsheet of my daily gains and losses over the past couple of years (click on the graphic to see a larger image). I've made it too small to see the specific numbers (I don't want anybody making fun of me)--it's the pretty colors I want you to focus on.

You'll notice the colors next to the first arrow. There are lots of reds and dark greens. These were the crazy (crazier) days of my trading. The reds represent days of more than a 2% loss on the portfolio. The dark green are days I gained more than 2%. The white areas are less than 1% gain or loss. The lighter green represents portfolio gains of 1% to 2% and the yellow represents the same in losses. As you can see, things whipped around pretty hard for me. I was risking too much on each trade and I experienced wide swings each week. That wasn't good for my heart.

The bottom area shows trading more recently. There are fewer big gains or big losses. Things are moving gradually but steadily. That's better for my sanity.

Things smoothed out a lot when I began risking less than 2% of my portfolio value on any one trade.

Week in Review 5-6-2007

I'd have to say it was a pretty good week for the portfolio--+3.94%. I am now $453 away from my financial goals for the year. I did a pretty good job combining my screens and averaging out a gain. My best screen did 6.42% and the worst did -2.72%. I now have a screen leader amongst my varied strategies. It has made 152.89% since October of 2005 which is 50% above my next best screen.

I don't have any idea what my screens will do in a bear market, so I'm a little nervous about blindly following the highest performer over the last year and a half. I've got more data for the big picture, but my specific way of using the information is relatively new.

I recently developed a new screen that shows some promise. I only have data dating back to October of 2006, but the screen has grown 167.20% in less than a year. I'm planning to wait until October of 2007 before I discuss the specifics of that screen (it is really very simple).

Ouch

Another tough one. HDNG saved me from a meltdown. I would have been better off not monitoring (yeah, I can't quit). There were wild swings in my account all day. Believe it or not, I was up 1.5% around 10 am. Then things went all wacky on me. I was down a percent and then up more than .50% and then back down again. I ended up losing .73%--not too awful considering what everything else was doing.

Things continue to inch forward. Up .34% today. I would have done better if I owned AOB. So far this week I've done pretty well at controlling my emotions. I've watched a few wild swings without reacting which is a good thing for me. I plan to hold things the way they are through Friday. I've got 3% more to gain before I make my financial goals for the year, so I'm feeling pretty positive.

Today exemplifies my lack of predictive abilities. I ended up gaining .18% after being down nearly 2% this morning. That's why I continue to stress that (for me) the best way to trade is unemotionally and mechanically. My emotions kicked in when I saw EVERYTHING losing ground. I questioned my decisions to hold on to SYNL after its 11% gain yesterday. KRSL was down 2% and I wondered if I should have grabbed my gains (it ended up over 6% today). I was pleasantly surprised when I went over things after the close.

10:28 am CST Today I am too curious to stay away from the tape. After I have a good day, I'm always tempted to see if my fortune carries on the next day. Today is not one of those days. I've given back nearly everything I made yesterday.

But, dang it, that's OK. It doesn't matter what happens on one day.

Carl Futia has an interesting take on the recent jibber jabber being expressed because of the market's all time highs and winning streaks. It's called No Punch at This Party.

I like to read both size of the story because it gives me a better perspective and calms me down a bit. I think this element of fear is what keeps so many people from thinking they can do well in the market. Even when things are looking good there's always the idea that things are "too good" and a crash or major correction is coming.

That's what makes it nice to be a little guy in this giant market. It doesn't make a lick of difference what I do with my money. Nobody is going to bat an eye if I jump in or out of the market and that gives me a huge advantage over the big boys with their billions of dollars. If things go south, I can be back in cash in about a second. Try doing that with a billion bucks.

Not Too Shabby

I like days like these. Just about everything popped the way I hoped it would. I didn't get into SYNL until it was already up 6%, but it ended up a bit over 11% for the day. I would have enjoyed the whole 11%, but I'm not upset with myself for waiting a bit to see what was happening. Overall, my portfolio was up 1.85%.

KRSL had a pretty good day as well.

Fleckenstein is crowing again about the coming market crash. Who knows.

I apologize to Jim who was the friend I referred to in Sunday's post. I referred to him as a "body builder" when in reality he is a "power lifter". I think that my analogy still holds true. Although I would have to say that he has built up his body. I don't think he weighed more than 120 lbs in high school (I didn't break the 120 lbs mark in high school either).

Things look pretty good so far after the market open. I'm looking for a good point to jump into SYNL. It opened up 4%. I'll wait a bit to see if it drops off. What will happen, though, is I'll wait too long as it rises, I'll jump in when it is at it's peak for the day, and then it will drop and I'll lose 7%. Hey, at least I know myself.

This Week with StockPunk

A few additions to the StockPunk watch list. SYNL and VSEA are both in the semiconductor industry. That's about all I know. If I try to find out any more, I'll over-analyze things and end up creating more problems for myself.

Some of you have questioned my use of stops last week. I told everybody that I was swearing off stops from here on out. Here's what happened:

I forgot about a 5% trailing stop on MIDD that I had placed weeks ago. It triggered and I didn't have any real reason for having the stop. MIDD is once again on my "buy" list but I'm holding off since I sold it just a few days ago.

My other stops were 3% trailing stops on stocks that had dropped off my list. The stops didn't work for me in either situation so I'm thinking in the future that I'll just follow the stocks and sell them at my own discretion.

A few folks have asked me if I own every stock on my Punky Stocks watch list. No, I don't. Right now I own (or will soon own) six of the nine. The Punky Stocks list is not a "buy list". It is a list of stocks that I find very attractive and that are candidates for my portfolio. I don't divulge my portfolio list to discourage "copy cat" traders who think that because I've got some good returns that I am some sort of guru. I've tried the copy cat approach with dismal results (see my results for 2005) so I wouldn't recommend it.

My goal with this site is to demonstrate that you can do well as an individual trader in the stock market. It doesn't take a degree in securities (mine is in marketing--a "C" average) to buy and sell stock and be profitable. I hope that I am able to encourage folks each day with my drivel.

Marathon Trading

A friend asked me today why most people don't invest like I do if it is so simple and generates such good returns. I told him that there are several reasons:

• people think you have to be on the "inside" to make any money
• people don't trust the financial markets and feel that it's all a big scam
• people are too afraid to lose money so they choose very conservative investments
• people are to impatient and get scared with negative returns and bored with incremental returns

I told him that trading and investing is a lot like working out (he's a body builder). It takes a long time of good days and bad days to see any results. Sometimes at the end of the year you're surprised at how well you've done even though the day to day routine doesn't reflect that.

My wife ran a half-marathon today (I can run a half mile). There's an investing analogy in there, but I just wanted to let everybody know because I'm pretty impressed.

Week in Review 5-04-2007

For starting me off in such a foul way, the week turned out to be pretty average. I lost .48%. My screens did better than me--the worst did .68% for the week and the best did 2%. You guys are probably getting tired of me babbling about how my brilliant maneuvering always ends up stinging me by the end of the week.

It was hard to watch the market surge higher while I struggled. I had a couple of stops in place that triggered on me. I sold MIDD at 136.22 and it ended the week at 138.89. Brilliant move.

All my other sales were planned with good reasons. I ended up with nearly half of my portfolio in cash. I was kind of hoping for a couple of down days so that I could feel good about having cash out of the market. Oh well. We'll see what the screens say this weekend.

I'm not sure what happened to Wednesday's post. I know I wrote something earth shattering. Something that would change the way you trade for EVER. But I forgot what it was.

An OK day. At least I beat the indexes--up .79%. This looks like it's going to be another week where I curse my decision to use stops. Everything that I've sold is rallying (of course). I'll let you know just how foolish I've been tomorrow when I compare my performance against my screens.

Part-Time Trading

Kirk had a link to The Market Speculator today and I found this post about part-time trading particularly interesting. I've got a full time job as well, and even though I have market access during the day (my work day usually starts after the market close anyway), I've found that ignoring things is much more enjoyable for me.

These last couple of days have really upset me for some reason. I've lost a bit over 3% of my gains, but I've still beat my yearly goal so far. I think I've gotten a bit too comfortable with constant up days, and I need to refocus. My wife said that I should just quit trading if I'm going to get so bothered by a couple of rough days.

Things didn't end up as badly as they started today, but I still got my clock cleaned compared to the indexes--down 1.16%. I've already started rethinking my "no stops" policy which is exactly what I was worried would happen. I've got to keep my emotions from controlling my decisions. They have NEVER helped me make a good decision. I wonder if there are any therapists out there that specialize neurotic traders. I bet they could clean up.

Emotions would have had me buying SPAR at the market open. It was up over 6% in premarket and it has been pretty strong since I sold it a couple of weeks ago. I would have been pretty unhappy watching that thing throughout the day.

I can't believe how bothered I was by my losses yesterday. I kept going over what I should have done and how I could have avoided my suffering. My goal is to be an unemotional investor and I still have a long way to go.

One of my recent favorites SPAR is rocking in premarket trading. I am going to be unemotional and leave it alone. I have some cash that (for my sanity) needs to remain in cash.

I am still long on everything so we'll see how today goes. Happy trading.