StockPunk

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.