This Week With StockPunk 8-20-2007

I'm planning on putting some money to work this week. My gut tells me that the worst is behind us for a while, but then again, what do I know. Every stock on my screens is a bit beat up, so hopefully over the next few weeks they'll recover a bit.

Looking back over the last four weeks, I think my lack of patience is what hurt me. I got a little too cocky about being up 43% and doing well during the first week of the downturn. The second week bumped me out of all of my stocks, but I was so hurried to get back in and catch the bounce that I got my clock cleaned on several buys.

I did the same thing in March when the market corrected a bit. I jumped in the next day after the big drop thinking that I was going to capitalize on a bounce back up. I got burned badly that time too (but apparently not bad enough that it taught me a lesson).

I think it would be good to take a longer break after my stops trigger. The market isn't going anywhere, and it will welcome me back after sitting out a few weeks.

Thanks to those of you who voted in the StockPunk Poll last week. There were no big revelations. Some of us have lost a lot and some haven't during the last few weeks. Congratulations to the 15% of you who have made money in the last month.

If anybody would like to write in and share with StockPunk readers how you made money or some of the mistakes you made (like me) please do. Just e-mail me your story and I pick some good ones to post to the blog.