Market and Bob

Well, the market has tanked and so I am sitting on the sidelines with cash in my pocket waiting for the market to turn around. Thankfully I went back to cash before it started to turn badly and so my profits weren't eaten up too much.

I have to mention an excellent article about averaging down - well worth a read in the light of all that is going on.

Bob's Advice

I love this blog and have gained much from it. Bob does an excellent job of humbly giving advice and sharing observations... thanks Bob!

Two Words

Flippin' Heck!

The market trashed my portfolio today and it is looking pretty bleak. Never did like the colour red.

My only consolation is that the two latest additions were added due to great fundamentals and so I am sure they will bounce back. Famous last words? May be.

I am away fro a few days so hopefully by the time I look again there will be more green in portfolio!

Later...

My new set of stocks did quite well today.:

+0.00%		CHE
+4.91%		AFSI
+2.12%		CMCO
+0.52%		SNP
+0.48%		MFW
+0.81%		APLX
-0.46%		UEIC

I added CHE and CMCO to my portfolio while selling SPTN for +10.76%.

My open portfolio looks like this:

CMCO	-0.80%
CHE	+0.40%
JOSB	-8.29%
DWSN	+0.62%
CPX	-4.48%
SF	+1.51%
VCLK	-1.16%

I am close to selling JOSB while believing that CPX could still bounce up. I am confident that CHE and CMCO will perform well over the next two weeks. If SF doesn't start performing well soon I may sell to put my money into something else.

Again I am trying to leave the stocks for long enough to bounce without over reacting to movements.

Different watchlist

If I change my picks to only those that show up on the present IBD100 then I am left with...

CHE and AFSI.

Let's see how they perform compared to the other picks I chose...

New picks for watchlist

	CHE
	AFSI
	CMCO
	SNP
	MFW
	APLX
	UEIC

All appeared on my screen. All have historically done well when they last appeared on my screen and all have excellent fundamentals. Track process by clicking on my stockpicks widget (right).

Tough week - distribution anyone?

Overall the week was a touch one for me.

JOSB	-9.66%
DWSN	+1.80%
CPX	-4.48%
SF	+2.21%
SPTN	+8.34%
VCLK	-0.70%

JOSB - Very close to selling this one. What can I learn? Well, I should have bought it when it first appeared on my screen and then sold it for a nice 5%. I added it too late.

CPX. The chart for CPX is still pretty good. I am still hopeful that it will turn around. It is still a long ways from selling.

All the other stocks are fine.

ANyone with a slight understanding of the market will look at my portfolio and see that it is not as bad as it looks! I have a nice profit in SPTN (if I can hold onto it!) and the only only issue is JOSB.

So Friday was the second distribution day we have had in three days - not good. Here is what IBD's 'Big Picture' says:

"The session capped a choppy week for the market, one that featured subprime woes, inflation fears, good and bad profit reports and record highs.

The week started with modest gains. But on Wednesday the NYSE indexes dropped early on, following renewed concerns over subprime mortgages and testimony by Ben Bernanke on Capitol Hill that fanned inflation fears.

They recouped most of those losses by the session's close, but still logged a distribution day. Friday's additional round of higher-volume selling sent the indexes down for the week.

The Nasdaq shed 0.7% for the five days. The Dow lost 0.4%, the S&P 500 1.2% and the NYSE composite 1.4%."

Changes to my master watchlist

I have made the following changes to my master watchlist. They are all because they are no longer listed as A's on IBD 100 and are not showing good technicals anymore:

BWLD
CPX
FCSX
OPY
TSO
TTEC

Additions include:

GRP
ISRG
NVT
PVG
SCHN

Overall additions and deletions from the IBD 100:

Added:
AVT CAM FLIR GRP ISRG NVT OYOG PVG SCHN SII SLB SXC WHQ

Deleted:
CBG CMCO CPA FMCN MTOX NVDA SI SNP TNE TSO TTEC WFR WNR

Trade musings

I started this blog to be honest and so this section is to share my thoughts about HOW I should trade the stocks I have. The danger in sharing this sort of stuff is that it sounds like you have no idea what you are doing. Well.... there are days! Take FTK for instance!

There are three big questons.

1. What should my stop loss be?

The stocks are very volatile (they go up and down in price a lot) and so it is important to give them room to move. I checked through some of analysis (back tests etc) and I have found that if the draw down is more that 8% within the first 4 four week than often the stock doesn't perform well at the end of those four weeks (Assuming I would leave it that long).

BUT often these stocks do experience a drop in price in the first few days (that can be scary to ride out) which then turns into a very nice profit. So when to sell? That is the question.

Should I sell at 8% and possibly mis out on a big move?
Should I sell at 10% because 10% because anything after that is not good.
Should I keep and hope?

Even as I write that last one I can't believe I am contemplating doing something so stupid!

2. When to take a profit?

I find that the majority of these stocks reach 5% within 10 days of trading. But then they often go on to make more. The answer to this one is simple. Build in a trailing stop loss after 5% (which locks in profits) and then keep a close eye on the charts.

3. Do I leave them all for 3 weeks (15 trading days)?

According to my back testing thee stocks often get into double figures by the time they reach 15 days. One stock got to 90%! I like the idea of buying and keeping although patience is the key.

I am leaning towards just leaving with a 10% stop loss. Give the stock room and believe in the system. If The stock hits 10% before 15 days... sell.

Let's see how it goes!

New watchlist

-0.00%		SNHY
+2.01%		DWSN
-0.30%		JOSB
-4.88%		CPX
+7.06%		SF
+8.96%		SPTN
+10.42%		oyog
+9.48%		RS
+14.22%		VSEA
+2.28%		AVT
+40.35%		Rimm
+4.81%		ESI

The only addition is SNHY which showed up on my filter yesterday. The percentages are different on my screen compared to my portfolio because of when the stock was added to my portfolio.

Portfolio and Watchlist rollercoaster

Woah - hold on!

Lots has happened since my last post two days ago.

Overview is as follows:

I sold FTK due it continuing to fall. My lesson from this stock was that I shouldn't have bought it half way through the day. My screen didn't show it at the end of the day and so should not have been included. I sold it at a loss of -12.47%

I sold OYOG for a profit of +11.02%. This stock was chosen on the basis of good fundamentals and it had also been gaining nicely on my watchlist for a couple of days.

I sold VSEA for a profit of +12.59%. Same as above. See my comments on the next blog regarding some potential new rules.

My portfolio now looks like this:

JOSB	-3.53%	07/17/2007
DWSN	-0.12%	07/17/2007
CPX	-6.24%	07/12/2007
SF	+5.50%	07/10/2007
SPTN	+7.99%	07/10/2007
VCLK	+1.76%	07/10/2007

I added JOSB and DWSN . I added DWSN the day after it appeared on my screen and JOSB was found on my screen a few days ago. I do wonder about JOSB as it may have had its initial good move already. We'll see. Part of what I am trying to figure out is whether selling at 5% is the best way to go in which case I am too late with JOSB.

I am holding onto CPX but I am watching it carefully.

I am close to selling SF and SPTN as they are nearing good profit points for me.

watchlist changes

I'm taking CPA, EML and JOSB off my watchlist. They don't have the fundamentals that I am looking for and I will also be removing them from my watchlist in social picks.

Backtesting

Okay, I was so concerned that FTK was messing up my system I went through my back tests again to make sure that I wasn't going mental. Stockfetcher has a system that allows you to back test any screens you have.

Basically it applies your screen to whatever dates parameters that you input. For me I put in a test that went from May 1st to now. The results are as follows.

Remember that my system has an 8% stop loss and I should hold until fifteen days. What I am deliberating about now is whether to widen my stop loss to take advantage of those trades that ALWAYS seem to swing back into profit by day fifteen.

Look at the "Draw Down" column. That tells you what the maximum percentage is that would be lost. Notice also how attractive the 15 day column is. If I left it longer it would be great too.

Also notice how robust the screen is. In other words, whether it is a good day or bad day in the market - doesn't matter.

I have a feeling I should leave my stock until 15 days regardless - the profits are too good to miss.

Last thing to notice... FTK is not on the screen. Why? Well, I messed up. I ran the screen before the market finished. It was NOT on the screen at the day so it should never have been bought. That mistake has cost me a few hundred dollars. Worth it though.

These stocks were chosen from the middle of May to show you the performance of this screen. I set the stop loss at 105 and the profit stop at 10% as well - in other words the stock would sell either at a loss or gain of 10%.

In the gain / loss column if it says 10.00% it means the stock hit 10% gain within 30 days. If -10.00% then it hit a 10% loss.

		Symbol	Draw Down	Gain/ Loss	5 day chg	10 day chg	15 day chg	20 day chg	30 day chg
		SNDA	-3.33%	10.00%	-0.88%	5.25%	14.88%	13.48%	12.56%
		CF	0.00%	10.00%	4.56%	5.72%	10.64%	14.40%	34.34%
		MGM	-8.40%	19.33%	-3.71%	-8.27%	19.77%	18.63%	22.84%
		VCLK	-4.01%	11.45%	0.44%	2.69%	18.38%	18.38%	10.35%
		AQNT	-2.83%	90.00%	1.52%	90.15%	90.03%	90.60%	89.97%
		VOLV	-3.55%	10.32%	6.15%	9.54%	11.99%	6.78%	5.84%
		ALY	-1.66%	10.40%	1.83%	7.25%	13.39%	16.82%	30.44%
		OYOG	-5.10%	-%	2.36%	1.74%	3.05%	5.23%	2.60%
		WBD	-4.76%	10.00%	-0.29%	-2.44%	13.64%	6.65%	10.35%
		MICC	-0.42%	10.00%	2.48%	0.89%	12.88%	3.43%	13.02%
		SIMO	-9.86%	10.00%	-2.26%	-0.81%	4.03%	7.01%	13.17%
		TTEC	-13.02%	-10.00%	1.13%	-4.34%	1.04%	-4.92%	-8.94%
		DXPE	0.00%	10.00%	11.00%	13.24%	4.52%	-7.24%	-7.17%
		IFSIA	-4.96%	10.39%	-4.48%	-0.24%	7.11%	7.71%	12.01%
		JST	-4.35%	10.08%	3.36%	4.46%	-0.88%	0.55%	5.12%
		FCSX	-11.14%	-10.00%	-2.43%	-6.14%	4.97%	17.55%	27.29%
		PCLN	-1.39%	10.00%	11.93%	10.74%	11.88%	13.07%	18.88%
		MFW	-1.20%	10.00%	7.90%	15.71%	17.27%	15.71%	13.13%
		AXE	-3.42%	10.00%	2.76%	1.98%	0.21%	0.54%	5.07%
		AZZ	-5.21%	10.19%	15.58%	27.15%	13.97%	3.63%	15.43%
		FLIR	-1.81%	10.00%	1.61%	2.58%	-0.55%	4.66%	14.43%
		ROLL	-2.33%	10.05%	3.06%	3.71%	9.18%	7.21%	11.76%
		GRMN	-1.48%	10.00%	8.75%	16.08%	14.03%	24.66%	32.16%
		STP	-8.96%	10.00%	2.20%	-1.68%	-8.38%	-1.42%	9.51%
		RS	-13.73%	-10.00%	-1.66%	-0.78%	-7.29%	-5.66%	-5.91%
		CMED	0.00%	10.00%	5.59%	7.30%	17.04%	37.75%	37.61%
		SPTN	-4.31%	10.00%	0.76%	2.06%	22.79%	21.79%	26.41%
		AVT	-4.18%	-%	4.11%	0.24%	3.52%	2.60%	0.12%
		ELP	0.00%	10.86%	15.30%	11.68%	25.20%	23.28%	35.55%
		DSX	-0.86%	10.00%	10.00%	4.88%	0.38%	3.73%	16.55%
		EDU	-0.34%	10.00%	7.50%	3.47%	9.60%	16.15%	31.30%
		BHP	-0.55%	10.00%	6.31%	9.93%	14.05%	17.21%	32.18%
		WFR	-0.83%	10.00%	9.22%	2.90%	3.79%	2.23%	11.66%
		PCAR	-0.84%	10.00%	2.53%	1.93%	7.07%	3.25%	10.43%
		CLB	-2.34%	10.00%	2.60%	0.27%	5.11%	5.50%	16.89%
		GMCR	-0.03%	10.00%	7.22%	8.10%	18.85%	18.43%	41.42%
		BAP	-5.43%	10.00%	-1.03%	-3.88%	5.36%	3.03%	6.03%

Todays Picks

My screen threw up (!):

DWSN

Historically this stock has responded very well when it becomes oversold. Great fundamentals (A- in IBD) and the technicals suggest a bounce..

Here goes... Shame I can't buy it yet. We'll see how FTK does tomorrow...

Portfolio Recap

My Portfolio is as follows after todays trading:

CPX

-3.00% (dropped from +0.64)

FTK

-7.33%(dropped from -1.14)

SF

+4.71%(dropped from +5.88)

SPTN

+9.09% (Increased from +7.02)

VCLK

-3.81%(dropped from -1.26

OYOG

+9.01% (Increased from +5.02)

VSEA

+3.93%(Increased from 3.55%)

I think that my portfolio has reflected the general market trading day which wasn't very impressive.

My general watch list is as follows:

(CPA)	-0.98%
(MTOX)	+13.41%
(JOSB)	+0.88%
(CPX)	-1.28%
(FTK)	-7.42%
(SF)	+5.00%
(SPTN)	+8.90%
(OYOG)	+8.44%
(RS)	+9.34%
(VSEA)	+2.83%
(AVT)	+2.67%
(RIMM)	+38.69%
(ESI)	+6.99%

Overall my watch list is very healthy. If only I had bought MTOX and JOSB instead of FTK and CPA. I can only improve....

Investors Business Daily said this about todays market:

"Only the Dow held its earlier gains as stocks pulled back in late afternoon trading, amid a possible renewal of subprime mortgage fears .

At 3 p.m., the Dow was up 0.3%, while the S&P 500 fell 0.3% and the Nasdaq 0.2%.

Volume was tracking a little lower on NYSE, but slightly higher on Nasdaq.

Copa Holdings (CPA) descended 2.31 to 61.54. On Friday, it breached its 50-day moving average for the first time in a month. The Panama-based airline is now near the lows of its prior base-on-base pattern."

The Emotions of Trading

When I started this blog I determined within my self that it would be a "Warts and All" blog. The good, bad and ugly would be shared. I am no Warren Buffet and there will be times when I make crappy decisions...

"Please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website."

The not so fun part of investing is dealing with the emotional roller-coaster. Generally this involves accepting mistakes and taking them as learning experience. I know of no trader who is right 100% of the time. I am certainly NOT right 100% of the time.

They say that with good money management, if you are right 50% of the time, you can make money. The Rumpled One from Stockfetcher is well known for saying "It's not what you trade it is how you trade it."

This all said, I learnt something today (code for lost money!). FTK was put into my portfolio last week after they had announced a stock split. This is where every stock is split into two, for example a $100 stock is now worth $50. The good news is that you end up with twice the number of stocks so you don't lose money. FTK appeared on my screen and I bought it. Last time I looked it had lost 7% - 1% off my sell point.

This brings me to other emotional aspect of trading. Leaving the stock for 15 days before selling. I am constantly tempted to leave the stock instead of selling. I am confident of the screen. I am confident that it will bounce.

I will check the charts at the end of the day and make a decision then.

Bouncing stocks

Once I got to grips with Stock fetcher I quickly realized that some of the best filters were ones that identified stocks that were either over bought and pulled back somewhat or over sold ready for a bounce.

For example look at this chart for RIMM before its big move (click to enlarge)


On July 26th / 27th the stock becomes over sold (dips below 0 on the CMF line). This is the short sellers selling their stock? Why? RIMM is about to announce its earning for that quarter AND they announce that they are going to going into China. Two good reasons for the stock to go up. Short sellers lose money when stocks go up so they sell. This leaves the stock being over sold and ready for a jump up.

Some stocks have a history of bouncing when they become oversold. Looking at the chart again you'll see that each time the stock dips below the zero on the CMF line, it bounces back up.

Stock fetcher enables you to search for these kinds of stocks quickly and easily. Go to stock fetcher and start learning how! If you do a search on the forum for filters involving RSI <1 or muddy's method (more on this later) you'll soon be learning from the masters.

Family Legacy

Story continued from earlier posts...

I started doing well at stocks when I took a step back and took a breather.

I realized that I was too impulsive and didn't follow good rules. I went back to the drawing board and vowed that I wouldn't put money into trading until I had successfully paper traded. As I have mentioned before, paper trading is NOTHING like the real thing because you take emotion out of the equation and emotion is EVERYTHING in trading. But I had to start somewhere.

My dream is to be able to earn enough to support my family, invest in large scale real estate and maybe one day start a hedge fund. You have got to have goals. I want to leave a financial legacy that will go from generation to generation. I am a Dad and I have responsibilities, one of them is to leave a legacy for my kids. Notice I didn't say inheritance... it's deeper than that.

Armed with the internet, books, magazines and a deep sense that I can succeed I started learning again. It is sad to say that I have a belief that if someone else can succeed at this - so can I, but I can be better. Pride? Maybe.


I stumbled across a website called Stock Fetcher . Stockfetcher enables you to write code that will then screen stocks within the parameters that you set. I read the forum and got to know people and their screens. After many hours of research in this forum I started to write my own code. This is where the fun began...

Other Rulz!

The biggest rule in investing is have rules that you stick to. That doesn't mean to say that you can't tweak the rules as you go along but you should have some broad parameters that you work within.

Here are mine...

1. Invest only in five stocks at a time. I work fulltime and so tracking five stocks at a time is enough.

2. Sell at 8%... no exceptions. This is from William O'Neil of Investors Business Daily. The theory is simple. always sell at 8%, never wait for a stock to bounce back because there is a good chance it won't. This is of huge importance to me because the stocks I am buying are already over sold by the time they hit my filter so, if they drop MORE that is a really bad sign.

3. Take your profits while you can. If a stock is doing particularly well (it is jumping up each day) I will leave it until trading day fifteen. Some of my stocks have been known to get up to 45% returns within fifteen days. IF it seems to be taking its time then I will sell at 10% or even 5%. A 5% return each week gives HUGE compounded return over a trading year.

4. Follow the system no matter how tempted you are to bend the rules. I will be explaining how I get my stock picks soon.

5. Move from trading to investing regularly. I own other investments apart from stocks. I like mutual funds and real estate. I take profits and lock them into long terms investments. Gives that added security (especially the real estate).

Investors Business Daily - IBD top 100

I have a large watch list of stocks that I use as a basis for all my trades. This watch list has been formed over the last two years and consists of high performing stocks which have the wonderful combination of great fundamentals and great technicals.

I use Investors Business Daily to check out the stocks. They have an excellent "stock check up" facility that gives a grade for all stocks based on their fundamental and technical performance. I don't rely only on IBD but it is a great start.

This week the following movements occurred in IBD top 100 stocks:

Symbols added : AXE CBG CMED DSX FMCN HDB NVDA STP VSEA

Symbols deleted: AVT BID CAE CAM FLIR SF SII SPAN SYNL

Recent picks

As seen in social picks (click right)

Remember that I am lo0king for a 5% + move within fifteen days on the BEST stocks (these aren't pennies - no where near).

+0.00%		CPA
+6.26%		MTOX
+0.58%		JOSB
-0.04%		CPX
-3.05%		FTK
+5.12%		SF
+7.87%		SPTN
+4.86%		oyog
+9.11%		RS
+2.76%		VSEA
+1.34%		AVT
+39.29%		RIMM
+6.73%		ESI

5%, 10% and CPA

The screen I use finds stocks that have great fundamentals and have been consistently climbing in the last few months but for whatever reason are 'taking a breather'. In other words they have pulled back for some reason. They have become oversold.

Now, I am no expert (like you need me to remind you!) but there is always a reason why stocks that have been performing well suddenly experience an unusual amount of sell off (within a day). Enough to make my screen identify it as over sold. In my opinion there are a few reasons why a pull back like this can occur.

1. The stock is crap and people are worried. They are closing positions quickly. I don't think that this is the case as these companies have consistently produced excellent financial results for the last three quarters at least. For most of the cases I think we can discount this reason (except SYNL - moved down too quick for me)

2. Good news is about to be announced and the short sellers are worried. Perhaps last quarters earnings were great and it is expected that an upcoming announcement is going to be just as good. Short sellers are getting out before they loose too much money as the stock moves up. A few weeks ago RIMM was a good example of this.

3. Good news HAS been announced - a merger, acquisition etc. Short sellers are getting out because they think the stock price is about to rise.

These are my reasons for believing that my screen finds winners.

Now what?

Well, my first rule that I follow is once the stock is bought - allow it room to 'breathe'. In other words, give it a few days to start its climb. Let the short sellers sell, let people leave who need to get shaken out. It is not unusual for my stock picks to dip for one or even two days before climbing.

A big rule that I try (?) to follow is to leave the stock for fifteen days unless it climbs to 10% at which time I sell. Try not to be greedy. There are times when I sell at 5% if it seems that the stock is struggling in its climb.

Let's take yesterdays picks as examples - MTOX and JOSB climbed immediately. FTK needs to be left for a few days BUT watch it... I am sure it will climb. Unfortunately I haven't got spare room in my account to have bought either of thee stocks that rose nicely today.

Todays pick is CPA. This will climb but it might take a few days (that's what it has done in the past). I am confident of it though. Feel free to track it from my Socialpick account (see right).

As ever, thanks for dropping by - more later.

My latest portfolio...

I borrow this statement from a fellow blogger called Robert from Bobs Advice

"Please remember that I am an amateur investor, so please remember to consult with your professional investment advisors prior to making any investment decisions based on information on this website."

Good advice Bob and I will be putting this on my blog regularly! Please make sure you visit his excellent blog.

Okay, here is what my portfolio looks like right now...

CPX	$25.02	+0.64%	16.4%
FTK	$32.47	-1.14%	17.7%
SF	$56.9	+5.80%	7.1%
SPTN	$31.04	+7.02%	8.7%
VCLK	$30.19	-1.26%	16.1%
OYOG	$76.12	+5.02%	17.0%
VSEA	$39.17	+3.55%	16.9%
Total		+2.09%	100.0%

I added positions of CPX and FTK today. I would also have liked to have added MTOX and JOSB too (for reasons I will explain in a minute) but my portfolio wouldn't allow.

You might not think that it is too impressive (neither do I come to think of it!) but please remember that I may have different trading rules than you. For example I rarely keep a stock longer than 15 days so a 10 - 15% increase every 15 days adds up to a nice income... trust me.

For example, I sold a big position of RS for a 10.5 % profit which was very nice. It took my percentage total down considerably but i don't mind too much because one of my rules is to sell at 10%. RS achieved that within 8 days.

Sometimes I do keep a stock longer but that is a different set of rules for me... different portfolio too.

My stock screen threw up four stocks today:

SYNL, JOSB, FTK and MTOX . If you are interested you can track all my picks through social picks (look at the widget on the right). I just started using Social Picks and I find it to be a great tool and community.

First SYNL - this has appeared on my screen every day for a week. This is not good as my screen is looking for certain parameters that show that a stock is oversold and ready for a turn. The overall chart fro SYNL is not good as it is in a general down trend. I am surprised at this as the company has had some good news recently. I have a feeling that the sellers are getting out. I would not be at all surprised if SYNL has BIG turn around within the next week. I just lost 8% on it over the last few days so i am not in a hurry to jump back in just now.

JOSB, FTK and MTOX have all had recent good news. It might be in the way of excellent quarterly earnings (all of them) and upcoming quarterly earnings to be announced. My theory is simple, why would they appear on my oversold screen if not for the reason that sellers are getting out before a good up turn? I bought FTK to see if I am right although this one is unusual for me as it has just had a 2 for 1 stock split. Generally they do well after these splits (in the long term) but I am interested to see how it does in the shorter term.

In upcoming posts I will explain my rules in more detail.

Bitten, kicked and thrown...

In this entry I want to elaborate more on how I have come to do what I do when it comes to investing.

I started 2 years ago by accident as I was looking around Chapters bookstore with a luke-warm latte in my hand. I have always been enterprising, I was already heavily invested in real estate and I had a good job (still do). I felt I was in a good position to look for hobby / business that I could learn and maybe make a few bucks as I go along.

I stumbled upon "Making Money in Stocks" by William O'Neil. I had owned some stocks through a company that I worked for once but knew next nothing. What little I did know is that it is possible to make lots of money (hence the name of the book!).

I bought, read it, read it again and then bought How I Made $2,000,000 In The Stock Market by Nicholas Darvas. That was it, I was hooked. This was an amazing book that inspired me to 'go for it'. I bought every possible book I could find about the stock market, trading, swing trading, investments etc etc.

I opened a trading account with Tradefreedom ($9.99 per trade), deposited a few thousand and started frantically losing as much money as I could on crappy stocks. I was frustrated but more determine than ever to learn and make some money.

They say that you are not truly a horseman or horse woman until you have been kicked, bitten and thrown off a horse a few times. I think it is the same with trading. Paper trading is great (I still do it along side my real trades) but until the market has kicked, bitten and thrown you off you have no real idea what it is like to trade or invest. My losing some money at the beginning was probably the best thing to have happen to me. It was the best learning experience!

More to come...

By the way... I bought FTK and CPX today after selling RS for a 10.50% profit. I will be posting my portfolio / stock picks in more detail over the next few days.