SusanG: This inability or unwillingness to pull the "sell" trigger is so common among traders, but you rarely hear anyone talk about it. We hardly talk about the feelings and emotions that move us (or freeze us from moving) maybe dozens of times each day. When you said "I sold DISH last week to lock in profits, now it ran away from me", I and every trader can say the same about this or that stock. When I'm feeling confident, trading pretty good, I'm able to pull the buy trigger, the sell trigger, the short trigger...But if I make a few real "amateur" losing plays, I tend to get real tentative...and I miss trades I'd normally have made. Kinda like a ballplayer who gets 1 hit in his last 15 at bats and strikes out 7 or 8 times. The swing gets tentative, the aggressiveness takes a holiday, the "slump" is on. The only way I've been able to deal with the "heartbreak of selling too soon" is to sell part of my position. If the stock continues to run, I've still got some. If it reacts, I'm more likely to buy it back if that's the right play since I've sold some at higher prices. So much of this is psychological. I had a good day yesterday. And I had a better day today. Why? Probably because I had a good day yesterday and that part of my head that loves to shove out stuff like "be careful, the last short lost you money" or "don't buy that opening gap, remember what happened last week and you took that $600 loss dummy?"...that part of me gets kinda silent and all the experience and feel and whatever ability I've developed is able to do it's work. Am I making any sense in this ramble? There are times when the market scares the
hell out of me and I trade in 50-share lots or not at all. I see company after company announce a "disappointment" and wonder how traders with large positions handle seeing their stocks melt 5, 10, 20 points in minutes. Enough. Perhaps someone else wants to jump in here. (Lee) |
