I keep a list of all buys and sells with a few words comment on each transaction.
I've been experimenting with different approaches to do this over the years, from Word docs to spreadsheets to Yahoo to 3 ring binders to spreadsheets again. I am trying to force more discipline and documentation on myself to counter the risk taking, competitive personality that I have, which can lead to impulsive mistakes. It is also important to me that I have a system that I will use and that won't be too time consuming or cumbersome.
I know I have become "PC centric" over the years (I now do most of my news reading on the internet instead of newspapers, for example) so I decided a simple spreadsheet would be best for me rather than turning to binders or notebooks. It tracks purchase/sell dates, prices, returns, and most importantly, reasons or thoughts or goals (trade vs. long term). I just started a row to track my monthly performance vs. the indexes.
Any other tracking approaches that people have used that they can recommend? What systems do people use to track all the ideas (watchlist) easily and efficiently? I haven't come up with an approach that I like...
I finished January down .86% vs. Dow down 2.7% and Nasdaq down 5.2%.
Even though I did 22% with CLF (posted here) I regret selling it a few weeks ago as it has run another $11 to $66. Damn.
stockcharts.com[h,a]daclyiay[pc21!d10,1!f][vc60][iut!Lg!Lah12,26,9]&pref=G
Posted elsewhere, I sold PRZ a week ago for a 14.5% profit and it too has run up from there. I had a tight stop and got taken out and had an immediate thought that I wish I was still in.
Reviewing the logs is important, albeit painful at times. :>) |
