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To: lee kramer who wrote (65198)	10/7/1999 9:52:00 PM
From: Susan G	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 120523

Good post Lee. My usual trades have moved from 25-50 shares when I started last year to 100 to 200 shares now. Although on real expensive stocks I usually just buy 50 at a time. The only stock I own more of is go2net. Those 200 share lots are even killers if it takes a dive - I can't imagine having 1000 shares if a stock starts dropping fast - the slowness of your broker site alone could lose you thousands within seconds. yikes. Tight Stops are much more important on larger blocks. I also started holding bits of good trades - even if it's only 25 or 50 shares, it eliminates the kick yourself problem. And it also makes it easier to jump back in when a stock is moving up again, since it "averages down" your buy price, and you don't feel like it's running away. I did this with AIRO, and am extremely happy to now let my remaining 100 shares just sit there. Bought 200 at 14 something, sold 100 at 20ish weeks ago and am holding the rest with little concern as to the daily ups and downs. and today the remaining shares hit a double! Boy would I have been kicking myself for that one if I sold it all.

To: lee kramer who wrote (65198)	10/7/1999 10:43:00 PM
From: Autumn Henry	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 120523

Thanks Lee for your posting on the psychological aspect of trading. I personally suffered so painfully with not being able to pull the trigger several times during my trading career. Ironically two of the times---- and the things I would like to add here---- is that I talked with 2 of the several top trading coaches in person about it. The first time I got through to Mark Douglas of "The Disciplined Trader" and wound up having several counseling sessions over the phone with him. I was a fairly newly minted trader that ran into a brick wall in trading for various reasons as I look back at it and found out this "trading malady" was so so common. Among the suggestions I have used when I get into the more fear than guts mode (when I need the guts to pull the trigger) is to trade small shares. He even said to trade 1 share if I need to because the most important thing was to gain my own confidence back again.....the winning would take care of itself but to not continue to traumatize myself with losses that made me feel the end was near or that I couldn't do anything right or to have the doubting thoughts build up and attract the very thing I don't want to happen (the self-fulfilling prophecy idea) I felt foolish (what would my brokerage think?? Won't I be annoying, etc.?? how embarrassing that I am trading "baby shares" ---this was before they had internet trading which is so wonderfully anonymous and has really changed my trading cause I found that calling a broker after a string of losses sometimes had me crazily thinking "they" were thinking I was going to put on another losing trade(!) on occasion). But it sure was a freedom to "act" when I knew I had 5 shares and it could go against me l0 points even and basically "so what". I needed to try out things I thought were true. I nneded to know what I knew or didn't know--- and for me--- being in a trade is so different then just watching price action considering getting into a trade....what did I learn? was I right or wrong? etc. , what did I notice? what did I forget? what did I remember? what would I rather do next time? what did I see I never saw before? etc.,-- was experienced more fully when in and then out of a trade. I also could be much more clear headed to see these things when I felt I wasn't losing alot of money if I was wrong. Mark Douglas was correct. The more "right" I was consistently without fear of putting myself out of business the more my confidence grew. And the more my confidence grew the more wins I seemed to have and so each built on each other. And then as suggested by Douglas I added more shares and built up gradually. It was very good advice from someone who deals with this problem all the time and with some of the world's best traders. I was grateful to have contacted him. I also talked with one of the top female coaches once over the phone with a reoccurrence of the problem a year or so later and also to see if I wanted to spring for a professional trading coach at the time to also speed up the excelling process and she said it was the most common problem she runs into. I believe she said over 90% but don't quote me on that. That was reassuring and comforting. It is kind of a "hidden topic" in many ways and that is so ironic because it sure appears to be common. Autumn

To: lee kramer who wrote (65198)	10/7/1999 10:45:00 PM
From: TimbaBear	Respond to of 120523

I got nervous toward the end of the day and closed out my more profitable positions, sold off some of the losers and got completely out of margin....hated to sell CMGI, am up 32% since Sept 7th and still think it has lots to go....will buy it back if the employment numbers are tame

To: lee kramer who wrote (65198)	10/8/1999 2:24:00 AM
From: JD Writer	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 120523

Pulling trigger discussion: Can't tell you how valuable it is to hear experienced, savvy traders discussing this issue. Imagine how much more difficult it is (or seems) for the real green trader (not green as in increasing price). Jenna tells us always to be happy taking a profit, even if you leave some on the table. But after taking my 20% on AGIL, then watching it run up another 15 points, it's bitter waving goodbye. What I thank you for the most is telling me you're often trading such small blocks. Here I am thinking you guys are slinging around 1000 and 500 share trades all the time. But it's so hard to make a profit on 50's and 100's when I'm paying Schwab's $30 commission going in then coming out. You must be using the $8 kind. I would appreciate a recommendation. Thanks