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To: AllansAlias who wrote (82835)	9/25/2003 2:07:13 PM
From: marginmike	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 209892

"2) If we sell too late, even though we made money, we'll feel angry at not having sold at the top. "Damn, I should have sold earlier."" In early 2000 I sold 70,000 shares of Qcom for an average price of arround 140, I owned the stock off and on for 3 years. My cost basis was arround 3-4. I literally had post tramatic stress for a year because I was so mad for not selling at the top, or for not selling at a better price. I got back in got out after my original sale gave a few hundred g's back for my phsophrenia. If one is a perfectionist its tough to accept that you didnt get things perfectly. Youve seen me freak out on a personal level when I missed major inflection points(as I think we are in now). Its almost impossible not to react when you watch an entry exit go wrong. I am still pissed I didnt buy CREE at 17 three days ago, but I have learned to accept that opportunities are always there, and to stay in the trading game discipline is key. Today I had urges to buy all day, but refrained because I have no roadmap here. I need a plan, or all we are is making emotional decisions, and we will fail. I think the mastering of trading is removing the emotion from the experience. A tough task to say the least

To: AllansAlias who wrote (82835)	9/25/2003 2:08:35 PM
From: marginmike	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 209892

Did I mention that the red sox suck?

To: AllansAlias who wrote (82835)	9/25/2003 2:36:13 PM
From: The Freep	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 209892

Good stuff, AA. I think, though, that the only way for a trader or a person to learn these lessons is to experience them. Reading about it is all well and good, but it takes the "school of hard knocks" to make it stick, imo. I still get annoyed when a position continues in "my" direction after I've closed it out. That's human nature, I think. However, it doesn't impact me in the same way as it did before... cuz it's just one trade, and there are more fish to fry. Personally, I had a similar experience to MM -- though it was 7 shares of a stock that went from 3.5 to 6 where I sold only to watch it run to 10. Still, it was hard to take. Harder to take for me was closing of my (then) EMLX short at a small loss a day or two before its infamous 60 point tumble. I stewed over that for a LONG time... and it still rankles me. However, what I learned is that holding on to that feeling DID ME NO GOOD. I could not turn back time. And more importantly -- I could not hold onto other shorts/longs based on the assumption that if I closed them out I'd miss a 60 point move. Each trade does exist in a vaccuum, though we can take the experiences of each trade and let it inform our trading process. Though it's not exactly related to your points 1-3, this for some reason this reminds me of the baseball phenomenon of the "fallacy of the next pitch." Man on first, team down by one run. Runner tries to steal... gets thrown out. Next pitch, the batter hits a homer. Sez the announcer "Oh, if he hadn't been thrown out, they'd've taken the lead." Wellll... if he hadn't been thrown out, the pitcher woulda been going from the windup, the catcher might've called a different pitch, or the batter might've been doing a hit and run and taken a different swing. Anyway, I think trading is like that on some level, though I'll leave it to you to figure out exactly how <g> the freep