Some Lessons Learned

Watch for the bid ask spread. SNP had a .80 spread which put me a little more behind than expected. In the end, the stock broke through my stop for double the anticipated possible loss.

Need to develop a strategy for big announcement days. Need to tighten stops or get out of the big winning trades (with the profit intact) before big announcements. If I had of gotten out yesterday of my biggest 3 gainers yesterday, my net loss today would have been about 3%, for a net gain of 8-9% from the days before on my portfolio.

I can always have multiple contingent orders ready when a possible major price movement in either direction is expected after a big announcement. Today was one of those days.

Watching and following the broad market indexes is a key factor to being successful trader. I have found that following the broad market indexes, I donÂ’t need to try to hard to look for stocks for potential plays.

Given the events of the day, I need to become better at my bull strategies. I am at a loss at what to play tomorrow. I need to be able to play both ways at a touch of a dime.

I need to practice more. I am becoming much better at picking the stocks, but need to work on my under pressure trades and exits. Looking back, I should have exited those trades that were already nearing my stop before the announcement.

I have worked hard to get this far. I am pleased that I have been able to develop and implement my first real trading strategy and rules. It is definitely a boost to see it work...Butt I need to test it more to refine and have more confidence in it. Not taking into consideration it being FED day today, I think that there is a lot of potential in what is being developed.


Keep on plugging away === YOUR GOAL IS ONE LESS DAY AWAY!!!

;-)