Phantasmix Stock Market Blog

Latest trade updates are now posted on a separate page.

Winners: 26
Average win: $141.64

Losers: 11
Average loss: $104.15

Win percentage: 70.27%

All in all, not a bad month, but would be even better if I just sat on my hands this last week.

Looking back at August mistakes…

• Do not deal with indices directly (QQQQ, SPY). Not enough volatility to make it worthwhile.
• Try to stick to individual stocks. I know I’ve been saying this forever, but I’ll try to stay out of Proshares ETFs unless it’s obviously low-hanging fruit.
• Do not jump into trades on a whim. This is not a game.
• Having a watch list and sticking to it has been working really well. Stuff that I find during the day is a hit or miss, usually. Since I try to not daytrade, and my average holding time is probably about 3 days, preparation in advance is the key.
• If I don’t understand why a stock is behaving a certain way, get out fast. I don’t care much to find out the fundamentals of each particular company in detail, and if a stock is being irrational there may be something brewing that’ll mess up my trade.
• Have more patience.
• Do not over-margin. My biggest trading losses have been from margin calls.
• Do not buy on anonymous blog tips without research. There are a few good blogs where I get ideas, but I used to just blindly trust them without research (yep, idiot).

I must say after reading somewhere that people consider this market to be “the toughest in the last 50 years”, I feel good about having made money at all!

Have a great weekend, everyone.

Stating the obvious here: Obama is proposing to raise the taxes, particularly on investment capital gains and dividends. If enough people believe Obama (barf) is going to win, and McCain (barf) is going to lose, there may be a lot of stock selling just to lock in the lower tax rate on cap. gains.