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Trading Summary – August

August 29th, 2008 Comments(6)

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.

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