there is something worse than losses

[#1]

Missing out, thats what. Today has to be my most frustrating day ever. Trying to pre-empt the market is the biggest mistake we can make. firstly, I missed this mornings rally (ok, my system didn't pick up the opp), then I thought I would get clever and give myself some protection with an early short prior to the jobless report, thinking the market would tank on the premarket action. Thank god I got stopped out because that was the most sudden rally I have ever seen - 100 points in 1 minute). Then in frustration, I switched off, and missed the real action, when the dow opened. So now I am R1k poorer, and could have pocketed a nice tidy sum - this despite that hte market actually did what I initially tried to pre-empt!! Thought I whould share this with everyone - in case anyone wants to jot down a couple of golden rules.

[Theater_Cat]

We feel your pain. The hardest thing to exercise is displine - waiting for the trade to come to you when the time is right (and not force/chase it). Luckily you only lost R1k which is relatively negligible (if it were R100k we would really feel for you!). Monday is another day... Dow tanking nicely now.

[Sugar_Snap]

What does Dow Tanking mean ?

[#4]

That the yanks stocks are dropping rather quickly

[#5]

Let that R1k be schoolfees for trying to predict a trend before it is confirmed, and the R1k will be R1k well spent. Consider yourself lucky for just losing R1k. Dow Tanking means the Dow Jones is going down bigtime.

[Russ]

How do you all know what R1000 means to Skaaptjop?

[john_1]

You have learnt something very important about your trading mind set.. So thats great. Now design a system that automates things..and you will choose to take the trades and loose a bit rather than miss out.. thats great.

[#8]

Yep, all sobering thoughts, and lessons well learn't, I hope. And Russ, to answer your questions, if someone in this business loses sleep over a R1k loss, then he or she really should get out. R1k is my bare minimum stop loss amount. What I am losing sleep over, is a stupid trade and a massive opportunity cost!!

[JDT]

There are loads of opportunities in the market - don't sweat the small stuff.