Okay, last month of live trading for 2015. One can easily tell it wasn't good since I delayed write this for so long. Oh well, let's get that red highlight out...
7/1
Bought 6800 shares of McEwen Mining (MUX) at .93
7/9
Sold 6800 shares of MUX at .82 for a LOSS of $860.91
7/13
Bought 100 shares of JP Morgan Chase (JPM) at 68.01
7/14
Sold 100 shares of JPM at 69.05 for a PROFIT of $89.87
7/16
Bought 200 shares of BP LLC (BP) at $39.54
7/17
Sold 200 shares of BP at $39.37 for a LOSS of $49.74
7/21
Bought 50 shares of Apple (AAPL) at 131.02
Bought 30 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) at 47.18
Bought 50 shares of Electronic Arts (EA) at 73.66
7/22
Sold 50 shares of AAPL at 122.01 for a LOSS of $464.61
Sold 30 shares of MSFT at 45.83 for a LOSS of $54.52
Mistakenly Bought 50 more shares of EA at 73.45
Sold all 100 shares of EA at 73.32 for a LOSS of $44.97
Bought 150 shares of Comcast (CMCSA) at 64.53
7/23
Sold 150 shares of CMCSA at 63.71 for a LOSS of $137.56
Net Losses for July 2015: $1,522.44
The MUX trade was bad. Not just because I could have pulled out at a profit if it wasn’t for the market closing for July 4th on JULY 3rd! It was bad more so because I made the same mistake of setting my alerts and then changing them as the price dropped lower and lower. I should have sold the stock when it hit my first alert of .91, but I didn’t. I kept moving back the alerts to take heavier losses, hoping that the stock would rise again. Hope is an absolute KILLER in this game, a fact that I’ve learned over and over again. The Chase trade was okay, but I could have held it a little longer since there was no indication of it going down. But the stop was activated and it sold for what it sold for. These are the kinds of trades I don’t make enough of. BP was simply a test of a theory, and I would have done it again so I don’t regret that trade. Testing theories is okay, but I should put less money on something if I’m not sure of it.
I was supposed to buy Netflix (NFLX) before their earnings report, as I felt they were going to explode, especially after the stock split. As I did research and happened upon an article by an analyst, in fact it was this one. The head of the article reads: Netflix Shares After 2Q Results: Down, Down, Down, Down, Down and Down. I tried to make the NFLX trade but I couldn’t. The words “down, down, down” were in my head and I couldn’t get it out. I had everything set and ready to buy, but I simply couldn't click "Trade". So I second guessed myself and did not make the trade. The stock jumped $10 when the earnings came out, and I would have made at least $1,500. I was kicking myself for making the same mistake of listening to an analyst against my research.
The EA/AAPL/MSFT trade was strange, and I don’t know why I made it. I knew that MSFT was going to have a bad earnings report, but I “hoped” that investors would see past the numbers and looking at their growing cloud business. AAPL was also going to have bad earnings, as I felt that they didn’t do enough to justify the stock rising above $131. But I traded it anyway. And EA was supposed to be my safety net, as it was trading strong during the whole Greece crisis. All three stocks were down that day, and I was miserable. Once again, I had made unnecessary mistakes.
The CMCSA trade was the clincher. I researched this stock for a while now, and felt it would go up at least a dollar with the huge movie business it’s been doing. As I predicted, the movie earn-ings more than made up for their losses. But no one cared and the stock dropped as a result. I was supposed to make a trade for Amazon before their earnings report on that same day, but I couldn’t. I just ran out of gas. The CMCSA trade failed and I was down to $5,371. I just couldn’t risk losing over half my investment for the year, so I backed out. 8 minutes later AMZN reported their earnings, and they shot up $86 dollars a share. I would have made $1,600 easily! At first I was pissed off, but I quickly calmed down when I realized something.
Had I followed my July plan to a tee, I would have made a little over $2,000, which would have put me at almost $9,000. Be honest. Do you really think I would have stopped trading after mak-ing that much in a month? Of course not. I would have found some stupid way to show how great I am, scream about how big my dick is, and then continue trading. And why would that be a bad thing? Well, take a good look at my trades. A real good look. Compare them to June. And May. And April. Notice a pattern? I still make the same exact mistakes that I’ve been making. One good month won’t erase my fundamental flaws, and that means that all those gains will most likely be wiped out at the end of the next month.
So July is the last month of live trading, and I’ll shift back over to simulation trading this month. I’ll use a stock trade simulator and apply the lessons I’ve learned to the mock trades. If I can prove to myself on this blog, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I know what I’m doing, only then will I be ready for Round 2. In Round 1 I got my ass kicked and lost $4,629. Take the loss. Take the shame of it. Take the lessons. Learn from them. Practice. And then come out the corner ready for Round 2. Or, as the great Paul Heyman said:
“You cannot achieve success without the risk of failure. And I learned a long time ago, you cannot achieve success if you fear failure. If you're not afraid to fail... man, you have a chance to succeed. But you're never gonna get there unless you risk it all the way. I was a failure. Sometimes half the fun is failing. Learning from your mistakes, waking up the next morning and saying 'Okay. Watch out. Here I come again. A little bit smarter, licking my wounds, and really not looking forward to getting my ass kicked the way I just did yesterday. So now, I'm just a little more dangerous."
Well said, Paul.
7/1
Bought 6800 shares of McEwen Mining (MUX) at .93
7/9
Sold 6800 shares of MUX at .82 for a LOSS of $860.91
7/13
Bought 100 shares of JP Morgan Chase (JPM) at 68.01
7/14
Sold 100 shares of JPM at 69.05 for a PROFIT of $89.87
7/16
Bought 200 shares of BP LLC (BP) at $39.54
7/17
Sold 200 shares of BP at $39.37 for a LOSS of $49.74
7/21
Bought 50 shares of Apple (AAPL) at 131.02
Bought 30 shares of Microsoft (MSFT) at 47.18
Bought 50 shares of Electronic Arts (EA) at 73.66
7/22
Sold 50 shares of AAPL at 122.01 for a LOSS of $464.61
Sold 30 shares of MSFT at 45.83 for a LOSS of $54.52
Mistakenly Bought 50 more shares of EA at 73.45
Sold all 100 shares of EA at 73.32 for a LOSS of $44.97
Bought 150 shares of Comcast (CMCSA) at 64.53
7/23
Sold 150 shares of CMCSA at 63.71 for a LOSS of $137.56
Net Losses for July 2015: $1,522.44
The MUX trade was bad. Not just because I could have pulled out at a profit if it wasn’t for the market closing for July 4th on JULY 3rd! It was bad more so because I made the same mistake of setting my alerts and then changing them as the price dropped lower and lower. I should have sold the stock when it hit my first alert of .91, but I didn’t. I kept moving back the alerts to take heavier losses, hoping that the stock would rise again. Hope is an absolute KILLER in this game, a fact that I’ve learned over and over again. The Chase trade was okay, but I could have held it a little longer since there was no indication of it going down. But the stop was activated and it sold for what it sold for. These are the kinds of trades I don’t make enough of. BP was simply a test of a theory, and I would have done it again so I don’t regret that trade. Testing theories is okay, but I should put less money on something if I’m not sure of it.
I was supposed to buy Netflix (NFLX) before their earnings report, as I felt they were going to explode, especially after the stock split. As I did research and happened upon an article by an analyst, in fact it was this one. The head of the article reads: Netflix Shares After 2Q Results: Down, Down, Down, Down, Down and Down. I tried to make the NFLX trade but I couldn’t. The words “down, down, down” were in my head and I couldn’t get it out. I had everything set and ready to buy, but I simply couldn't click "Trade". So I second guessed myself and did not make the trade. The stock jumped $10 when the earnings came out, and I would have made at least $1,500. I was kicking myself for making the same mistake of listening to an analyst against my research.
The EA/AAPL/MSFT trade was strange, and I don’t know why I made it. I knew that MSFT was going to have a bad earnings report, but I “hoped” that investors would see past the numbers and looking at their growing cloud business. AAPL was also going to have bad earnings, as I felt that they didn’t do enough to justify the stock rising above $131. But I traded it anyway. And EA was supposed to be my safety net, as it was trading strong during the whole Greece crisis. All three stocks were down that day, and I was miserable. Once again, I had made unnecessary mistakes.
The CMCSA trade was the clincher. I researched this stock for a while now, and felt it would go up at least a dollar with the huge movie business it’s been doing. As I predicted, the movie earn-ings more than made up for their losses. But no one cared and the stock dropped as a result. I was supposed to make a trade for Amazon before their earnings report on that same day, but I couldn’t. I just ran out of gas. The CMCSA trade failed and I was down to $5,371. I just couldn’t risk losing over half my investment for the year, so I backed out. 8 minutes later AMZN reported their earnings, and they shot up $86 dollars a share. I would have made $1,600 easily! At first I was pissed off, but I quickly calmed down when I realized something.
Had I followed my July plan to a tee, I would have made a little over $2,000, which would have put me at almost $9,000. Be honest. Do you really think I would have stopped trading after mak-ing that much in a month? Of course not. I would have found some stupid way to show how great I am, scream about how big my dick is, and then continue trading. And why would that be a bad thing? Well, take a good look at my trades. A real good look. Compare them to June. And May. And April. Notice a pattern? I still make the same exact mistakes that I’ve been making. One good month won’t erase my fundamental flaws, and that means that all those gains will most likely be wiped out at the end of the next month.
So July is the last month of live trading, and I’ll shift back over to simulation trading this month. I’ll use a stock trade simulator and apply the lessons I’ve learned to the mock trades. If I can prove to myself on this blog, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I know what I’m doing, only then will I be ready for Round 2. In Round 1 I got my ass kicked and lost $4,629. Take the loss. Take the shame of it. Take the lessons. Learn from them. Practice. And then come out the corner ready for Round 2. Or, as the great Paul Heyman said:
“You cannot achieve success without the risk of failure. And I learned a long time ago, you cannot achieve success if you fear failure. If you're not afraid to fail... man, you have a chance to succeed. But you're never gonna get there unless you risk it all the way. I was a failure. Sometimes half the fun is failing. Learning from your mistakes, waking up the next morning and saying 'Okay. Watch out. Here I come again. A little bit smarter, licking my wounds, and really not looking forward to getting my ass kicked the way I just did yesterday. So now, I'm just a little more dangerous."
Well said, Paul.
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