Trading like a fool Part 1

Well dear readers, it pains my heart to recount the events of last Friday but I must. I take this blog seriously and I owe it to you readers. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. But make sure to have a box of tissues nearby. In fact, I demand you read this post with your favorite alcoholic beverage in your hand. I know its early in the morning but exceptional times demand exceptional responses. And it sure was an exceptional day dear readers and this surely is an exceptional tale. Sigh!

The day started like all bad ones do.....deceptively well. I went into the day holding SWC and NEP. Though the market was down a bit, both these stocks were doing well. I had made only two trades during the week, gaining almost 5% in both. My account was up over 5% for this entire month. Looking back at what followed (isn't hindsight a wonderful thing dear readers!), I feel overconfidence silently crept into my trading. Anyway, the plan was to sell SWC at 17.20 and then be done for the day. I had a busy day ahead. The sell order has been placed. SWC never touched that. It made a high of 17.17. Alas! My day would have gone so very differently had it moved up those 3 cents.

I held on. The market turned. Goldman Sachs lay accused. I sold SWC at 16.50 for little more than 1% loss. Now, the regular readers of this blog know I don't mind taking a loss at all but I do mind taking a loss on a stock in which I once had a decent profit. Maybe this is what happened here. I am still grappling for reasons for what happened next. Perhaps there is really no reason. This post is taking a lot out of me dear readers. The memories....I will be back sometime later with the concluding part  of this series dear readers. Until then, goodbye.