This quote is very meanginful to me after this harsh week of trading. I became a casulty of the market and bought into the hype that we would continue to go higher and a setback was not possible. I am the first to admit, ultimately this week I screwed up.

What was the result? My portfolio dropped 12% losing a little less than half of my October gains.

What went wrong? I became undisciplined and went with the flow of the markets. Over this summer I created a stringent list of principles/rules that I would follow while trading. The main thing I stressed was discipline and selling at key points in time. This week, many of my positions flared up huge sell signals yet I kept buying into the analogy that the markets would continue to rise. I am the first to say that I am not perfect, however when it comes to trading the most important chrasteristic you can possess is being Disciplined. I can’t stress this enough, discpline is the biggest part of the game. Follow your principles and don’t get greedy. Ultimatly thats what I was, greedy. Some of my picks are up over 50% in less than 2 months. Thinking that they would continue this streak of success was juvenile especially with the economic challenges that still lie ahead. So how do I move on from this? In this case I want to quote Winston Churchill:

“Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving. They make mistakes, but they don’t quit. In life, all men make mistakes, the wise men learn from their mistakes.”

How to Build off this Experience? I want to build off this experience and become a better trader from it. Currently, I am still only in my 5th year of trading. If I can manage to make these mistakes at a young age it will greatly benefit me later on when I move through the industry.