Friday, January 19, 2007

The Life of a Trader

Whew...what a week. The weekend is definitely a welcome reprieve. Technology stocks got hammered this week thanks to a number of companies missing their earnings estimates or providing weak guidance. Even companies with blowout quarters such as Apple saw their stocks get slammed. I'm sure that makes no sense to people unfamiliar with the market...and quite frankly, it often makes little sense to those of us in the trenches every single day. Basically, people had priced in perfection in some of these stocks and you got the "buy the rumor, sell the news" reaction that is often prevalent on Wall Street. The Nasdaq lost 50 points this week and that is a pretty good beating after how it well it has been performing.

I survived the initial selloff on Wednesday and was sitting pretty for the week after a good Tuesday. Then Thursday came along and I apparently couldn't walk between the raindrops anymore and gave the last two day's gains back in a matter of 6 and a half hours. That is frustrating. I don't care how long you have been trading...losing money isn't fun...particularly when you financially need to have a good week. No pressure there. It's an interesting thing when you can work as hard as possible and do everything you know how to do and still lose big. But it's just part of the equation.

The good news is that Friday was much better and I recovered all that was lost. After doing this for several years I know to approach every day with a positive attitude and a belief that I will make money. I may carry a bad day with me for awhile after the market closes but that feeling is gone when I wake up the next day. I know by now that I can and will beat the market...maybe not every day, week or month...but in due time. So, I press on and that persistence, as in so many other areas of life, has a way of paying off.

No comments: