HOW TO WIN

The worst thing that ever happened to me was making $40,000 in my first four weeks as a day trader back in 2004. During that span of time I made as much as $38,000 in 90 minutes and losing close to $33,000 in one night on SIRI. I had huge swings up and down.

The best thing that ever happened to me in investing and trading was losing $7000 bucks on October 30, 2010 trying to be some one I am not.

It has taken me 5 years to get over the most powerful addiction I have ever known. I have never done drugs, smoked cigs, had a drinking problem, nothing until greed took me over in 2004. It has taken me 5 years to shake this off almost to the day. My first day trade was Oct. 18, 2004, ISON for a $16,000 profit day. The volume was huge that day for ISON.

I have come full circle and I know what greed is, what day trading can do to a person, what that addiction can do to your soul.

I have learned that I can not day trade and that it is a stupid way to try to make money for me, maybe not for some people but for me, the risk is too great.

HOW TO WIN

Everyone has their own way of winning, for me it was finding that there is no quick easy way even though I lived the illusion given to me via my own greed. I have doubled my ROTH account but I have also lost a lot of money I didn't need to.

So I have arrived back where I began five years ago. I work hard and I save what I make.

I have been investing in my ROTH with weekly dollar cost averaging purchases every week since August. I will continue to do so and when our markets go down and they will I will step up my buying in proportion to the decline. As others sell I will buy more in each step of the decline for I am a much better long term investor. You see my sickness, my addiction to day trading blinded me to my old ways. In the past I would have stepped up my buying as the DOW approached the 6400 level, instead I was trying be some fancy day trader, trying to pick the bottom and then I missed it, then I became a stupid day trader shorting the most historic rally of all time. WHY? Blinded my greed, blinded by being some one I am not.

I will never veer from what has made me money all my life, DOLLAR COST AVERAGING.

Until 2004 I had used this practice. As Dec 1999 came around and stocks got way too expensive and P/E's got way out of hand I sold when everyone else was at the party in Dec of 1999. I moved everything to cash as I did in Oct. 2007.

NOW WHAT TO DO?

I am still buying every week. I have not moved the nest egg out of cash. I will leave it there and will only use it when and if we crash and I see everyone has lost hope. I always kept a powder keg of cash just for the great declines in which to buy in mass. I missed this chance in March of 2009. I set right here on March 6, 2009 telling a friend it was time to go all in because the end of the world looked at hand. I didn't. I will keep the bulk in cash for now just in case the time comes. I can wait. If it never happens then so much the better for all of us. I will still have a bundle of cash safe and sound.

THERE IS NO MAGIC

I never found the magic again I had on Oct 18, 2004 and those following four weeks. Making $40,000 in one month for a regular guy really screwed me up. It's taken a very long journey to return to sanity and a less risky way of making money with money. I have found that longer swing trades work much better and day trading does not work for me at all.

I will go back to picking stocks I see that have value, that have promise based on real world data and not some whisper in the wind.

Right now I do not see a need to worry about some market top, after all I am buying dollar cost averaging. I could care less about the market corrections that happen. I do not see a major drop in our markets right now. The trend is very much in place on low volume. I will be watching for the volume to pick up now and into the first few months of Q1. I will be watching the earnings of Q1 as everyone else will. If they show a decline I will make a swing trade short even while buying less each week as we go higher. If I see our volume spiking upward and earnings show they are not meeting expectations I will quit buying weekly. I will pull everything off the table then when I see the data and how the market acts.

I do feel we have another 10 to 20% upside but it will be based upon earnings in Q1 and Q2. It will be based upon the dollar and how it is acting then. It will be based upon interest rates and job creation by then. It will be based upon hard data and the market trend and not me guessing. Until then I am buying more each week.

I am no longer day trading. So the wishy washy FAS/FAZ trades are no longer.

I will get my IT man to take down all these adds and to make our site more user friendly again. I have lost readers because I lost a big part of me in trying to be some one I am not.

The time has come to end the madness of day trading and the useless damaging emotion of it all.

I do have to agree with Cramer on JDSU. I also like DRYS and UNG. I like GE and Ebay. I like DDSS long term even though my shares have gone down in value. DDSS I feel is a long term gamble one should not risk much money in, it's a high risk/reward trade and shold be treated as such. I have read some comments on here about why there was no one or two week magic trick rally on this one. Come back in two to three months and then lets discuss DDSS, not now. Only a day trader would care about daily action. I AM DONE WITH DAY TRADING. If you want to get pissed about losing 15% in one day fine, the market is there all day for yout gamble and get emtional over it. I am done with that emotional stuff. You should not trade or invest what you can not lose and do not cry to me or complain to anyone about your losses. Do your own DD and blame no one but yourself for your losses and your wins, if not get out of investing or trading.

How to win. That is really for all of us to decide, we are all different.

I am a VET and thank you for your kind words and I wish all other VETS out there a kind thank you as well for your service.

Greg Ruffin