Last Week's Trading Was A Disaster...

Not only did I let go of C at precisely the wrong time, I ended up doing the same with AIG. I believed in C more than AIG, but given my lack of conviction on where the market is actually headed, I had to make a choice and unfortunately, I made the wrong one. LOL. At a cost. COL. That's crying out loud.

It did make me realise how much I want to keep BAC, NYX, and HWD in my portfolio over the longer term.

I've always made it a point to invest in companies that mean more than shareholder profitability and with AIG and ABK, I really felt like I was getting off track.

Now that I know there are actually people reading my blog, I feel even more motivated to actually stick to my plan. It'll be like someone's indirectly auditing my trading and making sure I put my money where my mouth is.

Where did I go wrong with C? I got out with a limit sell rather than trailing my stop to exit the trade with a profit. If I had used a trailing stop, I could potentially have gained more on the trade.

Where did I go wrong with AIG? I bought it in the first place, which was against my overall trading philosophy. However, having bought it, I exited with a trailing stop that was much too tight. Whilst I kept moving my limits up on the trade once I saw the market offered potential for greater profits, the tight stop limited my profits significantly.

Overall lessons: I like moving my limit up according to market volatility and market potential. If the market's bullish, there's no reason we shouldn't keep raising our limits. I should also make the trailing stop my exit strategy more often and perfect it to maximise gains and minimise losses.

Hindsight is 20/20 and I'll try not to beat myself up about it too much. However, I reckon reminiscing on these two trades will be COL moments for some time to come.

I suppose the really good news is that once I get rid of ABK and AMD, I am well on my way to having a portfolio that I could be proud of in principle. This means that all the companies will be ones that I actually believe in. Whether they end up being profitable is another story.