Sell that stock!

As the market wavered, then dropped, then climbed, then held steady, then fell down, then popped up....I decided to sell that little stock referred to in my previous posting. Made a nice profit, not a huge profit, but a nice profit. Of course, as soon as I sold it, it went up another 30%. Emotions of lost opportunity wash over me like a sickness. But I hold to the old maxim that you'll never go broke taking a profit.

This has been a good exercise and has reinforced these two beliefs:
1. Fear and greed are overwhelming strong emotions and nearly impossible to control once you let them out of the box
2. Active market trading takes a lot of time and energy, and is generally a losers game

The market has been climbing steadily as I watch. Job losses mount and the news is mostly bad, except for real estate whose descent has somehow slowed. I still fully expect the market to tumble again and present new buying opportunities. I'm thinking by June there will be carnage once again.

Pure emotion

I get to work, read an investing newsletter from my uncle Gerry, log into my trading account and immediately make a blindly emotional buy in the first minute after the opening bell. How's that for not following my own advice? I broke the following rules:

1. Never invest on emotion
2. Never invest during beginner hour (the first hour after the market opens)

In a remarkable break with history, the markets went roaring up today, including my stock, a leveraged financial ETF called ProShares Ultra Financial, which went up 25% today. Do I feel like a star? Yes I do. Is it completely stupid to feel like a star when your short term success is due completely to blind luck? Of course, but it still feels good to be on the winning side of a trade for a change.

Actually, I consider this "gambling money" and since it was a small amount I was willing to take a risk. So I submit that this was a Monday morning trip to the online casino, likely brought on by the lack of excitement over the weekend (we were laying flooring in a rental unit).

Next thing to decide.....do I keep it or dump it for a profit at the end of the week?