Michelle B submits: I was feeling as fresh as stagnant rainwater trapped in a city-street pothole -- too many blondes, too many Bloody Marys, and too little sleep.
(trans.: I am trading without risk management, methodology, and breaks).
Then I see her. Only difference between a wild cat and this dame is her long legs are covered with black fishnet stockings. Lynx eyes say follow me. I do.
(trans.: I buy an explosively ramping stock at the top of the first unbelievably long intra five-minute candle).
She prowls down the block, turning into a dead-end alley. An alley so dark and narrow, I can't see the dame.
(trans.: I did not honor my stop loss when the stock reverses after gapping up; I exit in panic via a market order, with a heavy loss.)
My stomach, hungry for some more action, says I got to find this dame, got to see those legs again.
(trans.: I obsessively watch this stock for another entry, not looking for a fresh opportunity elsewhere, and I also do not take a break until I calm down.)
She surfaces. I follow those legs.
(trans.: I re-enter a long position with a lot size double of the previous, right at the intra high).
She pops into that alley again.
(trans.: At the intra double top, the stock reverses hard again, past a hypothetical stop loss I did not even determine this time around, because I was sure it will take out the intra highs. After all, the market owes me).
But, I know the drill now. I wait for her to resurface. Damn that dame! Where is she?
(trans.: The stock makes new intra lows).
I am alone in the big city, a city that chews its inhabitants whole and spits them out, disfigured beyond recognition.
(trans.: I add to my long position, maxing my margin. I got to reduce my cost basis, otherwise I cannot HOPE that I will be made whole.)
No sign of the dame. A monster truck barrels down the street; I volunteer my body to its wheels.
(trans.: The stock continues to decline sharply. I get a margin call, and the position is liquidated by my broker.)
* (Ed: Raymond Thornton Chandler (July 23, 1888 – March 26, 1959) was an author of crime stories and novels. His influence on modern crime fiction has been immense, particularly in the writing style and attitudes that much of the field has adopted over the last 60 years. Chandler's protagonist, Philip Marlowe, has become synonymous with the tradition of the hard-boiled private detective, along with Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade.)
Whoa....when I first read the blurb in my RSS feed, I thought you referenced Raymond Carver - the amazing short story writer of the 1980’s. Regardless, Raymond Thornton Chandler had some good moments as well.
Good post.
~o)
That was really a fantastic improv on vintage Chandler. It reminds me that watching stocks like a fiend (especially hot ones like INPH, DMRC, etc.) is INSANE!
Mousefinger, Thanks for jogging my memory. I kept on thinking when I was writing my post that there is another talented writer with a similar name.
Anne H, thanks, writing it was a lot of fun.
The important point to emphasize is that emotions are dangerous when trading, whether it is a hot or dullard stock. Trading is always INSANE in that manner.
When one trades without methodology and risk management, one is doomed to be crushed eventually. If the newbie, Chandler, (a great writer but at this state of development a very poor trader), entered the hot stock in question if it had triggered his methodology, managed his trade via risk management, and always been vigilant for any bit of emotion cropping up instead of fanning its flames to a fever pitch, he would have been fine trading that hot stock.
Good post Michelle.........
Thanks, Quentin.
YEAH BABY!