Taking my bat and ball and going home

I`m back doing regular paid work again after being mauled by the bear.

But I have learned so much through this bull and bear cycle that I am ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN I can do exceptiionally well when the bull starts again.

1) Position sizing :- went all in toooo many times
2) Stop loss :- imprint stop loss onto every neuron
3) Right sectors :- spent too much time in oilers and speccys instead of mines/minerals & banks (next mining boom ??? 3,4,5, 10 years???)
4) Take Profit :- when is still discretionary
5) Charts :- interpretation/reading/understanding/believing and acting decisively
6)Trade frequency :- go for quality, high probability trades (wait for the trade to come to you)

and don`t play chicken with a grizzly or stare down an American pitbull.

Hey all,

Thanks for your encouragement. I would love to spend more time learning, and in the earlier days, I did say to myself that with such small numbers, anything I lose is just education. But I'm starting to think this type of learning is fairly unique to this type of situation, which seems to only come every second decade or so, perhaps even less often, depending on where we go next.

I have learned a few things over the last few months, the hardest and most expensive, but most valuable lesson was to execute my stop losses without prejudice, and to take wins when they presented themselves.

I'd love to learn more in the next few months, and no doubt I will be back. For the time being though, I'm not sure what will help me the most, if my assumption that these are "unique" times is correct.

Edit: Oh, and Rastan, I'm sorry to hear about your situation, which seems to dwarf mine. I agree, sometimes it's hard to think I lost 7k, when I'm browsing through some 2001-2003 R6 motorcycles and thinking I could have got that instead, or thinking about how long I could go without a job for, with an extra 7k in my account. What I "could" have done with that money, as much as you could have gone overseas, seems to hurt more than the loss of the money - but while hindsight is a wonderful thing, it doesn't make our present better - only our future.

At the end of the day, it is all just money though. Health, friends and family are what's important and can't be replaced so easily. It's hard to do, but even without a job, I'm counting my blessings.

Well, Sunder... what did you do best?

What type of trades worked for you, and made you feel most comfortable?

Easiest way to work out where you need to head.

Saunders and Rastan and any others in their situation

I'm sorry to hear of such great losses but like many have said - there is much to learn from it.

You're both young and awful things happen in life which you can't control.

I have found that if you can strip away the strong emotions and the surge from others doing things you don't know are right or wrong. Try to settle your thoughts and listen, I do believe in intuition it has saved me many times.

Just don't bottle up all the fear and guilt inside you, seek someone to listen to you, just unburdening your heavy thoughts can lighten you up. It is not the end of the world.

You're both far more resistant than you realise. Just talking here shows your courage. It may be tough for a while but you will pull through.

Remember there are people out there to help you with kindness.