No More Real Trading until I turn significant and consistant paper profits.

Things went very badly for me today. I sold my spread at 2044, what was mostly likely the bottom of the day for a $550 loss overall. That's plus the $250 I lost getting out of my shorts to make this play.

Amateur hour is well named, but I could not take the risk of market going lower.

That's it. I've lost $2,400 total since I started "investing" (gambling) in the stock market. And I could lose $300 more depending on what I do with the gold miner plays because that and some GM stock are the only things I have left. Things are looking good for GM. But I still think, esp if global turmoil rises, that these miners might move up. But I'll deal with that later.

This last trade was sort of a desperate bid to make up $1700 and put my account back in good standing, but I was pretty confident it would work. I had the opportunity over the course of the trade to put my account in a $1000 loss state and in hindsight obviously should have done it, Or at least taken my loss when things turned out not to be that great.

I'm going to sleep haven't been getting enough of it recently.

You know, most of my problem is my risk management strategy...I don't take profits quickly enough and I don't cut losses quickly enough. I need to learn how to use automated methods such as stop losses more effectively. There's the persistent worry that I will leave money on the table with such a method. I'll have to experiment in the paper account.