Double To A Million - Step 19 - The Crisis
Things have been very difficult lately as you probably already know. The world wide financial crisis has hit me fairly hard regarding finances, though not as badly as it could have been.
Earlier this year I sold all my long term holdings in all my accounts and went to cash. I managed to accomplish this before the market crashed. So over all I was out of the markets with about 85% of my money and would have been 100% out except I made a trade at the last minute.
I will confess I made a mistake. I did not follow my gut but rather listened to my head (I leaned on my own understanding). This is always a prelude to disaster.
As you know I went long a while back with a trade and the rumor came out that the US Governement was going to take major action with the Credit Crisis. This sent the markets up and I made 17.62%.
The day after the Russell 2000 jumped up again and I had a strong gut feel to go short at that point. I told my wife that I wanted to short but I hesitated and made a foolish choice to wait one more day. The next day the market fell and did so for another two days. I missed my chance.
Then I did something really stupid. I listened to my head. President Bush was saying that they would pass the 700 Billion dollar bailout by the following Monday so I held the trade believing that this would make the Russell go up. I failed to listen to my heart.
When they failed to pass it on that Monday the market tanked. Now I made my second mistake, I violated my rules. When I lose that assured feeling of a trade and begin to start "HOPING" I need to exit the trade immediately. I didn't.
I held on. The Russell continued to drop and drop and then they passed the Bill and it dropped some more. I made one mistake after another and now I was down 60 Percent.
On October 10th I told my wife if I had more funds to work with I would buy right now so I could perhaps level out the Russell Trade I was in, as it was going to rise. But all my funds have been moved into Certificates of Deposit or other high yielding stable accounts, for the most part.
For the next two days the markets went up.
It is highly unlikely I will recover all the investment in this trade.
Time will tell at this point.
Many people are suffering from these current events with the Financial Industry. I usually do not advise people about their finances, unless they ask but right before the crash I urgently called my parents and told them to sell everything they had in the stock market and go to cash.
Also, I have been very nervous about the economy over the last 8 years and have made sure that all debt was eliminated and I had saved as much as I could. My wife and I were as frugal as was possible and were what you could call "Anti-Consumers". If retailers had to rely on us for survival they would have died off.
We drive around in older model cars with 120,000 miles or more on them. We make sure all our bills are paid at the end of the month and do not carry any money on credit cards.
According to the newspapers we are not your typical American Family.
But Debt has always scared the kajeebies out of me and with the way things are right now it becomes very clear why.
Regarding investments I have made mistakes in the past.
I wanted to buy Gold many years ago when it was $250 -$300 an ounce. I kept saying I wanted to do it but I didn't just wouldn't do it.
I had bought Oil Stock "USO" at around $50 a share because I believed Oil would rise. I got nervous and sold it shortly after. The stock then rose to around $120 a share.
I shorted Oil when it reached it peak of near $149 a barrel. I bought "DUG" to short Oil with at $27.90 a share. Again I got spooked and sold it at a small profit and DUG proceeded to go to $86.50 within 4 months.
I seem to know what is going to happen easily enough, I just cannot seem to hold onto my convictions and end up missing out.
Anyways.
I was able to add some funds to my Double To A Million Stake since my last post.
(1). Received a Payout from EtradeXchange for ($50.00 - $0.50) (AlertPay Fee for Bank Transfer) = $49.50
(2). Received two confirmation payments from AlertPay to Bank Account for Transfer authorization. Total $0.29
(3). Received a ($25.00) Gift to DTAMP from a Benefactor that I have been assisting with guidance and advice regarding their finances.
Thats all for now. I, like everyone else, have alot of wounds to lick.
Present Stake: $2,050.12
Motto: It is only "one" found penny.
Slogan: As Simple As Finding A Penny.
Regards,
Xinfinitum
This Doubling Blog is based upon the Doubling Plan "How to Double Your Way to a £Million in 28 Steps". It is an attempt to "Double Your Way to a Million" by going from one penny to one million dollars, starting from nothing. At the beginning you start by finding a penny and then double a penny until reaching $1,000,000.
D.T.A.M.P. - Double To A Million Plan
posted by Xinfinitum | 11:13 AM PermaLink
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