It was supposed to be so easy

Thursday, 26th August 2010 15:36 - by Boredmum

There is a thread in General Chat called ‘Sound tracks of our lives’. You can list songs there that may be apt to your trading. Well, my song from Tuesday of last week has to be from The Streets - ‘It was supposed to be so easy’. I have a varied taste in music and this song pretty much summed up this day. ‘Today I've achieved absolutely nowt... ...I've lost out. If I wanted to end up with more now I should've just stayed in bed, like I know how.’ Yes, I had achieved absolutely nowt and, worse still, I had lost out and unfortunately lost out by a large amount. I had previously been holding Cove Energy (TIDM code: COV) and sold out at a profit before drilling results. From experience, I had suffered too many ‘dusters’ and figured it would be good just to take my profit and walk away. It would have been a wise decision. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of leaving it on my Watch-list. So, the price was ticking up nicely - had been for a couple of days - and then there were news reports from a quoted source stating that not only had they found gas, but also oil in their drilling. Fantastic news; this was excellent. The trouble was I didn’t stop to think. I didn’t weigh up the possibilities as I should have. I thought this was an easy share to take profit from by buying now before the news is confirmed from the company. So, I purchased (and subsequently twice on the drop) as unconfirmed news started to circulate that the oil wasn’t commercial. Anyhow, the downside is I lost...and I lost a lot. Of course, I’ve tried to analyse my trading and why I did what I did. The bottom line is greed. My portfolio was in good condition and I didn’t need to do this trade. I was greedy and thought it was easy profit. I was wrong and it knocked the enthusiasm right out of my trading. On Friday, I did a little day-trade successfully on it, but it was a hollow victory as it wasn’t even a drop in the ocean compared to my previous loss. I have kept some shares in COV, but sold the majority. I’d like to think that I have invested the money more wisely, but I have to admit to being nervous of taking another similar hit. Till next time.