Here is what you do that will help you immensely.
Get off of the messageboard and find some people who are in the game in real life. All you will find is insensitive fools and boobs on elitetrader and only a very few saints.
Find a local trading group, network and see how they are doing it.
www.meetup.com will have a list of such trading groups.
Right now, although the index prices appear in an uptrend and are making new highs there is a divergence that is invisible if you just followed CNBC...there are a lot more declining issues right now then advancing.
NYSE AMEX NASDAQ BB
Advancing Issues 1,173 (35%) 475 (35%) 1,134 (36%) 619 (31%)
Declining Issues 2,024 (61%) 768 (57%) 1,894 (60%) 859 (44%)
Unchanged Issues 128 (4%) 111 (8%) 138 (4%) 496 (25%)
Total Issues 3,325 1,354 3,166 1,974
New Highs 122 42 107 219
New Lows 186 40 189 226
Up Volume 1,361,823,564 (37%) 176,605,090 (22%) 743,934,093 (33%) 1,615,917,669 (60%)
Down Volume 2,222,729,377 (61%) 615,807,752 (77%) 1,503,459,280 (66%) 564,411,867 (21%)
Unchanged Volume 64,048,390 (2%) 4,323,800 (1%) 25,916,137 (1%) 505,134,573 (19%)
Total Volume 3,648,601,3311 796,736,6421 2,273,309,5101 2,685,464,1091
I do have a good tip for you. DEC 07 7.50 CALLS
Quote from pumpanddumper:
I haven't made any new trades since and my portfolio hit an all time low today.
I'm thinking of liquidating my entire portfolio and salvaging what I have left.
Getting a gun is another option...