If you are looking at home builders, there are better ones out there at lower prices. However, I do not think home builders is a wise investment right now. Also, any financials who have big exposure to loans lower than prime may be a problem. If they disappoint when they report, which is a possibility, you will get crushed. You may want to consider other industries such as biotechnology, Internet, Energy, etc. I think there is going to be a good amount of pain still for the home builders. There is just too much inventory that has not been sold. If we go into a recession, that will not be good either. Also, consider, the huge "correction" in February, I am sure that was a big hit too. A correction like that, while not ordinary, can happen again. As a previous poster said, this market is very choppy. This past week was pretty good, cause of little data. Next week will prob. trend down then go back up again. 4% is not bad if you are trading more than one stock. I usually aim for a 8% - 12% return, then again, I am also trading around 30 stocks at a time. I do not use tight stops though. Sometimes that is good, and sometimes that is bad.. Rarely do I have a stock that goes down huge that does not rebound within the next day or so. Anyway, you should test your strategies first before really going into it. It can take time to actually put together a plan that consistently works. Sometimes, like on a sell-off, no plan will work. Following the daily trends and market movers also is a decent plan. Have done this several times in the past month to make some nice gains. Reversing when buying to sell and to sell to buy has worked a couple of times.. But, one thing to definitely consider is if you are having a day that is just not working for you is to quit for the day. Some days for any traders are just bad days. A good trader knows when the day is just not working and to call it a day.
In terms of the dough you lost.. It is a learning experience. No trader goes in to the market wet behind the ears w/o taking some losses. It is call learning.. Everyone does it. The ability to correct your mistakes and lessen your losses and to eventually turn a profit is the goal. Start small with solid companies, after a while, then move to higher risk companies. Once you build up a healthy portfolio, then you can put together some risk money, usually 1% or less of your total portfolio, and invest it into some early stage bio or something. Everything is a learning experience. The question is.. How long will it take to learn to play the game in your favor?
