So, so tired. Got about an hour and a half of sleep last night. Stock stuff. Learning, and getting up early because I was still holding onto that one stock from yesterday, and I wanted to see how it did in premarket to see what I might be able to do with it.
Gratefully, the stock was up pretty decently in premarket trading, so put in a sell order, and I waited. And waited. And waited. And… something wasn’t right. I was hitting the numbers offered, but no one was buying.
🤔
So I didn’t know what to do. I knew that stocks weren’t as liquid, generally, in extended-hours trading (trading before or after the 9:30-4:00 ET trading day for US stock markets), but nothing? I tried and tried to sell, and the value bid price kept going down and down, and I just wanted to sell and make some kind of a profit.
But nothing. I couldn’t get anyone to buy it. Finally, flabbergasted, I called Fidelity to figure out what was going on, and they looked at my account and told me that I wasn’t set up to trade extended hours.
I swear I enabled that days ago. 🤦♂️
Anyway, she got me set up to trade on extended hours, and I was finally able to sell and have someone buy my position. It just so happened that by the time I got approved, my profit margin was really slim.
But hey, it was a gain. I made like $115 or something. Had I been able to sell when I first tried, I’d have made probably about $375 or so.
Oh well.
I was so concerned about what had been happening with my settled cash and taking a bath on that one stock I shouldn’t have traded in the first place, that even though I had plenty of cash to buy more stock today, I was a nervous little guy and failed to recognize that multiple of my preferred stocks were in my “buy” range (the point at which I would buy if they got do that point). Not paying any attention to that, and being just… nervous of messing up a trade in general with all the goof ups that I’ve had so far, I didn’t buy anything, and by the time I realized my error, my preferred stocks had nearly all skyrocketed.
I smile about it now, but had I paid attention and bought the stocks that were in my range, I would have made… a lot. 🙃
I’ll tell you, I’m learning a lot about the need to stay in command of my emotions and stay focused. Simple mistakes and ignorance has cost me thousands of dollars in profit that was pretty much guaranteed me had I just 1). known how settled cash worked, 2) had my account settings already optimized for my trading style, and 3) stayed focused on my strategy, without letting myself get caught up in anything else.
It was also funny that the stock I fought to sell today in extended hours skyrocketed, too. Why? I was so nervous that I didn’t realize that my buy number was a good buy number. It was in my “buy” range. Had I not sold it during premarket, I’d have made over $1000 just on that one trade. 🙃
I smile now, and it wasn’t awful then, just a bit disappointing to see how much I’m leaving on the table because of simple mistakes.
But, the positive was that I still did make money on that trade. It wasn’t $1000, but it was a little over $100, and despite making elementary mistake after elementary mistake, including hitting sell when I meant to buy and diving after a stock that I shouldn’t have been in and losing a ton, I’m actually up $569.09 overall ($469.09 if you subtract my wire transfer fees, which… definitely ought to be subtracted).
So… despite seeming error after error, mistake after mistake, issue after issue, and one really dumb decision, the reality is that I’m now… 18 for 20 in my trades, I think? Only two losers, the one screw up and the monumental blowout. 🙃
It’s funny how The nerves have come despite my really significant success rate. 18 for 20… that’s 90% success rate. I’ve made money on 90% of my sell orders.
Not too shabby. If I can keep up that success rate, or even something close to that success rate, and if I can stop making silly mistakes, I might well be in good shape.
If not, no worries. Life goes on.
Oh, another positive. As much as I wanted to buy another stock today, or two, I didn’t feel comfortable with any of them. I kept trying to find something I could feel comfortable buying, but… each time it was like, nope–you’d be completely flipping a coin on this with a small upside and a lot of downside. Don’t do it.
And I didn’t do it.
So that was good of me, too. Positive decisions. Restraint. Discipline.
So, yeah. Good stuff.
Other than that, I tried to get my junker trailer figured out today, but I realized that I might just go ahead and sell it as is. It needs a good bit of help. A lot of help, actually. Ugh. I didn’t think it needed all this, but it does. I used to be okay dealing with fixer upper stuff, but I just… my time is worth so much more to me now than it used to be. If I were fixing stuff up with my sweetheart, that would be another thing, I think, because we’d be doing it together, but… More projects means more time sucking from my life.
I laugh at myself because in another tab in my browser, I have an ad up for a fixer-upper house. 🙃 I’m so used to wanting to get good deals on things that I forget that I’m sort of… not that person anymore? I mean, I am, but I’m also a lot more willing to just spend more if it means less headache and hassle.
Anyway, so… the trailer turned into a lot bigger project. The broken jack turned into need to find not only the right jack but someone to weld it on. The flat tire turned into not only a flat tire but a stripped out lug stud whole, a worn out wheel bearing, and a busted electric brake setup.
Yeah. And that was just one of the six wheels. 🙃 Don’t even want to look at the rest of them. Part of me just wants to sell the thing and move on, except a new trailer would be probably $8500 or more, and I could pay someone to make this fully functional for a lot less than that. So… yeah… projects, decisions, etc.
Was super tired, but now I’m waking up again.
Funny.
Dinner with mom–vegan hot dogs. 😊 They’re made from wheat, but they actually taste mostly like hotdogs. They’re chewier, but remarkably similar, as seems to be the case with a lot of the vegan alternatives.
Well folks, did I tell you I got the hand bidet set up? Fun fun fun.
Nice rainy day today. No worky. And I got my tax documents signed and sent back to my accountant for submission. I have some Arkansas stuff I have to do myself, I think, but otherwise, that part is almost done. Just waiting to see how much in fines I’ll owe.
Found out a friend of my had a stroke that killed part of her eye and that she needs heart surgery. 😕
Hope the surgery goes well. Love to all.
Lift the World.
~ stephen
Lift the World 