Hi MrSoul!

I am a buy-and-hold investor. I have been able to ride the waves for nearly 10 years in this sector and was able to retire 5 years ago on the gains. I think anyone can do the same thing, if they can spend the time to learn specific stocks, and if they can handle the stress and volatility of the markets. However, I also made the decision to become a trader after the 2008 meltdown. Watching most of my gains vanish in just a few months to the point where I was almost broke, down nearly $1 million at the lows, was a wake up call. I came to realize that buy-and-hold is not good enough and that I was leaving money and opportunities on the table.

Now I trade a small chunk of my PF. To do so means selling some stock that I do not want to sell, because I think the market is headed higher. It also means buying the dips when I do not want to buy because I think the market is headed lower. Like today for example. Maybe ECU is about to fall below a dollar and stay down for the year. Maybe the entire sector is about to get smashed. Maybe the goddam COMEX crooks are about to engineer yet another meltdown that takes 3 years to rebound. I do not know.

What I DO know is that I make my money buying the dips. Buying precisely when people think the sector is about to crash. When all the experts say a top is at hand. I think most traders make the mistake that they buy when the sector is hot, and hope to vend off stock even higher. I buy low, and if the stock drops further, I buy more. I bought some ECU earlier this week at $1.11 and doubled up today at $1.07 so I have some ammunition to sell the next time the stock runs hard. I do not know when that will happen, but I have enough confidence in operating numbers and potential drill success to give me reasons to wait and see.

You make the money buying when you dont want to, and selling when you dont want to. My core position has been in my RRSP since 20 cents, plus warrants that I exercised at 50 cents. I do not trade it. But I do have many other stocks that I like and will enter the market to buy more on every dip, and then sell on the up moves. Now I am waiting on the bid to reload more shares of FR, GPR, IPT, AEM, etc. I have owned them all for years, and will not lose any sleep if I get stuck with traders for a long term correction. I will still be here when it blows over and will still be making money.

Assuming the sky is not actually falling, and the shorts do their thing and cover, I could see the sector get hot again as soon as next week. Maybe we drift sideways and let the froth boil off this month and then get another wave of enthusiasm by April. Either way I think ECU will retest resistance at the $1.20 level. I will look to sell my traders in the high teens again and then see what the market gives me after.

Sorry for the long post. I am sure no one could care a big rats ass about me or my trading, and I just share all of this to illustrate that nothing happening today is new. We have been there many times, through the ups and downs of this market. Its always the same. How we deal with that volatility will define the success we achieve as spec players. I still get email from anonymous strangers that call me names and blame me because they lost money on some stock or other a few years ago. Most of those same stocks are much higher now and some have hit all-time highs. People that lose money do so because they do not manage emotions and do not take responsibility for their decisions.

cheers!

mike