make a lot of money or become a better person. I've got news for you. Working at becoming a better person will also take care of your other problem (trading/investing) but the trading/investing won't take care of you becoming a better person.

Being a better person involves the following among others:

Patience, discipline, acceptance.

All three of these can take care of greed, anger, hopelessness and a lot of stupidity in terms of your trading. So how do you achieve this? Most have already done the school of hard knocks part. Now....

Take profits.... always (discipline). Recognize that you can't make profits unless you cash some in. Nothing goes straight up so unless you cash in you wind up riding a ping pong ball. If you are taking profits you are winning. If you are waiting for the ultimate cash in then you don't belong on a blog site on a day to day basis. You say you are long but you are really thinking short term and subjecting yourself to daily pressures.....not good.

Wait (Patience)! Wait for times to enter when going back in. Worrying about missing the train is usually such bunk it's incredible that people keep regurgitating this crap. How many trains have you missed with NOT? 99.99 percent of the time it comes right back down. You're all feeling the results of this now. Even if it goes up you can still wait for a dip and make gains.

Never look back (Acceptance). Live with what you've got and accept it as good and you'll start to make much better decisions. There will always be other opportunities, this is not the last stock on earth as good as it is. There will also be trading ops in NOT for at least months to come. Look at the ones you've missed so far. Empower yourself and don't sit there like a victim wailing at the BOD to make you money. Make it yourself!

Yesterday I sold some NOT shares at 1.92. People would say "you're crazy, it's going to rocket soon". I didn't think so being that I felt NOT would languish a little more, so I bought CSI, another very good stock to choose because of it's depressed price yesterday. I bought it at 3.90 this morning and sold at 4.25. I'll grant you I was very lucky at picking the bottom, but there again lies patience in going for your predetermined numbers. Keep trying to hit crap bids and you'll get some. So while NOT sits lower today I feel empowered, even though I still have other NOT shares that took a hit today. I still took part in decision making where I used discipline, patience and acceptance to make gains to counter my losses. I wasn't worried or feeling greedy as I was prepared to accept the consequences knowing they were the best moves I could presently make. Even if I had not made my CSI trade I would have saved a loss on the stocks I cashed in. Ask yourself, how many times have you thought "should I sell?" and not done it only to find you should have? Those that keep saying with pride, "I haven't sold one share", as a flag waving stand that you'll hold your ground through this fight, have also took big hits and that is not what being in this game is about. It's about making money not losing it. It's just numbers and the only fight is what you wage on yourself. No one even knows you are there. It's just numbers. There is no room for emotion...get rid of it. Stop posting nonsense (done it too), or at least post less and think about what it is that you are doing/accomplishing by being here.

Sorry for this muddled explanation, but there are those here that need to address their trading problems as they are part of a system that goes much deeper than just the market. The problem is not with the market but with your inability to deal with it and respond appropriately. The problem, as always, is within.

I really hope this helps someone.

This is all my own opinion and perspective and not meant to push any stock or idea not compatible with any individual.