Some of my most regrettable trades are ones I never made. I saw the opportunity and just got afraid that I had already missed the move. I’m not talking about “I should have bought GOOG on it IPO” or ” I had the limit order in for APPL @ $100 but I canceled it”  I could list hundreds of hunches I’ve had over the past few years, that turned out to be coulda-shoulda-woulda opportunities. But like I mentioned earlier, I’m not talking about those, because I never trade on hunches and therefor I realistically would have never made those trades anyways. What I am talking about is seeing legitimate opportunities and failing to capitalize on them because I thought that by the time I was getting slapped in the face with it, I was too late. The real money had already been made, right?Â
I remember making that mistake on Dry Bulk stocks a few years back. After many of them had already made double digit gains, I was afraid to go long, although all the fundamental numbers said demand from China ( Olympics build out ) was real and that a short supply of ships and Port congestion would drive rates for the Capesize/Panamax vessels above their current $30,000/day spot rates.   Fear told me, “Rates have already doubled, there’s no way there going higher, I don’t care what the fundamental are”. Boy was I wrong! Within months spot rates for Capsize vessels were $150,000 and Panamax were close behind at over $100,000/day.  Stocks such as DRYS, EXM, TBSI, GNK ( to name a few) saw ten fold gains in the matter a year. And while I did scalp some profits from day trading these stocks a few times, based on scouring online forums to be in the know on the next BDI ( Baltic Dry Index) reading, I missed the real opportunity to make the trade months before.
