Monk's Den

[Ticalc2007]

Funny how my story follows a similar plot.

I recently finished up my junior year of college. Last summer I had some money in my bank account from working with minimal expenses throughout my final 3 years of highschool, and part of my freshman and sophomore years of college. I managed to accrue roughly $6,000 that I felt I could live without while trying to "tame" the market.

Well, I opened an account with Scottrade, and deposited my funds, without paying any attention to the state of the market, other than the fact that it was going up. As my luck would go, I did this just three days after the market had reached the all-time record highs on the Dow, Nasdaq, and S&P 500.

Immediately I began to struggle, expecting every trade to go downhill, and becoming more and more aggressive in my "stop loss" levels. It seemed that every trade was a loss, and those that weren't, barely a gain at all after commissions. This continued on through the autumn months, watching my account dwindle. Play after play went south, bringing my account down as low as $1,200 before any faint hint of a recovery found its way to my portfolio.

At year's end, I found myself sitting at roughly $2,200 and dropping down to $1,500 quite frequently. The market seemed to be out to get me, bringing every stock down right after I bought it, and going up (sometimes 2-300% within a week) after I sold. Nothing was working out for me, and the cost of my mistakes continued to grow. $6,000 lost potential after selling WAMKQ at $0.19 before the run to $1.00. Selling JSDA at $0.40 two weeks before that broke the dollar barrier. Nearly any wrong move possible, I made it.

After buying and holding EESO for fear of another such performance, my suspicions that the market was against me had been "confirmed". I bought and could have sold a few weeks later for roughly $500 profit. But having seen play after play go against my every move, skyrocketing just after I sold, I foolishly second-guessed myself yet again, and held. I rode it down through the .03's, through the .02's, and spent weeks hoping down in the mid to high .01's. Finally, I abandoned ship for another loss, and was about ready to give up for good.

Now, we've come to the end of the first week of May. My account sits at $2,300 and holding. A friend of mine points my way to this "Monk" fellow who supposedly knows what he's doing. Suggesting that I buy this little stock called CEMJQ down around 5 - 5 1/2 cents. Not knowing much about the stock (or that crazy guy named Monk), I put it on my watch list. Hit the 6's, didn't pay much attention. 7's, 8's .. still didn't pull the trigger. 9's ... 10's ... OK, maybe there IS something going on with this stock afterall. Breaks into the 11's ... OK, time to get in. I hope on board, nearly all-in at 11 cents ... just in time to drop back into the high 8's.

Story of my short investment career, buy only to have it drop. Disappointed as always, I have to ride it out for a few days, before the funds settled so that I could sell. Well, what's this? Back into the 10's? 11's, moving into the 12's? OK, slowing down around 13 1/2 ... guess I should sell for the $450 profit. I watch the following days as it rockets through the 20's, into the 30's, breaks through to the 40's. Figures ... another bad move on my part. What else is new?

Now, a few more small trades here and there, actually starting to make a few dollars here and there. Then I see it - "Monk's Den" listed in the user groups. I stop in and realize, this is the same guy who had recommended CEMJQ, and my friend had passed his name along to me. I figured, OK, why not? My picks suck, so maybe he'll pick another winner.

CDIV you say? OK, where are we at ... .0020 x .0026 ... up-tick now to .0026 x .0029. OK, let's take a chance .. 720k shares at .0029 - I hope it fills. Up-tick again, .0029 x .0030 - knowing my luck, it won't go anywhere from here, so what's this other pick? TRXX ... OK, I'll take 22k shares at the ask - .095. Figures, it fills and then the price drops to .09 minutes later.

Hmmmm ... CDIV is still going up ... maybe a bit left to go afterall - guess I can sell my 12 shares of WAMPQ. OK, 69k shares at .0037 - let's see how this goes. .0040 ... .0045 ... .0050! Wow, up almost $100 already! Whoa! What happened at the close? .007!? Up $200 already!

Next day, I sit there and watch as CDIV quickly breaks above the penny mark, amazed as it holds its ground, and closes at .012 (my first 200% gain, or even 50% for that matter). Another day goes by, I decide to grab a few more shares at the ask, trying to help bring her back up from the bid-whackers. Another amazing day, watching as she closes the day up 175% and my latest 10k shares are worth $90 more.

Then it happens .. early on in the day that wonderful Thursday, the price goes up to where I'm ready to consider selling. My first 10-bagger has finally come. Now I've seen it all .. amazing momentum, huge volume for the number of shares available, perfect example of the way the market SHOULD be. Break 4 1/2 cents, I think, maybe I'll sell at 5 cents. Goes back and forth for a while, I keep telling myself to sell before it drops.

I sit there, glued to my computer all day, watching as the stock oscillates back and forth between .045 and .05 for several hours. Then, late that afternoon, it happens. That magical .052 barrier has fallen! If I sold now, I'd have recovered every penny lost in the past 10 1/2 months! This added pressure did not bode well for my impatient personality. Maybe I should set to sell at .062 ... uh oh, .061 is up, quick, cancel the order! Uh oh, those weren't MY shares at .062 were they? That was close! OK, this won't break 7 cents, I'll set to sell there just in case. .065, .068, .069 .. guess I was wrong, cancel, cancel, cancel! As it plows through the 7's, I almost feel sick to my stomach. Remembering back to a terrible Wednesday around midday when I was in EESO. Ran hard to .051 before a rogue "market" sell order brought the stock to .01. I was determined not to allow that to happen again.

As momentum had seemed to lull for the time being, I felt that .079 may be the peak before a small dip. The ask was back and forth between .078 and .079, so I decided to not get undersold by anyone, and set to sell 69k shares AON at .078. A minute later, it had sold and I could finally breathe again.

To look at my account balance was a glamorous moment. After spending months and months, struggling to get anywhere, a selfless community effort had allowed me to break into positive territory in my trading career. I had finally realized why my friend had told me to follow the momentum - because it works!

After many failed attempts to trade one stock after another, I had finally recovered from my rough start. I was finally at an overall gain. Not only that, but I was up over 30% from my original $6k investment!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for allowing me to partake in this wonderful adventure, and most of all, a GIANT THANK YOU to THE MAN, Monk himself. Without you all, I would still be another beginning investor, failing to recover from a shaky start.

Looking forward to many more of these "sucky calls" in the future!

P.S. My apologies for the "life story"