bbotcs, I don't know how we can classify an investor that brought MDF at .75 and sold at $2.00, anywhere near a failure, just because it went to $3.00. Because if we look at it that way I'm sure even all of us on this board, are failures, and you know what let me fail everytime. If every stock I have goes up 167%, trust me I won't be caring about the 133% I missed. Then again, I have a different style then most on the board, my churn rate is pretty huge, but we do what works, and that's how I have been successful.
As for the first part of your message, I do agree that we are more likely to let emotion take over us, because we watch our portfolios every minute, and they move signifcantly everyday like a pinball machine, and it is hard to keep emotions in check, but we have to to be successful. My biggest problem is selling stocks too early, but thats fine with me, because the one thing that drives me nuts is having a nice profit, and losing it back and more to spare (CTIG.ob for example), and although my returns might be slightly better if I was consistently holding on, what can I say if I'm producing 20%+ returns every year then I really don't need anymore then that, I'd rather keep my sanity. Of course all of this is just my humble opinion.