I am curious about something.
Over the years I have read many investing books, including some books on trading....short term and long term trading. Many of the trading books advise using a daily diary or log. Several of them advise not only logging a person's trades and the reasons for the trade, but to also record their moods at the time of the trade. Their moods would be something along the order of whether they were exuberant at this particular time, or depressed, or angry, etc.
A couple of weeks ago I decided to use a log to record all this stuff whenever I thought about starting up a new AIM, LD-AIM, etc. account. I have a lot of cash now sitting on the sidelines because of the recent market run-up. What I found in recording my thoughts, etc., was that I was getting an itchy trigger in trying to find something in which to deploy some of that cash. I found that sitting down and writing all my thoughts that I needed to do further research. When I did more research....scanning charts, reading annual reports, analyst reports, etc. I found that I was being very implusive and I held off on setting up two new accounts because now is not the time to purchase those particular securities. I found I needed to sit on my hands more and not try to dictate which way the market should go. Just stick with the program and let everything play out.
I am curious whether anyone here uses logs to record all this stuff. So far, by writing down everything before acting it is keeping me from being too implusive. I use the Microsoft OneNote program for recording all of this as it lets me post copies of charts and is easy for me to use. I find that after recording everything about the security and my current mood that I become more objective when I go back and read everything that I wrote down.
Was wondering if anyone else does this?
Ray
AI
