re money management: well i completely agree with you there. that's one reason i definitely do not try trading the wiggles. though its a tempting game, its a sucker's game and eventually your return will approach the mean and the house wins. i've come to terms with my inability to time the market. and once you do that, you just need a rational strategy for following the long term trends but dodging/hedging the short term fluctuations. which, oddly, is almost exactly not what everyone on this board does (since its primarily short term traders). but e.g. if i see brks selling at $10, i want to sell some. is it possible the market will give me a more irrational price? yah, maybe. so have some cash aside for that possibility, and take out some insurance (options) in case some out-of-left-field burst of exuberance comes along. slow, patient, persistent. that's worked for me so far ... what was losing me money, in fact, was the feeling that i "had to" trade all the time. when i got past that, its just been me sitting back and looking for great opportunities ...