Week 6 summary - Micro-Management revelations

I have to say I feel pretty good after trading today. I ended the day positive again. I was only UP $30 or so, but nearly all of my trades were good. With the exception of one or two really bad losers, I should have been up over $100. And if I had kept my short position in AMD from the morning and my long position in GRMN thorugh out the day, I probably would have been up over $300.

Which leads me to my next big challenge:
I feel pretty good now about finding good trading opportunities. That was my biggest struggle for the first 6 weeks. Now, the even harder part, I think, will be managing a winning trade. I honestly don't know how many trades this week I made which I closed as .40 winners only to see them continue on to become 1 to 3 point winners by the end of the day. AAPL, AMLN, AMD, and GRMN to name a few. I tell myself each day, "I am going to hold this one all day". However, when I see the trade go from being a .40 winner, then pulling back to .20 and going back up, I get all excited and say ... "I better get out now, I don't want the thing to move against me again." So, I do. I look back a couple of hours later and I would now be up .80. I have read a lot of articles that say a trader should never do this, but I feel I am exiting the position on emotion rather than rationale.

Which leads me to my next epiphany (actually it isn't an epiphany at all, I learned it at my lost job as well):
Micro-Management sucks!
It doesn't matter whether a person is constantly managing his trading positions or constantly monitoring an employees work, such activity is NEVER efficient. For instance, I become so involved in the price movement of the stock, I don't think objectively anymore. I don't ask myself if there is resistance/support at the particular price levels as I should be. I just see the dollar signs and cash out.

At my previous job, my former (bad) manager was a Micro-Manager. He thought he was doing himself and his employees a service by being hyper-involved in everyone's activities. I can now say that based on my micro-management experience trading stocks, he probably caused himself the same two problems I have when trading:

1. He creates more stress on himself worrying about everything that he is in charge of. If he would just have confidence in the early decisions he makes regarding leadership and assignments, things would probably work themselves out in the long run. Similarly, if I would just have confidence in my early decisions I make in the day and not monitor every tick the stock moves, I would be making a lot more money than what I am now.

2. He probably does not make objective decisions regarding the things he is in charge of. Yeah ... he would like to think he knows more and, because of that, he makes better decisions, but truthfully, the more he emerses himself in the situation, the more emotion he brings to the decisions he makes. Because of that, he continually makes poor decisions and rubs people the wrong way. I can give you my correlations to trading, but I think you can probably figure them out.

There is one thing I can say about my situation which I know he will NEVER do:
1. Unlike me, he will never look back on a situation and wish he had not micro-managed the situation. In fact, he will probably always be thankful for managing that way, saying:
"Whew .... just think what would have happened if I wasn't watching over them like a Hawk."
He may think he made a bad decision, but he will NEVER admit that it was due to his micro-management.

OK ... enough "former manager bashing". I can only control myself and my actions, but it is kind of interesting to be on the other side and see that not only does Micro-management suck for the employee, but it also sucks for the manager (even if the manager doesn't realize it).

I hope everyone has a Happy Easter (for those who celebrate it). No trading for me tomorrow since it is Good Friday. See you next week!