I was only 19 years old when I made my first trade.<\/p>\n
I had a gut feeling the market was going to go higher… so I invested $600 into the S&P 100. A few hours later, my money had more than doubled. I sold my position and took the $1,200 profit – a 200% gain.<\/p>\n
And I was hooked on trading forever…<\/p>\n
My next trade was in IBM. This time, it took a couple days to double my money. Next, I invested in Digital Equipment… which nearly tripled in just a few days.<\/p>\n
I made 17 trades during my first six weeks as a trader. Every single one was a winner.<\/p>\n
Going 17 for 17 was a remarkable feat for a rookie trader – especially since I wasn’t using any sort of fundamental or technical analysis. I was just going with my gut. But I was careful not to put more than $1,000 or $2,000 into any single trade.<\/p>\n
And I still managed to turn my $5,000 brokerage account into $50,000 in just six weeks…<\/p>\n
And then I decided it was time to get serious. No more tiny trades. I was too good for the small stuff. For whatever reason, I had figured out a way to beat the market. Heck, I had just rattled off 17 straight triple-digit winners.<\/p>\n
So I decided to take the $50,000 in my account, add to it my $25,000 in savings, and put it into a handful of trades.<\/p>\n
You can probably guess what happened next.<\/p>\n
The stock market has a habit of humbling folks who think they’ve figured it out. For me, the humbling started right away.<\/p>\n
At first, the positions started slightly moving against me. It was nothing to be concerned about. One good day would put everything back in the profit column.<\/p>\n
But then, one by one, each position blew up on me. It was too painful to watch. I kept the television off and avoided reading the newspaper for fear I’d see something bad about the stock market and my positions.<\/p>\n
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