Withdrawals

"You mean just stop? Cold turkey? You don't understand! The pain..." 

- Frankie Machine (Sinatra), The Man With the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren

Augggh!!!  The pain.  I finally admitted that I had a problem - not making money.  So, I quit cold turkey.  It has been over 3 weeks since I made my last trade.  And I'm going through extreme withdrawals.  I turn on CNBC first thing in the morning.  I check my stocks on the internet.  I follow random traders' tweets.  I am jonesing to make a trade.  I miss the guys in the office, the thrill of letting a winner run, the mental challenge of constant decisions.  I miss the action.  Really, I think I miss the good ol' days of being in the pit on an earnings day, printing money.  I don't miss the stress, the deep self-examination of my psychological short-comings, and most of all, the losing trades.  Even though, in the end, I found it too difficult to compete with the super-computers located within micro-seconds of exchange servers, I relished the experience.  I became more patient, more analytical, more one with the market (yeah, the one losing money).  But, what doesn't kill ya (although, maybe taking a few years off my life expectancy), makes you stronger.  Stronger, but poorer.  I kid.  Poorer, but richer for the life experience. 

Get Back in there and sell Mortimer!