DayTrading

Since retiring, I've been working with our funds. In the past, I had been a long term investor, then moved more into swing trading. I have been pretty fortunate - as a Software Engineer, I recognized what MicroSoft had to offer back in the 80's and tried to buy the stock....a little early - it turned out they weren't public at the time. I did get in later, and was able to share in some of the exciting runs they had when I bought in '89.

A few years back I started getting into Investor's Business Daily (IBD), then later into options. I really liked the approach provided in IBD, and have found it to be profitable.

However, times have changed, and the approach in IBD requires an uptrending market....not something we have going on at the moment (Aug 31 2010).

Being newly retired with access to funds, I took the plunge into DayTrading.

There have been some setbacks, as you can imagine, but nothing serious. All learning carries a price, and this does too.

Several times now I've begun to feel that I'm starting to get the hang of things, and they did work out. But some of those approaches were too much like work - too intense, so I've abandoned them, even though they were profitable.

I'm now concentrating on less intense forms of daytrading. I'm not a pro at it yet, and suspect it will take several years to really become proficient, but I'm feeling good about how things are progressing.

I've been reading a book on reading charts bar by bar (not the exact title) by Al Brooks. It's dense reading (zzzzzzz), but there is some real meat there. I suspect I will have to read it 5 times before I begin to grasp all, or a lot of what he is saying.