Overtrading

You used to have hair. But you worried a lot and, over time, sweating every trade you made as a prop trader, well, let's put it this way:

No. Need. For. Combs.

So you trade on the ticks, on the news items, on the warblings in the atmosphere. They combine to make you want to buy MSFT at $57.22 and sell it at $57.29 and then short it at $58.03, only to buy it back at $57.99. And all this trading is great...for your commission-gathering broker. And/or the person living off of a 3-cent bid ask spread.

But for you? Yeah...you're overtrading. Had you just bought it at the beginning of the year at $55.03 and held it, you'd have done just fine and had...hair.

And you note that the commissions did a big alligator spread on you. They ate all of your profits, so you didn't even make the three bucks a share you could have. Time for Med School.