Hmmm... Strange things appear when you look closely.  The stocks that were down over 5% from the high since buying [ and some just over 5%] are;

- the BMO mutual fund ...- .. I put in an order to SELL
- Canadian oil sands .......- .. I put in an order to SELL
- Enbridge ......................- .. I put in an order to SELL
-Encana ..........................- .. I put in an order to SELL
-Royal Dutch Shell ..........- .. I put in an order to SELL

Suncor was down 4.88% from the high since buying, but I put in a sell order anyway.

Although these will be sold they are not forgotten. They all now go on my watch list. I need a change in direction and at least a 5% increase from their coming low to buy back in.

Funny,  its mainly the energy stocks that are down from their high since I bought. Perhaps this is an indicator that the world economy is slowing down....or perhaps that the unrest in the middle east has subsided, or that the coming u.s. election will solve everything.. More likely it indicates something we really can't quite fathom [but that the pundits will ascribe to whatever they said].

Ocrtober always makes me nervous. I think I will comb through all my trading accounts and my wife's and sell anything and everything that has gone down 5% or more.

In reality, this is something I should do on a regular basis regardless of the month, but seldom do.

I just checked how the BNN experts, the BMO mutual fund, and I, are doing. We are all in the green.

The BNN experts are up 3.4%
The BMO mutual fund is up 0.48%
And, across my trading accounts and my wife's, I'm up between 7% and 13%.

I have a friend with whom I talk about stocks and trading strategies. He told me once, " the worst thing that can happen to a trader is that they are right a couple of times. When that happens they think they know everything, ignore market warnings, and blow out their portfolio."

I need to be careful.

If you use Open Office, I've created, and just uploaded to the Open Office template website a stock portfolio tracking spreadsheet booklet.

You can download it from; http://templates.services.openoffice.org/
Do a search for stock or rsstacey.

To get it to work, you MUST install GETQUOTE, a free extension to OpenOffice.org Calc.
It is listed at; http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/project/GetQuote
GETQUOTE is available at: Http://getquote-tedsoft.blogspot.ca/

I'm pretty sure my spreadsheet and GETQUOTE will also work with Libre Office.

Take a look at it and let me know what you think and how it could be improved.

It seems that with stocks, given enough time,  everyone, experts and neophytes like me, can be right.

Goldcorp [G] is around $45.00 today.

$36.05 up to $45.00 is not too shabby. What is that, a 25% increase? Not too shabby at all.

Now the hard part....following my second rule and not selling anything until I see a 5% or greater drop in the price.