phew

I've done something extremely stupid, once again: buying on the way
down. This time it's with CTRN. It was down, and I bought it at 34,
then at 31, and put in an order for 28. For a while, it's been basing
at around 30, and I thought well, my 3rd buy won't fill and it will go
back up and the biggest problem I'll have was that I didn't buy enough
(greed). Store sales #s for the month and quarter would be released
this week and earnings in 2 weeks, so I was still thinking this was a
good time to buy.

Then it slipped and closed in the 29s for a couple of days,
then dipped in the 28s and Tuesday closed in the 27s (with my buy
filling on the way down. Hrm, be careful what you wish for.

Yesterday it closed in the 26s and I realized that there was no longer
anything holding this ride up. But do I get out now? Do I buy more
lower? I still feel this is a good company with good future growth
(they're going from regional to national), but that doesn't matter to
stock prices. What if this thing sinks to below 20 and languishes
there? Do I want my capital tied up in something like that, hoping that
maybe one day it will climb 50% to what I paid for it?

Ugh. Well, I have been somewhat saved. They released sales #s after
close yesterday and they were good. Sales are up, but SSSs were down
from the period last year. Ruh roh. It seems like lately the market
looks for any little thing to get out (and also there's a lot of shorts
in this float).

This morning I put in a sell stop for all my CTRN shares at 26. But it
went up to 27. Then 27.5, then 28, so I moved my stop to 27. Then it
went to high 28s, so I moved my stop up to 28. It closed at 29.59.
Phew! My stop is now at 28.50.

What I should have done was watch it go down and wait for it to rebound,
then start buying some. As it goes higher, buy more. This was totally
backward and I must not congratulate myself or be so happy about it. I
don't want my brain to think of this as a positive experience and be
tempted to do it again. You would think I would have learned my lesson
with NWRE.

NOTE TO SELF: NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER AVERAGE DOWN!