Trader turned corp banker then i banker. My worst move was losing almost everything on a single bad wheat trade in 1991 (thus my punishment to a dunce cap career). My best move was selling all my tech holdings and moving into 100% cash in May 2000. I will always be a student of the market, for it is the only thing that speaks the real truth of any given moment. People will admire you for standing and thinking alone mostly because they don't have the balls to do it themselves. The smartest people i know were history majors. Sometimes the herd is right, as in a long bull market, but overall it makes me very uncomfortable. I knew who i was when I was 4 years old, but it took me until i was 40 to admit it (no, not *that*). If i have one thing left to do, its to pass that experience on to those that follow.