The Dow continues higher, up 123 points today. Volume was heavy and the advance/declines were 3 to 1 positive. I had put in another overnight order for puts. It was filled and then I was stopped out for a small loss. I finally followed the rules. That is the only saving grace from the substantial losses that just occurred. I will always follow the rules from now on. I dumped the other puts at heavy losses today. It was way beyond the time to do so. I was stupid and I paid for it. But I finally learned an important lesson that I hope I don't soon forget. The big loser was 90% of the trade and the other was 60%. These are killers and I am now down on the year. I will never lose that much on a trade again. Never. It won't happen. Stop-loss orders will be placed as soon as the trades are filled. This is something that I have known for some time but I have been too stubborn to do because I think my trades will always be winners. That is lunacy. My trades are usually losers so I will now protect myself from myself. The volume has told the story here as we continue higher. I just did not want to listen to it. That was dumb. The market has gone up regardless of the news and that should tell you something. The news doesn't matter right now. Money is simply flowing out of oil, gold and other commodities and into the stock and bond markets. I don't know how long that will last but there is no sense in trying to fight it. I need to also remember to keep a sane and open mind when I have a position. Because I usually just try and fit things into the trades that I take. Objectivity must be maintained. It has to. The recent losses have put a lot of things in perspective. How I trade from here will be interesting. There is still plenty of time this year to turn things back around. We'll see what happens. I'm out of time today.