Write this 100 times on the board

Phil Town, following the path of his deity Warren Buffett, stresses a few simple points. One is to abide by the eternal mantra, Buy Low, Sell High. What he didn't say was that it would suit me to repeat those words especially through this market's radical, wild swings. A robot, or Mr. Spock, would fare much better than I have the past 10 days. In the market's biggest 10-day gain since 1938, my gains have been minimal. At first, I sold too early, but made money. Then I held too long, lost most of a big profit. Then I sold before the weekend at a fairly low price for a small profit ... that was on Friday, a few hours before news leaked that the Fed would push its Toxic Assets Cure to center stage on Monday.

Sure enough, the market roared tsunami-style today. The Dow was up 497 points. Insane. Citigroup opened above 3, hit 3.35 (after closing on Friday at 2.60) ... which meant a "loss" of mammoth proportions for me. I still have my initial shares, which I intend to hold long term. But my frustration was not in check, and I bought back shares high (3.32) in pre-market. It had been years since I bought in pre-market, and now I realize why I rarely did it. C dropped to 2.83 or so early in the day and teetered around 3 for most of the day before closing at 3.13. I added more shares at 3.05 and 3.14 before the close.

Will the market correct tomorrow? Possibly. But one thing's for sure: I haven't bought low lately. The market punishes all who won't bow. Only those of stick to discipline -- those who fight and run away live to fight another day -- survive. Here's to tomorrow and the mantra.