The sob stories are coming fast and furious now.  Since my friends and family think I know a little about the market, the calls are coming in.  I'm down 30%, what do I do?  My 85 year old mother is holding individual stocks and is down big, what should she do now?  My question back to them is pretty much the same, why do you come to me now?  I never have anyone come to me and ask "got this huge gain, what should I do now?".  And I certainly never have anyone come to me and ask:

"OK, got this big dump truck full of money that I want to put in the markets, could you help me put together a plan that makes sense should the market continue to tank or skyrocket from here?".

I always mention the option rookies who seem to post to the forums asking for adjustment advice after the position has gone against them.  Apparently this isn't a phenomenon limited to rookie option traders.  People go off and buy things without a plan.  It hums along and maybe they show a profit.  They keep it to themselves. Then this happens and the stories come in.

As I mentioned yesterday, I added significantly to my long term holdings, which are pretty much all in the red.  None of them have showed much of a profit since I really only started buying in earnest in August of last year.  I've been waiting for more attractive prices.  I would say more likely than not, these positions will show a nice profit and my strategy will change from accumulate to protect.  I believe this is months or even years off, but you'd better believe I'll have a plan in place so that I'm not scratching my head at 30% down.

One thing to consider is that having no plan is also a plan.  However, you must make the decision to have no plan and understand the drawbacks (namely drawdown) that this presents.  Afterall, a hedge costs money and may cause you to underperform fairly dramatically if applied liberally.  In my relatively younger years, this may end up being my plan by choice.  This will almost certainly not be my choice as I get closer to retirement as I will gladly trade security for underperforming.

What is your plan?