Yesterday, along with everybody else - I lost some cash in the market. Had I been a more 'seasoned' investor though, it probably wouldnt have happened.

I bought NCC yesterday on a dip at $3.05 - and immediately placed a sell stop order for $2.70 to prevent excessive losses - or so I thought. What I actually did was place a limit order, so the stock I had bought on the low immediately sold - luckily, for the current market value of $3.04, but I still lost some commission. After I figured out what happened in a daze at 6:45 am my time, I decided to get back in on NCC, but had to buy at $3.15 now, this time definitely putting in a stop-sell of $2.80.

Literally, 30 minutes after the buy happened, the stock price collapsed...to $2.72 for 5 minutes before rebounding, the stop loss order automatically executed, and I lost about 15%.

If I had kept that stock, right now I'd be up about 30%. Lesson learned - if your day starts bad, just cut your losses and wait for a day when the tsx doesnt drop 800 points.