Which, frankly, can be a problem when you're investing in the stock market.

Sometimes, a little patience can help you make more money or least help you cut your losses.

A recent, personal, example of this is when I tried out a trading forecasting system. I used it to get into options that followed the S&P 500. When I entered the trade on the first day, I was impulsive and bought CALLs as the ETF was going up quickly. I paid more than I should have for those options because the volatility was high at that particular moment.

Volatility soon dropped down and my options decreased in value even though the ETF value continued to go up. The whole trade cycle ended the next week with my taking a loss as the value of the option dropped to 50% of the amount I paid for it so I opted to limit my losses.

Had I exercised a little more patience and developed a more detailed trading plan I would have purchased the options at a lower price and been able to stay in the trade longer to perhaps realize a gain.

The good news is that I'm a quick learner, especially where money is involved. So losing a little bit has sharpened my discipline and caused me to analyze my trades a little more closely before entering.

With everything that I'm trying to teach my son, I'm actually kind of glad that he's teaching me patience. And with any luck I'll be able to reflect that back to him so we both be more patient men.

For example, this morning my son and I were playing, making faces at each other. I was holding him in my lap, with my hands keeping him from falling.

Out of the blue he jams his index fingers into both eyes and laughs. I can't grab his arms without letting him drop, so I have to try and convince him verbally (again) that it hurts to stick fingers in other peoples eyes.

As painful as that was, it's a little worse watching the stocks underlying my option picks gyrate wildly and with little regard for the direction I want them to go in. Again, kind of like my 2 year old son.

What's funny about this week is that the stocks I figured would go up, and the ones I figured would go down, went exactly the opposite direction within a couple of days of my placing the trades. I'm not too panicked about that as I'm comfortable that my underlying reasoning is still sound, but "irrational panic" that's driving the market now doesn't lend itself well to reasoning.

And for the record, I heard the statement "It's gone beyond volatility – it's chaos" line from someone on the radio this morning. Not sure who it was, or I would give credit. They were also talking about how most of the small and medium sized investors (except me, apparently) are sitting out of the market right now so institutional moves are really driving what happens.

It's seems the small guys working as a mob bring some stability to stock trades and overall markets.

Go figure.

So I can use that as an excuse to keep working on my portfolio. I'm doing my part to bring rationality and stability to the markets.

I'm really having a good time with it and I'm looking forward to sharing that experience with whoever decides read his blog. If you happen to be reading this first entry on the first day this blog, then you'll see that the blog isn't too pretty right now. Also working on that and have something that's much more attractive hopefully within the next few weeks.

My other at-home dad tasks, like taking care of a two-year-old, delivering video content for clients, and doing webmaster work, keep me busy so that there is almost not enough time to work on my own stuff.

But we all have time challenges and so I will make sure and get it done!