A Hurdle I Haven't Overcame

In general, I've been very pleased with the results of my trading.  The financial rewards are the primary evidence of this, but also, I've been pleased with my ability to adjust my strategy to be more flexible for dealing with various market conditions.  Even though my current holdings are in the tank, I'm convinced that I'm doing the right thing.

However, there is one aspect of my strategy that I'm not comfortable with.  I don't feel that I'm doing a good job of adjusting to long term changes in individual stocks.  For example, I bought and sold Pfizer (PFE) several times during the first few months of trading.  I bought in the $14 range and sold in the $15 dollar range.  Given this, I have a hard time with the idea of buying this stock at a higher price.  So it's now effectively outside my trading universe even though it still meets all of my trading criteria and if fact has increased it's dividend in the last year. 

I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not, but the recent tumble in the market has actually increased my unwillingness to overcome this hurdle.  Many stocks under consideration have hit 52 week lows and have fell back into my price range, reinforcing my unwillingness to raise my buy price.  And of course, my inherit "thriftiness" is also a factor in my unwillingness to raise my buy prices.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm concerned that I'm missing downward signals. I bought and sold Nokia last year in the $13-14 range, so when it fell within this range this year, I was sorely tempted to by. Fortunately, I overcame my initial temptation, but I eventually bought in when it fell below $10.  I knew enough to keep the purchase small.  But was even that too much.

I guess awareness is a good first step, but my hope is to analyze my ongoing assessment of stock value to match and improve on my past success.