Emotions: The Greatest Enemy of Investing

I am here to learn along side of my readers, not to instruct them. I happen to be an emotional person by nature and that has been the biggest roadblock to my success as an investor. I have formulated an approach to picking companies, I have learned how to interpret charts, I know how to value a company based on the numeric fundamentals, I know how to look for good entry points and I know how to trade if need be. Those things are all easy to learn, so easy ANYONE with a 5th grade education can learn them. Becoming the master of my own emotions is the one challenge that I have failed at over and over again in this game. Over the last couple days my emotional responses have cost me not only money, but also positions in companies that I still love. I was shaken out of STKL, even after having just bought 45 shares the day before @$10.70. A ho-hum earnings report for the third was met with a 16% sell off of which I blindly joined by selling all 275 shares @$9.25. Then I went looking for trouble and I found it. RVLT dropped to $2.60 I whacked it. SIRI-whacked as well. I was headed for more and luckily all my penny stocks were un-tradeable due to a glitch on the over-the-counter markets. So there you have it an emotional train wreck that ultimately left me out of RVLT's 20% rise after this mornings earnings call.