Money down the drain..?

As tomorrow 29 Sep 2005, last thur of the month nears, it signals that i've lost 100% of the money I invested in the market..thats 8.5k in options + brokerages.. huh.. somebody's lose is somebody else's gain.

My attempt to study and experiment the high-risk futures and options markets is total success. Reasons why i lost the money completely.

1) I took a contrarian view. it clicks only once-a-while...so go with the herd?

2) no strategy. i should have entered with strict stop-loss. meaning if price goes down by a certain % i should have exited. i never had any such stop loss in mind.

3) lack of time. having a profession and paid handsomely for it means, you have to work at it sometimes. but futures market needs constant monitoring..huh..

all in all a bad month for me from financial pt of view..hope i learn something from it and use it down the line..