Selling stocks starting a-new

On Monday Jan 5th despite the market having a poor day I decided to re-vamp my very piss poor stock portfolio.

In an attempt to build a dividend stock portfolio and slowly-but-surely make a little bit over time; I miserably failed.

How?

Well, first off I just jumped in head first taking peoples advice -- rather than do my own due diligence and research which stocks to buy for myself.  Listening to advice is one thing -- but when it comes down to that BUY button; no one cares more about MY money than I do.

I sold 50 shares of WEAT @ $12.72 taking an overall loss of: -$100.45 (-13.7% of investment) 
I sold 16 shares of CORN @ $27.01 taking an overall loss of: -$89.11 (-17.03% of investment) 
I sold 25 shares of CCJ @ $15.84 taking an overall loss of: -$381.20 (49% of investment) 
I sold 52 shares of AA @ $14.93 taking an overall loss of: -$89.85 (10.3% of investment) 
I sold 278 shares of FTR @ $6.44 taking an overall loss of:  -$150.48 (7.71% of investment) **Hesitated on this one and put in a limit @ 6.52 trying to squeeze out like an extra $20-$40 bucks and ended up costing myself about $30.)

Dow Jones Industrial is on a down-swing today so perhaps I didn't pick the best day to sell.  Though opening @ 17,821 and in this moment sitting @ 17,492 I'm pawning these bad picks off when the Dow is at an almost history high (18,053.71)

Trying to analyze the charts; and just about two weeks ago on Dec. 16th 2014 she sat @ 17,068.  Then scanning back to Oct. (which is historically always a bad month) the market was @ a mere 16,100ish. Point being is I could have attempted to grind out even on these investments; though I have NO idea what I'm doing and I have a bad habit of sitting on a bad stock for years waiting for it to get even -- just to watch it plumment to pennies. (IE: SHIP, AG)

I'm proud of myself to let go of these picks as they weren't my own, and on a brighter note -- I jimmyed my way into some free trades talking to the broker saving about $50-$60!  Sweet!

You can lose yourself in the market; and a few years ago I was a strong believer that the world was ending and that I should stock pile guns, lighters, ammo, canned foods and precious metals. To be honest -- I have no idea what the future holds for this world of ours let alone our future financial climate.  Part of me believes the Dow could sky rocket over 20,000 by 2015s end.  Then there's this whisper in the back of my mind that says we could see another 2001, 2008 and watch her drop to under 10,000!

I'm not risking what I cannot afford to lose.  Another awful thing I was doing was spending $$$ that I didn't have!  2014 was a pretty bad year for me; and so I was buying stocks on margin.  My cash account has been in the red for the entirety of 2014 and the margin fees cost me: -$239.82.

With my pretty conservative approach; I need EVERY dollar I can accumulate to think I'm going to get ahead.  So I'm focusing my stock market approach to NOT re-investing dividends; and depositing a mere $50/wk into my cash account so when I wake up in a few months I have a little something to play with as a, "Freeroll".  (Still re-investing MSFT and AAPL).

Best part of these losses is that I have a handful more -- and I'm looking to pawn off smore stock to put together a down payment on a house. That's another post all in itself...