Afraid to hold any position overnight

Hi, long term "buy and hold" investor here that would like to learn more about trading and how to trade better. I've read up on the various topics on technical analysis, looking for momentum, establishing trendlines, support/resistance, etc... but the trades I've been burned by have been ones where I feel I did a pretty good analysis, I determined my entry and exit points, but then overnight some unexpected news came out and by morning, the stock had dropped 30% - blowing past my stop loss so I get stopped out at a 30% loss rather than the 10% or whatever it would have been had the move happened during the day when my stop loss could have triggered. I started using stop-limit orders but then I hold on to 30% losers hoping for a comeback, which I don't really want to do.

This has happened enough to me that now I'm scared to hold any trade overnight, and I'm not very successful at day trading. This isn't just a function of this being a horrible bear market, as some of my worst trades happened a year or two ago.

Is this happening because I'm a lousy trader and I haven't protected myself properly, or do I just really have bad luck when companies come out with these unexpected news briefs that send the stock plummeting after hours? Oh, and I don't protect myself with puts or anything, as I'm not seasoned enough to mess with options, I don't feel. Do you HAVE to protect yourself with options if you want to hold a position more than 1 day?

Any thoughts (other than "Hahaha, you suck! Thanks for your money!) would be appreciated. thanks.

Montyq, Don't punt. You seem to be punting.

Which instrument are you on? How wide is your stop loss? Which chart interval are you using, 60, 15 or 5 min? All may tell the same story or different story. So you trade with reference to which chart interval?

These are very uncertain times. You have to watch closely where the smart money is going. Most here see the 60, 15 and 5 but trades on the 1 min. Skiddish? I guess so.