Sorry, I have slacked a bit lately. Yesterday was very frustrating. My original plan of buying on the open would have been very profitable, but I didn't do it so as GOOG got away from me I figured I would make money on the way back down as people took profits. I tried to pick a top a little too early. Again, my thought process was correct but I didn't give it enough time, although I thought I was following the chart, so when it looked like it was bouncing off 650, I exited at a 4% loss, had I held for another 20-30 mins I could have had a 8% gain assuming I got out reasonably near the bottom, which would have been my target actually.
All of that stuff is easy to say after the fact, do I go with logic and conviction or only the chart, or am I not reading the chart well enough? What was the difference between a profit and loss in that case?
The Dow was all over that day 140 gain then 100 loss, back to a 100 gain to finish up 50 I believe. Crazy volatility. Had I held till the end of the day I likely would have been in the same situation if not slightly worse then selling when I did anyways, I can't tell if that is good or not, I would have rather just made a profit regardless. So I erased my gain from the other day and a little bit more.
I am currently sitting out till after the weekend. GOOG and AAPL were holding up well on this big down day but I didn't want to be buying options just to have them decay until friday with light volume.
This could be big, the S&P broke below 1425, we are flat on the year now and a break below 1400 would signal a real break of the 5 year uptrend of the market. Preservation of capital will be big right now, I will have to go for small gains if I do, which could be challenging for me but if I want to be able to keep trading I have to. Jeff has said that in bear markets, everyone loses, its just a matter of who loses less. That's tough to already be down facing that, maybe I should sit out for a while. However, I also feel this will be a huge learning experience because it has been said that if you can trade through a bear market and survive you can trade through anything.
We'll see what happens. Have a Happy Thanksgiving, for those that celebrate it, even though it is a silly thing to celebrate, the holiday is nice.
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1 comment:
Ben, preservation of capital IS huge right now, isn't it? It stinks because I can't take as many positions as I want to right now, so my gains are creeeeeping along. I'm only in 1 call and 1 put right now, both of which are misbehaving at the moment.
B-o-r-i-n-g!... Sheesh!
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