Oh how I wish I'd kept that Dow short contract over the weekend! Granted, I thought the bias would be to the upside on Vets Day. At any rate, I had a minor breakdown in discipline. Despite a pathetic u/d ratio and super high TRIN, I tried to go long early in the session at about 8460 with a $2 Dow contract, got stopped out. Tried it again on a small move higher, and got stopped out a 2nd time. Usually with u/d and TRIN in those configurations, further downside is almost guaranteed, so I don't know why I even bothered with a long. Focus. Focus. Total loss of about $120 w/ commissions.
John Q - To answer your question (not sure if its rhetorical or serious) - I don't care who I lose it to. Its a zero-sum game, so someone's winning when I'm losing. Do I mind losing money? Sure, but if I lose 5 times in a row, at $100 each, and then the 6th time, make $1000...losing money is just part of the process - of doing business.
With the example above, do you mean that you get back the $500 you lost, and they loan you $500 more until you lose it back?
Went long today on the $2 Dow, at 9:45, it looked like a move higher was setting up ahead of the Greenspan comments hitting the wires. The market sold off, and I had to cover the long at a loss of $100. Of course, after that the market actually did turn sharply higher on the Iraq news. The move was so fast though, I missed it. I did catch the PM move lower though, from 888, although I was betting for an extension below the 874 support level. I gave back most of the open profit with the bounce at 3PM. Covered the short at the close for a gain of 3+ points. Total gain for today - a measly $40 bucks or so.
Finished today with a total loss of about $230, including commissions. I did violate my own trading rules on not trying to trade against the parameters for u/d and TRIN. I WAS hunting for a breakdown. But given the gap-up, and the fact that yesterday's big rally failed at midday, I thought the risk was worth the reward. I put on 2 e-mini Dow contracts at 8465 and 8488. Covered both for a scratch trade. Tried going short on the NQ's at 1035.5 and stopped out at 1040. Late in the day, I tried one more emini-Dow short at 8501, and covered at 8514. Finally, after the close, when Dell moved lower in afterhours after its earnings news, I put on a final emini-Dow short at 8515. I am carrying that position through the overnight, and will see what develops.
Another not-so-great day. A loss of about $322, including commissions. I wound up covering my $2-Dow short overnight - woke at 4:30AM, saw the SPs at 906, and decided to take the loss - I was expecting the SPs to selloff afterhours on the Dell news. Of course, ultimately it did - but after I covered. In regular trading, I went short 1 SP-emini at the open at 897 - stopped out at 900. Then pyramided 2 more SP-emini shorts at 993 and 900, and covered those at 898. Late in the session, I tried 2 more ill-advised $2-Dow shorts, and had to cover.
It wasn't the complete downside wipeout I was hoping for, but I'll take it. Looked for a gap-up at the open and got it. Went short with 4 SP-emini contracts between 915 and 913, average cost of about 914. I was hoping to hold all of them through the close, but an hour later, I still wasn't seeing the preferred correlation in the u/d (mixed) and TRIN (still low), so I began scaling out through the morning and early PM. Total gain of about $1250.