JAZZ punished me dearly in the opening. JAZZ didnt work out well at all. â 9734 CI didnt give full target but for a trade that didnt work out it wasnât bad. covered near the bell so that I would not carry overnight. + 585 WCG was news related earnings release after hours trading. + 385 - 8764 Day - 106380 Month
I was thinking of trading JAZZ on monday,but decided to watch,I did not like last hour strength,so I kept myself out of this stock on tuesday.normal drawdowns are the part of the game,but its strange that we both has down day today.Good trading in the AM. JACK
Hello Jack, yeah you probably made the right choice to avoid that one. I usually stay out of the way in the last 30 or so minutes but I ended up stepping in it. When it rains it pours sometimes. I am still finding good trades and hope to be able to keep that up Best to you and your trading Robert
Interesting day today I started out the day with ELRN and what I thought was a slow and conservative trade. Then as the stock went critical IB ran out of shares for me to short with while it moved higher without me. I was able to get some more shares to short after the main move was done and I did not press it after that. Just walked away near BE so that I could exit ELRN + 108 Next trade was WTFC which reported earnings today. After ELRN I kept the size super small and while it do move somewhat higher I just sat keeping my buying power to my side in case it broke above 23. It never made it that high and so I never really put much size on. Was mostly a slow grind both on the way up and the way down. covered and the stock fell a bit more and then turned around and moved up higher again. I did call this one out on twitter and I am glad to say that it was again very near the top. A couple of weeks ago this would have been a very profitable trade as I would have put a lot of size on it near the top of the move but for now I will go slow. My Treasury short trade along with PEP put options continue to give me an unrealized gain. Tres futs moved down again today due to the record note offering by the tres along with a non record amount of interest in buying it. I am looking at adding to the winner Tres short sometime this week. Oil moved down big time and the Dollar moved higher against move currencies. Gold did not move down so much and its also strange to see the fixed income move down as much as it did at one point along with oil and the market in general. WTFC + 134 + 243 Day - 106137 Month
Robert, Looking back over my notes, my biggest losses were from shorts. I made a note to focus on longs. Since then I have a much smoother equity curve. Being gamed in one of those pre market squeezes wreaks havoc on ones confidence. And IMO this profession relies heavily on confidence. RC
Hi RC, Thanks for taking the time to post. I would totally agree that overall shorting can be more risky and especially so if you don't manage your sizing of the trades. I for sure have had my trials with being a short. I have taken many hits but surprisingly enough, LEH which was a long was my biggest loss until HAR. over 95% of my trades are short and I have found some success in that area. I totally agree about the confidence. have to have it to make it through what the day brings. Best to you Robert
I feel your pain on that HAR trade. Today I shorted WTFC @ 25.3. 25.55, 25.75, 26.20, 26.30, 26.40 for a total of 24000 shares as the stock kept appreciating (for the umpteenth day). At one point it seemed I was the only one selling the stock. Was preparing for a wrecked week as it went up to 26.80 after 3pm. Mercifully, it went down in the last 30 minutes, I could scale out for an average of about 26.20, minimizing the damage. Generally I do not hold these stocks overnight, certainly not with the leverage I employ. I've found out through experience the potential rewards is not worth the occasional pain (including pain of having nightmares about the position - 3 days/3 nights for a week-end). Options will be a better tool to hold for overnight/week-end position, but most of the times the bid/ask spread is horrible or the stock has no options. Wish you a speedy recovery.
Hello Neke, thanks for your kind words and your post. You were not the only one shorting WTFC as I was right there with you feeling that pain. That was one of the biggest moves I have seen for a while. I just started looking at some of the lower ave volume stocks and that one did give me some pause. Best to you and I hope you have a great weekend Respectfully, Robert