Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Getting flogged hard
That gamble and subsequent mismanaging of my VLO position is crushing me. Last Thursday I didn't buy back my options because I was still having to pay .10 time premium. I figured screw that. I'll just let them get exercised and then sell back and pay 0 time premium. On Friday I wasn't around to buy that position back at a small gain. Over the weekend I looked at Friday's prices and figured I would just get out on Monday morning for a small loss if not break even. We opened lower and have gone lower ever since. I'm now down $1500. Complete mismanagement. I either need to be in this game full time or not. Part time leaves me open to pitfalls like this. Six more months of school and I can turn my attention to this full time. Moral of this story, don't be me.
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Join the club but still sitting on nice return since Jan. At least I didn't miss the huge move. lol ;-)
ReplyDeleteI am right there with you guys. I took a huge rip on those naked puts I sold on FCX. The market is always there to remind you who the boss is. The thing that we all have to remember is that we are short term traders and our opinion does not matter to Mr. Market. We don't set the prices the instutional buyer do. It is just something we must accept and move on. We must follow the smart kid in the class (institutions) as they are far more capitalized than we are.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm over my bad trade now. This is how I know, I'm down more now than ever and I care less. A loss is a loss. I don't think it was the dollar amount that bothered me so much as it was the first time I lost in a while so I got rattled. I should probably buy that book about trading psychology you told me about. This happened in October too. After kicking ass all of September buying puts, I took a shot at a quick long in October and had that bitch go to 0. I was freaked out and didn't trade for a few months. I'm not delusional, I don't truly believe my success rate will be high forever. It's just a psychological hurdle to get over when you lose and didn't think you were going to. The best thing is to probably get out there again and make another trade rather than run and hide. This is also where having a steady paycheck comes in. When I was working for that one year and knew I was getting paid each month, I didn't care if the market went down. Now when I take a loss I get scared more easily because it means I have to make that amount back before I can even get to a paycheck.
ReplyDeleteFrom the wisdom of Rocky Balboa we find revelation:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c49Ef5Bpzd8
Thanks Rock!!!
ReplyDelete