Losing is part of trading and should be expected, if you don't expect to lose every once in awhile then you shouldn't be trading and should instead just pretend trade in Never-Never Land where you always make a profit.
Here's the chart:
As you can see, as soon as I got in way back on November 1st, 2010 (long ago before all the holiday rush), the trade went up TO WHERE I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN INITIAL PROFITS. (read: "mistake"). After it went up, it then dropped quite a bit and then has been very slowly drifting higher.
It very well MAY go up and hit my target before the option expires next Friday. However, I'm not going to take that bet at this point, instead I decided to sell the option, get some money back and use it for better trade set ups. That's called "money management". You MUST constantly look to maximize your returns - so if that means getting out quicker, or cutting loses, or taking earlier profit - then so be it. You want to constantly be mindful of the entire portfolio and work toward maximizing profit.
Enough of the lessons. I originally bought the option for $2.03 and sold it today for $1.64. I was actually quite amazed it was still worth that much, especially with only 9 days until it expires - that's called the Grace of God right there.
So, I took a $0.39 loss for an ROI loss of 19%. Should have been much much worse.
What did I do after I took the loss? I logged it in my trading journal and looked for another trade to enter - THAT'S WHAT YOU DO AFTER A LOSS - YOU KEEP TRADING AND JUST BRUSH IT OFF.
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