My Life My Trade

FAZ sold @ 19.63

SRS sold @ 9.08

TZA sold @ 11.43

DISCLAIMER: Nothing contained anywhere on this site constitutes any investing advice or recommendation. Any purchases or sales of securities are solely at the discretion of the reader.

Stopped out – no profit/no loss after comissions.

UPDATE Jun 25 2PM PT: Cannot over-emphasize the importance of using stops – This security ended the day at $4.82. In absence of a stop loss, it becomes very difficult to sell and it is easy to just end up selling it at the worst possible point. I am glad to have gotten out for no profit. I  could have easily ended the day holding a position that is 10% in loss.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing contained anywhere on this site constitutes any investing advice or recommendation. Any purchases or sales of securities are solely at the discretion of the reader.

BAD BAD BAD trade – I was trying to get fill for FAS puts right before close. I resisted buying FAZ AH, but eventually succumbed. I hope I don’t have to pay the price for this tomorrow. This is a smallish position – so, I should be okay.

It has been a long time since I forced a trade like this. Whenever I did in the past, I paid the price – almost always. I feel bad about breaking my rules on this one.

Contingent limit hit – SPY yesterday afternoon’s high-of-the-day.

2% gain for overnight hold.

Currency action not looking good. Opened this trade yesterday. Out for a $0.03 gain, which covers the commissions as well.

Capital preservation is the name of the game.

Yes, it might go higher. But at this point my premise for entering the trade has been violated – currency action (See the 8:00AM ET update in this post) suggesting very limited to no upside to equities. It is better to stay out and preserve capital if you want to survive in this game.

I also have URE that I am holding onto. Essentially cutting down my long exposure at this point.

EDIT 8:38AM ET: Well, the job report is being greeted positively by the market and FAS is up to $8.75 as I type, up 9 cents from where I sold it. I am not bothered by this because I did not lose money on this trade. Essentially, my premise to enter the trade got violated and I got out – that is how it should be if you want to survive in this game

Warren Buffet says that there are two most basic rules of investing

• Do not lose money
• Do not forget the first rule

A question that might occur in your minds is that why did I not close out the URE trade as well OR if I just wanted to cut my exposure into half, I could have sold half of my URE and half of my FAS position. Well, the answer to that is that for URE trade, I had other technical reasons besides just currency action. For FAS trade, it was purely based on currency action.

Again, if something doesn’t seem right AND there is a doubt, stay out OR if you are already in, get out with minimal damage.

Position size not specified

Stop contingent on $RIFIN < 609

Position size not disclosed

Stop contingent on IYR breaking Wednesday’s low of the day, $31.70