Yesterday, I was reflecting on my quote unquote luck. Over the course of the past few years, I've traded my fair share of bankruptcies (Lehman, WaMu, MF, DYN) and have so far been able to avoid major funereal consequences - with the exception of my recent brush with financial death by trading MF. Today's AMR Chapter 11 could have implicated me as well since I had thought about trading it a few weeks back, but stopped myself.
In contrast, the paper losses I've suffered of late seem to have had a much more significant impact on my portfolio than anything.
I've figured out part of the trading equation, but if I'm suffering from paper losses more than half the time I'm trading, that's a very inefficient and inappropriate use of capital. There has to be a better way - and if anything, next time the market turns bearish, I'm going to trade the second or third bullish signal I get rather than the first since that might actually save me from stepping into too deep of a puddle. Watching VIX has definitely helped somewhat...
I placed a one-cancels-all buy-on-a-dip order on CENX, HERO, or SKS today that didn't get hit. I spent the rest of the day daydreaming about how 9FM and I are going to be like Europe and have a deeper fiscal union. In less than three weeks, we're going to find out the results of my first collaboration with 9FM... Just talking about it makes my heart beat faster! I'm breathless with anticipation of the beautiful fiscal harmony that awaits 9FM and I. Until we get those results, he will doubt my work, but the proof will be in the pudding. And if I'm all hot air, he will see. And if my work is really capable of catapulting him into a whole new stratosphere, it'll be equally apparent.
In my heart of hearts, gaining 9FM's respect will be the ultimate reward because he was pretty hard on me at times, just like the market. But he saved me and gratitude trumps any other feeling I have for him. I wouldn't mind another 9FM...
+0.15% SBA
-1.39% Roth IRA
+0.28% DJIA
-0.47% Nasdaq
+0.22% S&P
+0.46% FTSE
+0.75% Eurofirst
+2.30% Nikkei
+1.23% Shanghai
-0.98% SENSEX
-4.64% VIX
+1.71% WTI Crude
+1.67% Brent Crude
+0.23% Gold
+1.12% Copper
+0.84% Corn
+0.11% EUR/USD
+0.68% GBP/USD
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