Hey Guys,
The market is still bouncing all over the place. It's in a state of unrest. It ended the day yesterday down near the lows it established back in November when it had a separate patch of turbulence. It's back up some this morning for now, but clearly there is market volatility.
Times like this can be quite unsettling for a trader. When there's a lot of red in the portfolio and in the market, it can be fear-inducing. And some positions are flying around in value. Like I bought Du Pont stock this morning in the main account, and within 15 minutes it was halfway to its stoploss. Speaking for myself, I can say that when I see a lot of red and when stock prices are flying around, sometimes it feels like things are "out of control", and that feeling can at times be unsettling for me.
In reality, things are not out of control though, and that's what I remind myself when that feeling comes in. What I'm doing is in fact a very carefully-meditated plan of action. I take these trades over and over every time they set up, no matter what feeling state I'm in, so that I can honor the back-tested approach. The interesting thing is that feelings might be the main potential obstacle to following these trades. If it weren't for these feelings, it would be a lot easier to just stick to the plan through thick and thin like the back test does.
If the feelings you have during drawdowns are so intense that you can hardly stand to look at your trading platform let alone make trades, then you might want to consider dialing down your position size. It lowers both your risk and potential reward. Although it can be hard lowering your potential reward, ultimately you'll never be able to earn that reward if you can't live through the drawdowns. So if you're able to find your sweet spot on the risk/reward scale, it might noticeably improve your odds of long term success.
STT from the low-priced account hit its stoploss today. In the main account I closed out HRL since it reached its time limit, and it locked in a profit (both in terms of the stock price change and also in terms of the dividend received).
I added some new positions today. In the main account I bought DD and AIG. In the extra options account I bought options for AIG. In the low-priced account I bought stock for DELL and MGA.
Today I have some options positions reaching their time limits. I'll be closing those right before the stock market closes later today if they don't reach their profit targets first.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.