"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."

Friday, April 5, 2013

Weekly Gain $1249

My first week of live trading in over 3 years yielded a $1249 gain; with positive dollar returns on all five days.

What might have been

Finished the day with a gain of $83 using 250 share trades in TNA.  However, the story of the day is that I got in long near today's bottom in TNA (at $39.46) and then bailed out with a 22 cent gain (at $39.67).  And it went up and closed at $40.89; basically at HOD.  Damn.  I had a nice gain of nearly $900 on Monday mostly as a result of a good entry and sticking with my winner well past my 'comfort time.'  In fact, most of my winners this past week were early exits... I literally left five figures worth of gains on the table as a result.

I am short 650 shares of TNA at $40.44 over the weekend.  I just couldn't help thinking that after the big rise today that closed the opening gap (despite an awful employment report), traders will send it down on Monday, perhaps into the $39.75 area; where I thought it was heading today.
I had no interest yesterday in being long overnight and I'm glad I wasn't!  But today at the close, I had a different feel.  On a macro level, I am net bearish in my outlook on the economy and markets, so that is playing into today's choice to carry shares into Monday.  My safety zone is down, not up.

We'll see what Monday brings.  I hope my analysis is correct.