7/30/10 Slow Dance on the Killing Ground

Man I am embarrassed to tell you that today I gave it all back in one ----ing trade. My 4-figure gain for the week flipped into a 3-figure loss in 4 hours and 27 minutes.

Opened TZA @ 32.94 reflexively as a short squeeze hit the tape at 642 am (pst), closed @ 32.07 as a broad market sell-off briefly materialized at 1109 am (pst). Larger than normal position. It went green almost immediately. However, greed won over common sense, as I sat back, confident that the morning sell-off would resume almost immediately. Instead, we all know what happened.

But there's good news. It was a 4-figure loss for most of the morning. Only my 'blind faith' in human nature gave me the confidence to hold the position (for 4 1/2 hours,!) until I saw a print that spelled 'breakeven' (for the week), and clicked Sell as quickly as I could. In fact, had I sold the position exactly 16 seconds earlier, I would have ended up flat.

As it is, I end the week down -191.89.

I really believed we would see at least -250 points on the DJIA today. For crying out loud, didn't TLT close near the high? Got played by the Market once again. At least I didn't hand over my wallet at the highs of the day. No, I was able to hold my own to an even draw for the week. Next round Monday.