Friday, August 7, 2009

8/7
The unemployment numbers came out today. It was down to 9.4% from 9.5%. The Nonfarm Payrolls - M/M change was -247K. It was much less than forecasted.

The futures moved up immediately after the numbers. The RUT was up 2.65%. It was devastating for my portfolio. Emotionally I'm a bit sick seeing the market rally day after day. I've been extremely stubborn by not having a hard stop loss on my trades. It look months of gains evaporate in just one month. I have a sick feeling in my stomach seeing my portfolio loose money each day with the market trending up.

I MUST have a stop loss on all my trades from now on, otherwise I will continue to let emotions get in the way and make cloud any logical thinking.

I need to get over this loss and move on...

1 comments:

Mark Wolfinger said...

Not disagreeing with stop, but there are alternatives.

You can pay some cash for extra puts and calls. And I don't been some OTM trash. Real options with real gamma.

You can also adjust in stages (http://tinyurl.com/m5u8q2). It is not necessary to exit the entire position in a single move.

Better luck in September.

Mark