Today was an awful day. Well, sort of.
OK. I might be getting a bit dramatic here. I suffered no harm to myself or my trading accounts (though I’m sure my 401k took a hit). My pain is only psychological and I’m sure I’ll get over it soon enough.
You see today the stock market had one of those days I love as a trader. There was a big unidirectional move. In this case it was sharply to the downside. [In case you are not aware, I'm a professional stock market analyst, so I'm referring to the U.S. stock market here.]
I missed it!
Because I had a meeting-filled day, I didn’t get in on the fun. I was witness to the Philly Fed figures coming out amazingly low, but that was about the last of my stock market focus for the day. I did catch a little bit of what was going on in the 1:30 timeframe, and then again during the last hour, but by that time it was really too late and I was still too focused on other things to really give it full attention.
The fact that I wasn’t on-hand during that time after the Philly Fed prevented me from developing a short strategy for the day. That kept me from being in on what IÂ figure would have been at least 30 points in gains on a short position. So I’m left ranting about missed opportunity.
Yes, I know another trade will come along. Like I said, I’ll get over it, eventually.
There’s a point to this post beyond just ranting, though. You see I know about myself that to me there is more pain seeing the opportunity and not taking advantage of it than in actually losing on a trade. To me, losses are part of the process. They’re going to happen. Missing a great trade, though, stinks.
That mindset, however, can be problematic. It tends to make me press with my trading at times. I’m aware of this, though, so I can compensate.
What about you? Are you aware of flaws in the way you approach trading?
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About the Author
John Forman, author of this blog, has traded for more than 20 years, is a professional market analyst, and authored The Essentials of Trading. He is an active participant in trading forums, consults for trading related businesses, as published literally dozens of trading articles, and has been quoted in a number of books and in the media.
** See John’s full bio.
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