I sold this time for a profit.

Friday after the market rally near close I decided to buy some DIA puts near close. It was up and I decided with all the run up that week the market needed to pull back some because too many people got caught short. Too many people are going to take profits. Then crisis is still not over and the market had rallied too far too fast in 1 week. The crisis in Europe was still there and I don't think they would have showed the same excitement for GOOG as the US market did.

Saturday I messed up my computer when I tried to update the BIOS from XP. Monday I woke up and them market was down. So I jumped into my daughters room on her computer to see if I could close the position but could get into the account. I have Linux on her box. Not fully configured to do some of the windows stuff (dont want her downloading too much stuff). I guess I could have called it in but I also wanted to monitor the trade to see
I could get the next best sell price.

I got to working on that machine. I got into the brokers webtrade. I noticed that at the the puts had trade as high as +$0.60 per contract (+ in front of the number means a profit) and was not trading at +$0.30. Do I sell or do I let it ride to see if I the market going to go back down. So I decide to let it ride. Ok. 1- 2pm I got the box up to where I can get a semi decent chart. Now the position is down. -$0.50. Ok. Let the trade develop. Sentiments not that bullish anymore. I have time before expiration. I spent the rest of the day trying to get the box more decent to where I can get a better chart for the next day.

Today Tuesday, I logged on check the charts market falling down. I am tempted to sell. Go on my favorite chat and read some of the other traders analysis. Decided to hold on till the market came down as most of the respected ones on there were betting on it falling. Market fell DIA fell more than $1.50 at which point my position was near its max. The bid/ask was +$1.00/+$1.10. Then the market start bottoming and then slowly drifting up at which point I was drawing my support resistance lines and saying if it breaks above this line I am selling and if it falls again. I will cuss for missing the party if it rallies but I will not watch this profit turn into a loss again. Near 2:00pm the stock move above the resistance and I sold and locked in +$0.60. I ran some errands after than and when I came back later after 5pm, the position would have been negative again if I held.

SELL SELL SELL!!! Learning the sell lesson again at the school of hard knocks

Took a hit last Thursday in 3 of my accounts. I had trading put on another QQQQ spread and kept the DIA spread I had before. I went all out near closing in another account on some Apr DIA 127 PUTS expiring Friday. The trade was that I would be out by 4:15pm before GOOG released earnings. Generally when it's a big company whose news can affect the market people sell the market off just before the news. DIA trades options trades until 4:15 pm. So at 4:10 I am up nicely on those PUTS. I am wresting with whether I should just take the profit and run then boom GOOG released news. At I hear on the news they beat. Instead of me selling then I hesitated to get more clarification and by that time I watched my profit of $0.70 per contract turned into $0.35 per contract loss and instead of me selling then. I hesitated till 4:15 pm. Ding can't sell anymore. Next day, Friday and expiration. Market opens up high. DIA @ > 128. Options worth $0.40. I still didn't sell. THen they dwindle down to $0.05 Still didn't sell. Lost all that money.

Another hard knocks lesson re-learned. Sell! Sell! Sell! You can never go broke from taking profits early. You can be in the game if you don't lose money. If you are losing money. Cut your losses quickly, especially on high risk trades. Always have an exit strategy and follow it. Use stop loss on high risk trades whenever possible.

List of ETFs

QLD - Nasdaq Ultra Long ETF (2x), if you betting going up
QID - Nasdaq Ultra Short ETF (2x), if you betting going down
DDM - Dow 30 Ultra Long (2x), if you betting going up
DXD - Dow 30 Ultra Short (2x), if you betting going down
SSO - S&P 30 Ultra Long (2x), if you betting going up
SDS - S&P 30 Ultra Short (2x), if you betting going down
SAA - Ultra S&P SmallCap600 ProShares
SBB - Short S&P SmallCap600 ProShares
FXI - iShares FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index
FXP - UltraShort FTSE/Xinhua China 25
URE - Ultra Real Estate ProShares
SRS - UltraShort Real Estate ProShares
UYM - Ultra Basic Materials ProShares
SMN - UltraShort Basic Materials ProShares
USD - Ultra Semiconductor ProShares
SSG - UltraShort Semiconductor ProShares
UGE - Ultra Consumer Goods ProShares
SZK - UltraShort Consumer Goods ProShares
UCC - Ultra Consumer Services ProShares
SCC - UltraShort Consumer Services ProShares
SKF - UltraShort Financials ProShares
UYG - Ultra Financials ProShares
UCR - Macroshares Oil, if you betting going up
DCR - Macroshares Oil, if you betting going Down
DOG - Short Dow30 ProShares
DUG - UltraShort Oil and Gas Proshares