A few days ago I posted Anatomy of a Bad Trade, where I openly discussed the worst stock trade I ever did and the lessons I learned. This week I had a picture perfect trade, where I followed my rules and exited a position with a huge gain.
My rules:
- Look for beaten down UltraShort ETFs with price support that are on sale early in the week.
- Set stop loss in the event the price support fails.
- Lock in gain, preferably before the close on Friday.
Bought 90 SRS @78.22 on MON 12/8
Sold 90 SRS @99.78 on FRI 12/12
This time I didn’t get greedy on a Friday. Instead I exited the trade and locked in the gain. Good thing I did, because the stock tanked shortly afterward almost 20%. Now it is the weekend and I’m holding no leveraged ETFs in my account and I’m another $1,920 closer to retirement. This was a good week.
This is not investment advice, but I would not be surprised to see SRS do a similar moonshot move in the next week or two. Hit it and Quit It. Rinse and Repeat.
TigerAl
Dec 14, 2008 — 7:45 am
Does that take you closer to retirement or the next mini-retirement? 🙂
MAS
Dec 15, 2008 — 5:02 am
Real retirement. That trade took place in my managed 401k account, so that money can’t be accessed for some time.
My next trade will likely be in my mini-retirement account. 🙂