Trade Journal: FAZ

I don’t have the time to do a comprehensive trade review at one time, so I am going to do a trade review everyday, starting with my first trade of the year on January 2. As I go, I’ll compile the stats. I am only including trades I posted on the blog or the Trade Report.

FAZ Trade:

Entry: 200 shares at $35.09, additional 100 shares at $33.75. Average entry for 300 shares $34.64.

Exit: 150 shares at $38.10. 150 shares at $40.80. Average exit $39.45

Profit: $1443 (+13.9%).

Original Entry Reasoning and Chart:

While not at extreme levels, the market is starting to get a little overbought. The T2108 reading is above 70 and many individual stocks are posting stochastic readings near 70-80.

While not making any big bets yet, I took a small probing position in FAZ (entry at $35.09), which gives you 3X leverage short financials. Price is near support and stochastics are starting to get oversold. My stop is in place under the price support level.

Trade Analysis:

My reason for entry was solid. However, I am disappointed in my exit. My plan for almost every trade is to set an initial target at resistance, take partial profits once that level is hit (usually half the position), then move my stop up to entry level. This locks in a decent profit, and still keeps me in the trade if there is a big move.

I took the initial profit as I should, but for some unexplainable reason I took full profits a few points later for no good reason, completely ignoring the stop I placed. If I had traded my usual style, I would currently be sitting on a 100 percent gain. This is a good trade that should have been a great trade.

Note that this is not hindsight or back seat trading due to missing out on a big gain. I did not exit according to plan.

I get an A for the entry, C- for the exit. Overall Grade B-.