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Just purchased DBB for $12.40. Planning on this being an intermediate term position. Rethought and cancelled order for XSD based on something Brian Shannon said in his weekend webinar.
Lady
Finally bought an ETF I've had my eye on for months. The dollar pullback with an additional pullback in the ETF price this morning made it too good to pass up. Bought CAF at $28.28. :) Now I've got my eye on RSX....
Removed my stop on FAZ because I can't stand to sell at this price. Thought about doubling down but I'm too much of a chicklett. (For folks new to the MB, I'm not talking about the gum. I'm being a baby chick who wants to run and hid at the first raindrop. :toung: ) But just because FAZ is at a bargain basement price doesn't mean it can't go lower. :sick:
Lady
I had a hedge position in FAS - not big enough :rolleyes: - with a 5% trailing stop and the stop just triggered. Maybe that's a good sign for our FAZ. Also had a looser stop on some TNA that just triggered. Here we go ...... :nuts:
Lady
Just bought TZA at $74.64.
Lady
Nice outside reversal day on TZA.
Not fighting the flow this time. Sold TZA and bought TNA.
Lady
So I have a reasonable sized Roth where I've been holding GTU and GDX, and trading FAZ and TZA, and getting stomped. And I have a baby Roth that I almost forget about where I have been holding DBB and SMH and EWZ and RSX, etc, etc. and it's been making just a few dollars almost every day.
Do you think I would learn from that? :wacko:
Lady
At this point I have equal $ in TNA and FAZ (because my FAZ has gone down to match the TNA $, not because I've changed my positions) and I figure one or the other has got to go up. Maybe. :toung:
Lady
The last of my FAZ just triggered it's (20%!) trailing stop and sold. Purchased at $66.60 and sold at $33.96. :sick:
Lady
I repurchased a small position in FAZ this morning. Masochistic, that's me. :nuts:
The first pot of my FAZ money settled, the tatters remnants that remained anyway. And because of what the Fed did to the dollar yesterday, I spent last evening and this morning looking at ETFs outside the US to purchase. I already have CAF and RSX. Today I added EWC, EWZ (that has a 5% yield), and EEM. I also purchased PCU, which is outside the US and copper, so it met two goals, because I'm trying to concentrate on commodities too. And I bought some DBB, DXO and UGA.
Also bought a small amount of SDY and CVY for the divvies.
I'm thinking these (even the FAZ :toung:) are intermediate term purchases. I've got loose trailing stops set on everything but the FAZ. No stops on it but it is a teensy position. Still holding GTU, GDX and SLV without stops.
FWIW,
Lady
I have two Roth accounts. One of them has a small FAZ position. Guess which one I didn't make 5% on today. :rolleyes:
I thought seriously about dumping the FAZ but it had already lost so much by the time I could get to it that I decided to just hold through the pain until the euphoria dies and banking stocks fall back a bit.
And to think that last week I sold the last of my FAS at an 8% profit and thought I'd done well. :nuts:
Lady
I bought FAS at $4 and sold it at an 8% profit and then bought FAZ. :cry:
The only thing that is keeping me from jumping from a tall building is that I also bought QLD. My QLD is keeping my account even. But I have a $1K+ loss on my FAZ. I need to tattoo my signature on my brain: The market does not care what I think FAZ will do. Only price pays .... :sad:
Sometimes the ETF University tuition payments are steep, but I'll bet I don't have to repeat many courses. :toung:
Lady
Lady, by the way, congrats on the promotion!:)
My RSX fell off a cliff this morning. Not sure why yet, but it triggered its trailing stop almost at market's open.
Lady
I won't put this in the 'news' section because I can't substantiate it yet. But there is some rumoring that we're going to be seeing monthly (not daily) leveraged ETFs soon.
FWIW,
Lady
My FAZ just sold for 22.42, purchased @ $66.60. :eek: That is enough to make you superstitious! :nuts:
FAZ was a huge hit on my account. I learned several lessons from FAZ/FAS in March: never trade with unsettled funds, trade with the trend, don't double down on a losing position.
I'm really having a love/hate relationship with stops. It seems that the levered funds swing so wildly that you can't set a stop that is loose enough so it doesn't knock you out just before it changes direction and still tight enough that it gives you any protection.
I'm starting to decide that I don't have the stomach, the expertise, or the nerves to trade 3x ETFs yet. Until and unless I can feel more comfortable with my entry/exit/stop skills, I'm sticking with unlevered funds. What can I say .... you guys already know I'm a chicklett! :bigsmile:
Lady
The 3 timers are certainly dangerous, but quite entertaining. Perhaps using an option as a hedge? But the FAZ options are quite expensive given the volitility.
Hmmm... A quick check shows they don't appear to have puts for FAZ, only calls.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/op?s=FAZ
Now that my FAZ nightmare is finally behind me :sick:, my current positions are GTU, GDX, SLV (large position), SLW (which I'm very happy with today :)), PTM (are we sensing a theme? :toung:), SDY, DBB, DBC, and EEM.
FWIW,
Lady
Lady, you and me both :wacko:
I still love the 3x action because it relaxes me. But your right, placing stops is tricky. Unless you're glued to the action, these 3xers are better off being held for the day only or not at all.
FAZ is the teacher and I am the student...
Hi Lady, I agree, stops on the 3x etf's are impossible. The swings will get you everytime. I bought Faz at $19 and decided since I was going to be out of the house that I'd better put a stop on just in case. Of course it hit and sold out and by the time I got back, Faz was up over $23, so I bought in at that price. This time I'm not putting a stop unless it's way off from the share price. Probably would need to be 25 or 30 %.
My DBB is doing some REALLY strange things this morning. Are Da Boyz playing with it to try to hit as many stops as possible? And if so, why .... ? :confused:
Lady
Bought VEU @ $30.12. 5% trailing stop for now.
Lady
I was reading a "trader's mentality" book last night and it said something that really resonated with me. Look at each chart of your positions objectively without paying attention to what chart it is. If you wouldn't buy that [ETF] then you should probably sell it.
So I did that this morning, and I was surprised at how terrible my GTU and SLV charts looked in comparison to the other positions. I bit the bullet and sold my GTU (for a $1+ loss) and I placed a 3% stop on half my very large SLV position.
I've decided to quit writing my own stories for my ETFs and listen to the story the charts are telling me. If a position is hurting the bottom line of my portfolio then it's got to go.
Does that strike a chord with anyone, or do you think I'm going to be sorry? :unsure:
Lady
I agree with the writer in a "general" sort of way. For me, removing all emotional attachment works much better for a technical trader. It's almost the polar opposite of a value investor who looks for a stock they have a personal stake in like a Wal-Mart customer. The majority of my bad trades involved emotion, attachment, or fond memories, so I try to look at things objectively.
As for Silver, well I see that differently. I find it difficult for me to time SLV. In order to track silver, I've got to know the condition of stocks, bonds, the dollar, supply & demand, ect. I already keep track of so much that between the reading, watching, and analyzing, I just don't have the time to give it the attention I feel it deserves. These bear markets really suck up your time. :wacko:
You know, I'm getting really tired of having my entire portfolio do well EXCEPT for my precious metals stuff, and still ending up in the red for the day. It's like dying the death of a thousand cuts! :(
My base metals DBB is just plugging along to the up-side. I mentioned a couple of days ago that there were some wild swings in DBB and I wondered if it meant that Da Boyz were trying to knock out stops. Well I removed my stop and hung on and DBB has done well ever since. I think it's the stimulus and people are thinking about all that bridge building money.
If my precious metals stuff was doing half as well as my base metals position, I'd be way happy. I placed a reasonable stop on half my large SLV position, which had been running without a stop because of the swings. (Forgive me, Show-me, silver is killing me.:sick:) And if after-market and pre-market on Monday don't pick up, my GDX and SLW are getting tight stops too.
Apparently the rest of the world doesn't think that things are as dire as I did, because the precious metals stuff has arterial bleeding. :rolleyes:
Lady
I just did a post on TSPTalk that reminded me I forgot to post a purchase. I bought XLF on April 2.
I won't post the price I bought it at, because it's too far after the fact. I tried to snip my Scottrade confirmation and paste it here, but my computer still won't let me paste to the message board. I can paste to emails and MS Office files, but not to the MB. :huh:
Anyway, for what it's worth, and sorry that I forgot to post it sooner :embarrest:, as soon as I was sure that they had eased mark-to-market, I bought XLF. Not FAS ... I'm in a 12-step recovery program for leveraged funds. :rolleyes:
Lady
No worries Lady. You can post the price... You have us curious now. :)
Precious metals are not gaining ground in this pull-back. I lightened up my precious metals holdings again by selling half my position in SLV. Still holding GDX and PTM in addition to my now smaller SLV, but I could lose patience with my GDX sometime in the next few days.
And I'm keeping a VERY close eye on my XLF.
If this just ends up being a correcting pullback, I'm going to look closely at the Q's and VNQ toward the end of this week. I decided against a small cap value fund - - I'm going to increase my TSP S fund instead, if this is just a correction. I'm going to look at candlesticks for a couple of days before I decide.
FWIW,
Lady