Sell Stop:(SNDA), Stupid Short Behavior

Unfortunately, I'm once again making this post 'from the future.' Though it's always my goal to post trades within 24 hours of making them (the same day ideally), it doesn't always work out. I think it's less effective to post about my decision once I have the benefit of hindsight. However, my son and I had a wonderful trip to see family in Florida, and my time was well spent with him rather than on the internet.

Back to the market. I stated in my post on March 12th that the market's action on March 6th felt like the beginning of something new to me. I perked up and began to watch in earnest for a follow through day with my watchlist ready.

That follow through day came on March 12th, and I bought (SNDA) that day and (TNDM) the next. Having done that, I began to watch closely for a distribution day. The odds of a rally failing are very high (I've read over 90%) if it logs a distribution day within three days of the follow through day.

The market did suffer a distribution day on March 16th, two trading days after the follow through day. Though both of my positions were doing well, I followed my rules and tightened up my stops, trailing them up through the day if the stock price rose.

I stopped out of (SNDA) at $34.45 for a loss of under 1%.

Then I did something stupid.

Once again, I got too smart and impatient for my own good, and decided to use the S&P 500 ultra-short (SDS). The results were not good, and will be covered in tomorrow's entry.

-Geoff