Bitten by the Black Swan…Don’t Let It Happen To You

Back in 2009, I wrote a blog post about avoiding black swans when it comes to trading. Nassim Taleb talks about black swan events in his book Fooled by Randomness.  A Black Swan event is a rare but high impact event (similar to how sightings of black swans are very rare).  Black Swan events have caused many a trader to blow up his/her account.  In his book, Nassim talks about a trader who was a dip buyer and would average down on losers.  It worked for him for a long time…until he got involved in one trade where he continued ...Continue Reading...

Rule Adherence and My Best Week Ever

This week has been my best trading week ever so far, mainly due to some nice gains with HHWW, GASS, but also my two biggest winning positions to date…CWST ($1878) and BSFT ($4323 in IB and another $372 in Speedtrader).  I was short 3500 shares on CWST at 6.75 and it gapped down the next day.  I took a large short position in BSFT (2000 shares at an average of nearly $25.50), knowing that a big selloff would be coming given that they have a lockup expiration approaching on December 22nd.  I need to thank both InvestorsLive and MarvelMeister of ...Continue Reading...