Trade Recap 6/2012…Close Call

Today was nearly a disaster (thanks to rule breaking) that turned out reasonable (thanks again to rule breaking).  In this case, two wrongs made a right…but I need to avoid doing that again.

The mistakes started yesterday with OSIR.  I was short way too big from a 10.02 average.  I slowly kept adding in yesterday as the day went on, while keeping my stop at 10.50ish.  That meant that my potential loss was bigger than I usually allow.  I was eventually short 2500 shares going into today.  Then OSIR started to squeeze this morning, and what was worse is that I didn’t have my auto stop in place, since OSIR is one of those stocks that will pop just to hit stops and drop again.  So I fudged on my stop, and decided to get out only if it hit 11…which it did and I took a $2500 loss.  This is the first time in a long while that I let emotions take over…mainly because I had 3 stops hit yesterday and it puts you in a position where you don’t want to take your 4th in a row.

I made most of it all back by going in large on a MITK short, shorting a starter on the initial spike in the 4.20′s, and then adding in until I had a 4.37 average.  I had a stop in place at 4.61 and it nearly got hit, but it didn’t.  I was short 6000 shares…which again was breaking my position size rules.  If I had gotten stopped out today it would’ve been a mega-loss for the day.  But instead MITK had a great fade that I covered at 4.01.  I also covered a small swing short of 250 shares of BVSN at 11.70 from a 12.18 entry.

I definitely need to refocus after today’s near disaster.  One thing is apparent is that dip buyers are back and I’m noticing a trend towards more bullishness.  This was certainly evident in MITK and OSIR, and is something I need to consider as a short-biased trader going forward.

P/L:  $-287.66