tradersams blog

So I feel I should close out the discussion I started with myself at the end of last week… see this post.…

ASX 200 last friday

This is the ASX top 200 at the end of the week.  The circle is around last Fridays trade when I wrote that last post, about the ‘voices I heard’ – and you can see where this week closed.

The close last Friday formed a short term low – an excellent buying opportunity in retrospect  – but exactly a week later we are into the highest high in just on a year.

So how did I cope?

• I largely ignored the voices, and went with my plan – with the minor change of lowering R, which results in smaller position sizes.  This has not cost me anything, and I’m happy that this is a safe idea.
• I took out a couple of protective put options against the ASX200 to act as insurance against a drop.  The values where at 4600 and 4500 points,  the current value of the ASX200 is 4750 which means I expect these options expire worthless, so I have an overall loss this week based on the price of the options.
• Hesitation – whilst I did largely ignore the voices, ensuring that they did not affect my trades was a concern.  The voices can cause you to pass up trades you should take, or exit early from trades you are already in.  I reckon I did lose a few brain cycles wondering if I was holding off some decisions because of hesitating when pondering the views of others.

Looking over the week, I did find some opportunities.  I entered Sino Gold (SGX) and Oz Minerals (OZL) although early days so will have to wait n see how these play out.

The one trade that I seriously question my actions in is the Campbell Brothers (CPB) trade.  Definitely a weakening in that position this week, and I don’t want it to subside much further as I will have to exercise my stop.

Looking forward?

View based on the end of the week, going forward?  There is an ever so minor contraction in the red colored MAs in the graph, which indicates to me a slightly altering view in the eyes of the longer term investors.  Combine that with the increasing volatility and I would say I need to be sharp as a nail on my stop losses, and ready to exit in a hurry.

Did you grab an opportunity this week?  Post a comment and let me know.