I took a shot at FAS this morning, but I picked the wrong dip to buy. It dropped to about 6.00 a little while after I bought, and that would have been a good entry point. I entered at the wrong time, but I’m happy I set a stop-loss and stuck with it.

Realized a loss of $63.00, for a return of -6.69%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Bought 140 Shares of FAS at 6.68, Stopped Out at 6.33

Unfortunately, this trade didn’t work out for me and I was stopped out around 2:55, at 5.32 per share (see the red arrow on the chart). This stop saved me from the low of the day (5.11), and also happened to be the price that BAC closed at.

Perhaps my stop was a bit too tight, though I didn’t really think it was at the time I set it.

One problem I have to figure out how to deal with is the small size of my account and the difficulty of making trades that don’t risk more than 2% of my total capital. I’m probably going to have to trade even smaller numbers of shares in order to allow for a little more downside risk. Of course, BAC has been highly volatile so it may not be the right stock for me to learn how to trade anyway. I’ll review some charts tonight and see if I find anything I’m interested in buying tomorrow. If not, I’m happy to let my UYG position ride for a little while longer. I still think that is due for a nice recovery.

Realized a loss of $98.02, for a return of -5.81%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Stopped Out of BAC at 5.32

Realized a loss of -$177.51, for a return of -17.89%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 150 Shares of BCS at 5.48

Realized a loss of -$372.02, for a return of -16.87%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 200 Shares of GE at 9.20

Realized a loss of -$554.03, for a return of -12.94%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 200 Shares of SSO at 18.68

I bought 250 shares of AA (Alcoa) on Feb 2, 2008 at 7.8775 per share. I’m sure I could hold this for a while and see a better recovery—obviously I’m not a fan of selling at what may very well prove to be the market bottom, but I wanted to buy UYG instead and I expect to see enough gains with that to make up for this loss.

Realized a loss of $470.90, for a return of -23.83%.

Update: On February 25th, I received a dividend of $42.50 for my Alcoa shares. This changes my loss on the stock to $428.40, for a return of -21.68%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 250 Shares of AA at 6.05

Sold my 25 shares of SDS at 77.62.

The market was lower for the first couple of hours of the day, but I was too late in seeing the reversal. I could have sold this in the morning for a nice little gain. Instead, I finally ahd to give up hope on a further decline and take my losses so I could move on.

Realized a loss of -$70.27, for a return of -3.51%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 25 Shares of SDS at 77.62

Sold 170 shares of SSO at 22.15, clearing out my total position.

I saw the market turning down at this point, which actually turned out to be accurate, though I could have still sold for a slightly better price that day. With the market turning, I sold my SSO for a loss and went long SDS instead. SDS is an S&P 500 short ETF as opposed to the SSO, which is an S&P 500 long ETF.

Realized loss of -$157.23, for a return of -4.02%.

This post originally appeared at: Clear Trades. Follow me on Twitter

Sold 170 Shares of SSO at 22.15