As I wrote in my previous post (Bought 300 Shares of BAC at 5.60), I set a stop loss order on my BAC shares at 5.32.
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%.
BAC, Losses, Sell
I bought 300 shares of Bank of America (BAC) at 5.60 per share this morning.
I set a stop loss order at 5.32. The reason for this stop loss is to limit my potential loss to 2% of my trading capital.
I don’t have a clear plan for when to sell, which is a problem, but I’ll probably begin looking to sell at 5.80 and/or simply continue to raise my stop order if the chart continues to look positive today.
Below is today’s chart up to the point that I entered my trade (the green arrow at 11:44 AM). You can see this doesn’t look like a very positive time to buy, but I expected some support around 5.60.
Below is a 5 day, 15 minute chart of BAC. Again, note the green arrow as the point I entered this trade. I was looking for the pullback to the moving average and expecting the trend to continue up. Obviously, I’m not a technical analyst, but I’m learning and these are my basic thoughts as of now. Of course, I also have in mind the general positive trend for financials this week and even more so today.
BAC, Buy
I got scared and got out of my BAC trade much too quickly.
I actually got a margin maintenance call after I bought this. Apparently I wasn’t paying close enough attention to my ‘buying power’ and over extended myself. I could have held on for more gains of course, but I really just wanted to get out with a small profit while I could and avoid having to add more cash to my account to cover the margin.
Realized a gain of $27.59, for a return of 1.69%.
BAC, Gains, Sell
This was a quick buy that I made while watching the Bernanke hearing on CNBC. The bank stress test sounded a lot less ominous than I believe was previously thought. That made me think BAC would be good for a quick trade.
BAC, Buy
I sold my total long position in BAC at 5.77.
I went long BAC (Bank of America) on Feb 4th, buying 500 shares at 5.20 and later in the day 200 shares at 4.90.
Of course it would have been great if I had sold on Friday or Monday when the stock was trading in the high 6s and even touched the low 7s. I guess maybe I got greedy, or maybe I didn’t have a good plan going in, or maybe I bet too much on the bank bailout speech on Tuesday. I probably messed up on all 3 of those points. In the future, I’m going to be more careful to put in stop loss orders when I’ve seen such a large gain.
I’ve been growing more uncomfortable with my large Financial Sector exposure, and since I have a profit in BAC I decided it was time to sell.
Realized a gain of $437.97, for a return of 12.19%.
BAC, Gains, Sell
*Note – I made this trade before launching ClearTrades.com so the details are a little light. You can expect to see more information on trades made in the future.
Long 200 more shares of BAC at 4.90. Adding to my previous day’s buy, this brings me to 700 shares of BAC at an average price of 5.11.
I would have bought more if I had more buying power at the time. Unfortunately, I had too much money tied up in SSO, which was going nowhere. By this time, there was news floating about that nationalization was unlikely for any banks and I felt once the nationalization risk was removed BAC should trade much, much higher.
BAC, Buy
*Note – I made this trade before launching ClearTrades.com so the details are a little light. You can expect to see more information on trades made in the future.
Long 500 shares of BAC at 5.20.
I had the right idea here, but I jumped in too soon. There was still a lot of bad news and the chart looked bad. I should have been more careful and waited a bit. I think I was a bit too anxious to make up for covering my BAC short too early. Of course, letting my emotions get involved is a huge mistake and I’m lucky this has turned around since.
BAC, Buy
*Note – I made this trade before launching ClearTrades.com so the details are a little light. You can expect to see more information on trades made in the future.
Covered my short of 160 shares of BAC at 5.588.
I was too fearful with this one and should have been more patient. I missed out on almost two more dollars of downside, but at least I got out with a gain.
Realized a gain of $72.71, for a 7.4% return.
Not bad for one day, but this should have been a lot better.
BAC, Buy to Cover, Gains
*Note – I made this trade before launching ClearTrades.com so the details are a little light. You can expect to see more information on trades made in the future.
Short BAC (Bank of America) at 6.13.
I don’t remember exactly why, but both BAC and WFC looked like shorts to me. I remember that WFC had a big day on a poor report and I felt it wasn’t going to last. BAC was also running up on mostly bad news and the looming threat of nationalization. BAC was up to about 6.50 that day and started to drop pretty quickly. I wish I had shorted a little earlier.
This turned out to be an incredible time to short BAC (and WFC for that matter), but I didn’t have enough confidence in my theory and I didn’t do a good enough job watching the chart. It should have been obvious this was falling farther, but I covered too soon.
BAC, Sell Short
