Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Losses that feel better than wins

Daily Result: £166.27

It might seem a strange thing to say but sometimes a loss really can feel better than a win. Of course, we'd all prefer to win, but occasionally when the dust settles after an event the size of a loss can be a relief. Especially if a potentially much larger loss was being faced during that event. I guess what I'm trying to say is by getting yourself out of a bit of a hole you can feel more positive than you do when you have a small win. At least I do sometimes. And today was a perfect case in point.

Dumb as it sounds I didn't even realise the 2nd ODI between India and the West Indies was being played. (And right now kind of wish I hadn't!) Recently I put all the fixtures into my trading diary and somehow managed to miss this match out. So I only realised it was on when I tried to tap in 502 into Sky for Bloomberg and by force of habit ended up on a Sky Sports channel instead. And there it was. The game in full swing. So I spent some time watching the pitch and game. Read through some comments from those who'd been involved from the start and settled down to do the second innings.

And wow did I get things wrong. I had to cut my first 4 trades for losses. And didn't do much better after that! Unfortunately I didn't keep a rough graph of price movements to game events to my trades but if I had it would look like a trader's nightmare. I just wasn't at the races today. Got in and out at the wrong points all over the place. The 2nd innings was also very volatile which initially was simply compounding my problems. Which all ended up with my facing a position of £400+ red the pair at one stage.

I won't go into the details of the game here except to say I fancied the Windies for a long time but some absolutley suicidal cricket with some village moments that would contribute to a best selling Crap Cricket compiliation finally made me realise it was going to be India's day. But only after I'd taken a quick break from the game, wondered into the garden, made a coffee and come back to the match with a clearer head.

From then on I was just trading to reduce the red and took advantage of the extreme volatility in the market by getting in and out in very short timeframes - even between balls - each time nicking a few ticks. It was all a bit manic but I also took the opportunity to lay very short prices while staying withing my maximum loss limit. (£500). And when it finally became clear that India were going to win I had a bit on them too which I just let ride.

The result of it all was a £166 loss. Not the greatest result ever. But none the less one I'm happy with when I take into consideration the position I had been facing earlier. Sure, I got a little lucky (not lucky enough for a tie and a cancelled market tho!) but I also kept control, cleared my head and came back with clear idea of how to progress to reduce the red. Put it this way. If you'd offered me a £166 loss on the match when I came back in from the garden I'd have ripped your arm off! And that's why, strange as it may well sound, I say a loss can sometimes feel better than a win.

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