Conviction

I always am open to learning new things so I thought I'd try to hold something a little longer than usual and see how it goes.

In looking for a new blog look I cruised through many other trading blogs and was struck by the fact that the vast majority believed that we are due for a bounce because we are in way oversold territory. Well I don't have expectations about what will happen next, but I thought the idea of a bounce when the sheer ferocity of downward motion when the markets fall lately must be scary for the average down dip buyers.

So with this conviction in mind I resolved to trade against these people by buying VXX and holding it today until I either got stopped out or a clear signal says sell it.

I learned or confirmed several things:

1. Having expectations affects your judgments.

2. It goes against the best principals of momentum day trading not to take profits when my gut tells me to.

3. I might make less money because I am not churning through fresh opportunities and momentum.

4. How in the hell does anyone swing or position trade? The risk and opportunity to get emotionally beaten up is way to high.

Anyway I had to sell and go back to my normal operating procedure to get back into my zone.

VXX was a nice winner though.