Why You Should Close Your Trades This Week

THE WEEK

Higher volume all week and government announcements made for an interesting trading week.  The Market had been trending sideways and truthfully I thought that trend would continue as we approached the holidays.  The trading herd is like a  year old colt be broken to the saddle – nervous and fidgety.  This makes trading harder because there is no consistent pattern to count on.  Here’s a look at the SPX.  Big swings occurred on each government announcement.

LOOKING AHEAD

This is Christmas week.  There are very few earnings reports and no major government announcements this week.  The Price/Action could go either way.  Normally I expect a quiet week before Christmas, but I think the trading will still be higher than normal.  

Why?  

At the end of the year many traders choose to close their losing trades to offset the winners and minimize their taxes.  I think we will see some of that selloff a week early.  Many traders are just tired of the chaos and want to step away and enjoy family time without the stress of trading.

HOW AM I DOING?

Just OK.  I was up and down all week.  Unfortunately, Friday was a day of getting trades gone sour out of harm’s way.  To compound the problem, TDAmeritrade, my trading platform, had some issues with one of their clearing houses early in the day.  I was on the phone for over an hour getting trades manually forced though.  What a pain!  Shit happens and when it does, the best course of action is to stay calm and deal with it.  

Here’s a tip:  I had documented with screen shots the trades where I first set them up and where they finally forced traded.  I knew exactly what the difference was and nicely asked to be reimbursed for the loss.  It took some persuasion, but in the end we agreed to a figure and my account was credited.  Lesson here, always ask.  The worst that could happen is you get a “No Way”.  But if you don’t ask, you would get nothing.