Tuesday, March 18, 2008

First Trading Lessons

As I write this, there is a major turmoil developing in the world markets. Bear Sterns is already down the dump, being almost acquired by JPMC for as little as USD 240 MM. Lehman has had a bumpy ride on the last two days. Yesterday, it was down by more than 40% at one point in time, and today, its up by 35% on the back of positive returns.

Anyways, as people debate over the future of the financial firms, and these wall street barons, I have put on my first real trade. I am short on ABCD stock and have hedged that by being long on the index. ABCD was down yesterday, and I had made a small profit yesterday. However, today, it went up and up, and I have more than 4% loss for the day. I would wind up this position at 5% loss.

First learning from the trading:

1. Never short a stock which is backed by a strong promoter having large holdings. The promoter can stand at a price, and even when the whole market is falling, the stock may just stand at one price.


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