My Short trades, not so good.

To say I hate playing the down side of the market is putting it lightly. It is harder to understand, it is harder to research and make decisions, and because most traders want the market to go up, there is more pressure on the market to do just that. I basically had my lunch handed to me this week, specially Thursday and Friday. Let’s break it down to see where I’m at.

I shorted BP on Tuesday and then got stopped out via a 7% Trailing stop, but I still made a profit of $152. Yea! I do not understand how anyone, even their own countrymen can buy and prop up this stock when there are so many unknowns on what the bottom line on cost to spill is going to be. I shorted BP again at $32, without a trailing stop, because I believe she is heading south. I still believe we are at the tip of the iceberg on what BP has paid out to date and the lawsuits have not even gotten into full swing yet. As of Fridays closing, I’m down 6% or $189. Since I have not closed this yet, it is still a paper loss.

I also shorted MAN on Tuesday and I also got stopped out via a 7% trailing stop for a $164 loss. I shorted BEN Monday because it looked like the perfect storm to sink lower, plus it was in the European index like MAN. I got stopped out via a 7% trailing stop for a $48 loss. So as of Friday, I am officially down $60 dollars. This is the good news.

I still holding MT because Mark forgot to put in his trailing stop and I’m down 9% or $194. I’m still holding PCLN because I have not been stopped out yet, but I still have a $6 profit. Can’t sell that without a loss because the commission is $10. Then there is my Google put option that I wish that I would never bought. I might should have cashed in my $300 loss last Wednesday, but I didn’t. Right now I’m back down with GOOG to 33%. She is killing me. I will hold this no longer than June 30th and I will just suck it up and sell it.

So overall, this week sucked big time but it could have been much worse. I still like shorting much more than buying Put and Call options because there is no time limit. I have not been charged margin interest on all my short transactions, so when I get this shorting thing figured out, I think I will be ok. So far all these losses have been eating at my profit for the year and no capitol has been touched. Lastly, looking at the EFA index, I still believe that I’m on the right side of the trade on MT and Bp. My other two positions were never confirmed by the S&P, so I will mark it up to a learning mistake.