Why you need to get better at taking losses

If you have any dreams of becoming a trader, one of the most important things you can do is take losses.

Taking losses is admitting defeat.

Taking losses is means you analysis was wrong.

Taking losses is unacceptable.

These are myths that we tell ourselves about taking losses.

The three most costly trading errors you can make

According to Mark Douglas, author of Trading in the Zone (book notes here) the three most costly trading mistakes you can make are:

Not predefining your risk
Not cutting your losses
Not systematically taking profits

Taking losses hurts. But why does it hurt so much?

On a psychological level, you don’t want to be wrong. Being wrong means losing money, and you don’t want to lose money. Losing money is painful.

Being wrong is a hit to your ego. It means your analysis failed.

Too often traders allow themselves to sit on a losing position, waiting for it to come around in their favor. I can speak from personal experience regarding this.

For about my first year of trading, it was so difficult for me to cut losing trades early on.

I didn’t know when to cut a trade. I thought to myself “if I just wait a little longer, the trade will come back my way. I just know I’m right.”

Frame losses differently: the cost of doing business

Losing trades are a business expense.

They are the cost of doing business as a trader. Don’t look at them as anything else. They are not a reflection on your analysis. They are not a reflection of you as a person.

Losses are merely the cost of doing business in an uncertain environment with uncertain outcomes.

Did the Federal Reserve Kill the Volatility Trade?

On October 11, 2019, the Federal Reserve announced they would begin buying Treasury Bills in an effort to ensure there are “ample reserves” in the banking system through the end of the year.

fed treasury oct 11

On October 11, 2019, the Volatility Index (VIX) sat at 17.4. Today on November 26, 2019 the VIX has recently closed at 11.5. As you can see from below, it appears as though this not-QE program that is “organically” growing the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet has effectively killed the long VIX trade.

fed vix chart

The case made that supports this idea is that investors are engaging in more risk on behavior, because they are basing their decisions based on the Federal Reserve’s prior balance sheet expansion programs (QE 1-3).

Because the Fed is purchasing T-bills, they have eased some of the money market pressures. Liquidity in the market has proven to be a positive catalyst to the market.

Why do I believe this?

It can’t be the trade deal.

That’s the only other source that has been moving the markets higher according to many daily stock market new reporters. And I don’t believe these markets are pushing higher on hopes of a trade deal.

I think the Fed’s easy money policies have once again eased tensions. For now.

A lesson to me

This whole scenario has taught me a valuable lesson about position sizing. I’ve learned to not be so overconfident in my predictions.

Every trade made is a small bet. Each bet will abide by the Kelly criterion.

Never go all in.

Grow your money slowly and strategically.

Live to trade another day.

Read

Barton_options on Twitter has been a great resource for me to learn more about the Federal Reserve operations and how it relates to the Treasury and the overall economy.

He recently wrote about this in a newsletter you can read here.

This is what’s going to happen in the market this week

In this article, I’m going to review my past predictions and make some new ones.

On August 3rd, I wrote a post laying out what I thought would happen. Shall we take a look?

As I mentioned earlier, I expect IWM to pullback 5-7% since it broke the $153.50 support level earlier today.

IWM finished this week down 1.28%. I didn’t put a date on the 5-7% pullback, but this is something I expect to play out within the next two weeks.

This would give you a range of $144.95 all the way down to $141.90 coming into play.

At a minimum, I do believe that $145 will be retested. This is the level that IWM dropped to in May following the added tariff announcements. See IWM chart below:

iwm81019

SPY is a little trickier for me. It tends to whipsaw in price when volatility picks up, possibly due to algorithmic and HF trading. I think we see SPY revisit $285 range before the end of next week (Aug 9 expiry), but it’ll be a rocky ride.

SPY surprised me this week with the massive selloff that took place on Monday. I thought it would be a rockier ride to get down to $285, but we actually touched as low as $281.72 on Monday!

I was correct about the whipsaw though! Tuesday and Wednesday started off as days that looked like they were ripe for shorting, but the market ripped back almost 2% higher come Thursday, and 4% higher off Wednesday’s lows.

I believe that this upcoming week (August 12-19) will see SPY dropping as low as $279, retesting those levels reached around May 13 this year, in the midst of the May selloff that took place.

I’m also watching the $272 price level to get rested in the next two weeks. See SPY chart below:

I think VIX will also whipsaw next week, seeing a range with a low 14.7 and all the way up to 23.5. That’s just my guess.

This week, VIX saw a high of 24.8 and a low of 16.8. Not too bad of a prediction!

Next week I’m looking for a high of 26 on VIX and a low of 17. Keep in mind, when VIX is this high and with the current news, a much higher VIX is always possible.

I mentioned on my Twitter that I picked up some VXX call options and XLF put options to set up for whatever could happen next week.

These are a small part of my portfolio. I have positions both long and short in tickers or tickers derived from the ones mentioned above.