Thoughts On The Open For March 6, 2012

I was looking back at my journal post on Jan 3rd and I found it interesting that I was looking to long Sears Holding Corporation ( SHLD), but I wanted a little better price. In the stock trading chat room we were talking about Sears and how far it has gone recently. I am not on the opposite side of the fence starting to look towards shorting it. I will want to see the price move once again above $75.

I also looked at different option series near the open yesterday for a short with Apple ( AAPL), but left my trading desk only to come back to see the train left without me. Now as the market opens today I see I could have been ok grabbing on if only late. These are the types of things that can go through a traders head if one is not careful. Traders love to talk about the ideas they had, but missed out for this reason or that reason. The truth is we all miss out on lots of trades everyday. Every big mover either long or short would have been a great trade if we executed on the idea. The fact remains that we can not make every trade and that even if we could  (or come close) we are likely to leave a lot of money on the table. Take Sears for example, I would not have held for anywhere near the bounce that it gave. I would have been more than happy to take a dollar gain in the first couple of days. Thats not right or wrong, its's just the way I trade and overall I believe not tying up my capital hoping for the "homerun" makes sense for me. For others it may be different, but I like being mostly flat at the end fo the day with my trading account. Normally when I enter the stock trading room (you need a free signup account in order to enter) I like to have a fresh slate as to what I will be trading that day.