Bear Squeeze!

UPDATE 12:30pm EST: Market has been ruthless in the past hour and eventually breached the line in the sand for my Feb puts.

Had to cut and run, which was really tough to do as I was sitting on massive profits just two hours earlier. If it wasn’t for the long weekend I might have sweat it out but I’m afraid that we’ll chop around for the next two days and then break way past where I would see profits. The risk/benefit ratio just wasn’t there and as a good trader you admit when you’re on the wrong side of a trade. Since I cut we’ve been pushing even higher, which in perverse way makes me feel better.

I know this really sucks and although I expected this gap to be filled I didn’t anticipate the might of the institutionals kicking in. And that’s what it was – as I saw the tape crawl up on the futures latter without any bids being present.

Great day just turned into a bear capitulation day – I’m pissed. Will just sit and wait for another opportunity to strike.

Lesson of the day: Don’t count your chicken before they’re hatched.

UPDATE 1:22pm EST: Clarification: I’m still holding my March puts although they got hammered too in the rally up. Frankly, at this very moment I have no opinion about this tape as it defies rhyme or reason. I don’t want to come across as wearing a tinfoil hat, but when the market makes a sudden U-turn without any exogenous forces as a trigger I can only chalk it off to Fed sponsored primary dealer monkey business. I’m pretty hard core but this is rough tape.

It’s moving in our direction now but I’m on edge, frankly – I hate to be in the market when it doesn’t make any sense and is able to turn on a dime like that. Also given up on the Yen – it regularly pops up for a quick breath of fresh air but then gets stomped on by the big Monty Python boot.