Today my Sainsburys target was hit after two days of consistent gains, booking a near 2% return for the fund (check out the AtticFund graph). The AtticFund is now 10% up – which, given my risk profile and trading activity in the last couple of months, is a pretty good return.
The AtticFund has underperformed the major US and UK indices since February but I am not competing against these indices, I am competing against myself. Sure, if the fund was losing money, then I would need to reconsider the strategy, but given the general fragile state of the economy at the moment I am uneasy about becoming too aggressive.
I have decided that setting targets and returns etc, does not suit my trading – better to refine the strategy and identify and focus on areas of my trading that I need to improve.
I find it incredibly hard to hold onto winners. Today as Sainsbury’s approached my target I considered changing the trade parameters in order to pick up more of the move, but for some reason I ended up closing the trade at the profit target. I think I’m relatively risk averse and as my profit targets approach, all I want to do is bank the winnings and move on. I need to come up with an approach that enables me to stay in winners longer.
