04/07 GLD Calendar Recap

Ok, it is time to review this trade play by play, my effort here is to determine what went wrong, was it the plan? Was it me? Or was it simply market conditions? Let`s start from the beginning:

1) It all started back on 03/16, when I noticed GLD was behaving very well. Prior to entering the trades that week I performed a study on all my target ETFs and Indexes to determine the ones most likely to behave. I quote myself from that day: `GLD: Price action is decent, only 3 large days. Seems to be going back into a channel.`
Here is a picture of the VIPES study I was looking at:

2) So on the 17th I came in and launched the calendar. I quote myself again: `...As of now, my goal is to get in and get out, but if I need to adjust I`ll add to it and turn into a double-diagonal.`

2.1) From back then I can debate that while my plan had an adjustment strategy well set out, there wasn`t any time-limit component to the trade. What did I mean by get in and get out? Was it 2 weeks? 3 weeks? etc.

3) The very next day, GLD went crazy to the up-side, fired up and hit my adjustment point, launching the 94 Calendar.

4) The trade then languished for several days, staying in a small profit zone. On the 24th, it hit 8% ROI, half of my target. There was no provision on my plan to Tighten the noose.

5) As you can see from the chart bellow, there were several opportunities to get out of the trade. I didn`t, stayed in with all my contracts and ultimately took a loss Yesterday. GLD was behaving fairly well, however, it hit the all in a snap, so that is why TTN.

So the lessons learned:

1) Add TTN to trading plan

2) Define time-limit if that`s the case

What`s next

I`ll go over this trade with Dan Tomorrow and ask for his evaluation as well. Maybe he has additional information I`m missing here.