Taking an erroneous loss.

ARRRGH!

One of the two last oversized positions ended up in a loss today as I closed it. The worst was that upon setting the exit order I used a limit order instead of market. Now this position has been held since mid April and has shown some nasty negative numbers until yesterday's drop in the market. Closing it this morning I should have seen about a 10 cent loss but instead, due to my error, I booked it at 65 cents down. The other was up 10 cents when I closed it.

Normally that would not concern me, and to be honest it really doesn't concern me now anyway, but it was a #390 drop. That still leaves me up for this month and has no bearing on last months numbers anyway as I treat a trade as fully executed on the day it is closed, no matter the open day. That is just plain easier than figuring the commissions out over multiple timeframes...especially if the trade was entered in stages, as this one was.

Due to some newbie shenanigans this morning I booked a scratch trade (commissions lost only) that should have been a decent gainer of at least 30 cents but John was trying to make a point with some new folks about market orders vs limit orders. So when everyone else was out I figured I better get out as well. I know he knew that the stock was going to jump but we will have other trades and I don't want to lament over a scratch.

My margin account is up quite nicely and I was hoping for some profit taking over there to pad my overall numbers...but that is the wrong reason to close a trade. So I am holding. Paper gains were as high as $4,500 this morning, back down to $2,500 and now inching back up to $3,600.

I'll post as I get some more profits locked in...or have to book another loss if needed.