Today's brief sermon is on patience.
Capital One Financial (COF) is a stock I've mentioned quite a few times on this blog before, and always as a short. When I wrote about it last March, it was about a $60 stock, and the topping pattern on it looked huge and sensational.
The frustrating thing to me – – and when you're trading, "frustration" is something that will often seduce you out of great positions – – was that COF never really seemed to tumble. The feeling among Slopers back then was, "mortgage-related companies have blown up, and credit card companies will be next." But COF only inched down a little, and it seemed to have a disturbing amount of strength and resilience. So I never really stuck with the position very long.
You probably already know what happened:
The point is nothing more than this: great positions can often take longer to come to fruition than you believe. I am loaded to the gills with shorts which, one by one, look every bit as COF ever did, but it would be easy to cloud my mind about how "oversold" the market is. We all need to be more patient, in my opinion, and let well-placed stops – – not emotions like frustration – – be our guide.
