NG trade

Natural gas continued its climb the first couple of days last week, with November futures reaching over 5.30 and the December futures reaching over 6.00. At those prices my contracts were down $1400 and $2500 respectfully. Finally prices began descending Wed, Thurs, and Fri.

On Friday, my November contract almost touched my break-even price of 4.75. With only Monday and Tuesday left before expiry, I decided to sell at the end of Friday at 4.81, for a small loss of $150. I didn't want to risk holding over the weekend, just in case prices went up. (Remember, even a 0.20 rise would be a $500 loss).

Today (Monday), prices continued their decline with quite a large drop. November closed down 27 cents at around 4.50, with 1 trading day left. So if I had held on just one more day, I could've turned a $500+ profit. Oh well, things could have gone much worse, so I'm happy getting out when I did, considering where things were at just a week ago.

The drop was nice because now my December contract is down to 5.20. I had planned on taking a large loss on it, but who knows, it might actually go under $5.

Anyway, after this trade, I think I'm done with trading pure futures. Too risky and too stressful. I know, I know, I only made 1 trade. And I'm glad it didn't go exactly as planned, or else I may have fooled myself into thinking it was easy money. But all is not for naught! The setting up of my OptionsXpress account was all part of a larger plan to eventually reach my trading destiny, which I am now ready for... and I'll leave that for my next post.