Playing Defense

The market has pulled off a couple of big down days in a row. Until recently, my positions have weathered the storm pretty well.   I'm still sitting on big profits. My stops should prevent a shark bite -- a single loss greater than 2% of portfolio.  As I see it, my biggest risk is having the market take out a number of my stops in short period.

The nasdaq shows 3 big day down days. But it was encouraging that it rallied about 29 points after hitting the lows on the day.  I caught a bit of the move day trading FB for +.60 move.  I don't like to day trade but when the move stalled I figured it was better to get out than to wait to see if the move continued tomorrow as FB was beat up pretty badly over the last week.

Given the choppiness, I've reduced my HCLP position by 1/3 and my RFMD  position by 1/2.   I completely closed LULU after my attempt to buy down was taken out.  There was a reversal towards the end of the day and the position would have worked out better.  But in choppy markets it is more prudent to take profits faster.