JPM: How to Deal With a Good Trade Gone Bad

When the JPMorgan trading loss news broke after the close on Thursday, I figured we’d be in for a gap down and probably 10% lower prices on Friday.  That’s exactly what we saw.

I’m long the stock for both client and personal accounts – we originally purchased it at 40, rode it up into the 46 area, bought a bit more in the low 40’s headed into this week.  We were up 15% and now we’re down 10% – a profit turned to loss on a gap, a good trade gone bad. Very publicly, I might add.

It’s a pretty small position in our portfolios but it always matters.

We’ve not decided yet what we’ll do with the stock but I know exactly what I won’t do:

A) kneejerk, face-saving average down

B) Panic sale

C) Bitch and moan

D) Pretend I don’t own it

Anyway, I want you to take the last 40 hours worth of bullshit pundit talk you heard on TV or the radio and throw it out the window – it’s a bunch of analysts who’ve never had anything on the line in real life or fake traders running hypothetical hedge funds that exist only in the land of make-believe.

And when you’ve mentally erased all of that slop, watch this instead, recorded before the market’s open on Friday with all of the breaking news hitting me mentally (and financially) in real-time…

From Yahoo Finance: