"Thanks for your valuable service, which I highly appreciate, everyday listening or reading your blog is one of the highlights."

"Talking about shorting 30 years T Bonds, combined with the discussions of the ETF might be good as shorting vehicles: Do you have a suggestion for an ETF which might be usable for this purpose?

"I remember that you shorted the Swiss stock index in the summer 2009, I have never seen you have closed that position. Are you still keeping that position? I ask as I have tried to follow your instructions and have kept some ill timed investment and wonder how long time I should keep them. When is it time to cut your losses?

"Look forward to meet you in Singapore.

"Thanks for a very qualified service."

David Fuller's view Thanks you for your kind words, important questions and for the belated opportunity for me to provide some missing information regarding my trading account.

As you know, part of Fullermoney's undertaking on behalf of subscribers is that Eoin and I report all of our personal opening and closing trades and investments, as they occur, where possible. The exceptions to "where possible" usually mean a transaction when on holiday or when a position is either opened or closed after Comment of the Day has been posted.

So I was surprised to hear about the SMI short mentioned above but you are quite right so I am very glad that you asked. On checking my online records, I opened hedge shorts at 5224 and 5239 in the September contract for the Swiss SMI (Blue Chip Index) on 10th July 2009.


I later mentioned that these ill-timed trades were protected with "stops over the recent highs" on 17th August, as you can also see from this second link.


On reviewing my IG Index records in order to answer your query, I discovered that the two SMI trades were stopped out at 6040 on 20th August 2009, while I was on a short rest holiday just prior to my heart bypass operation on 26th August. While I had mentioned my stop loss strategy on 17th August, I should have remembered to report the triggering of the stops when I eventually resumed trading on recovery from the operation.

In answer to the email question: "When is it time to cut your losses?", the best time to assess that objectively is before one actually opens the trade. In other words, when considering a trade, ask yourself at what price you would have clear evidence that it was not doing what you hoped? I would not want my stop to be beyond that point and I might prefer it to be tighter, depending on the chart pattern. In the case of my hedge short in SMI discussed above, I certainly did not want to retain the position if SMI was clearly resuming its recovery. And a hedge short - in my instance as partial protection against a temporary setback in my long-term equity portfolio - was always going to be a short-term trade.

The placing of stops is a big topic and probably the most difficult aspect of trading. However The Chart Seminar addresses the subject in some detail and Eoin looks forward to discussing it with you and other delegates at the Singapore venue on 28th & 29th April.


Regarding the question on shorting T-Bonds via ETFs, there are at least two instruments designed precisely for this purpose. Here is the Bloomberg Description page for the ProShares UltraShort 20+ Year Treasury (weekly & daily) (TBT US), which is geared to give you twice the exposure to the corresponding Treasury Bond. The T-Bond market appears to be sufficiently liquid for it to perform as intended but investors may prefer the unleveraged Rydex Series - Inverse Government Long Bond Strategy Fund (weekly & daily) (RYJUX US).

I will probably stick with the 30-Year Treasury futures contract (weekly & daily) which I spread-bet - a tactic not applicable or appropriate for everyone - which I prefer because of the absence of CGT for UK citizens. Currently, it looks as if shorts are being squeezed, which will suit me if it continues because I closed my last round of shorts too soon and hope to resume Baby Steps selling at a somewhat higher level.