Mistake: Not Checking Quantity

Today I made another mistake, and it cost me 50% of my profits.

The mistake was that I forgot to check “quantity” when I created my sell order for my open options trade.

Luckily, the trade itself was green and I made a profit. I am annoyed that I made this mistake however. While I had set the quantity correctly previously, I ended up closing and re-opening my order window – in the process, the system defaulted back to “1”, so when I didn’t check at the last second, I ended up only selling “1” of my open positions. By the time I realized what had happened, my PUT options scalp had deteriorated. I quickly sold the remainder options for even. Nevertheless, the trade itself was good, so I’ll go into that below.

Stock: LCID
Catalyst: SEC probe into company.
Trade: SHORT via PUT Options

OptionOrderPriceCommission
DEC10 21 39 PUTBTO$2.660$6.45
DEC10 21 39 PUTSTC$3.350$5.70
DEC10 21 39 PUTSTC$2.640$5.70
The last row was a mistake! I should have been out already!!
Notice the 2nd sell red arrow – this was a mistake – I should have already been out of the position.