to have had the extra $1 profits I left on the table but I learned a long time ago to not think that way because its a sure road to misery with an empty bank account. The PRIME DIRECTIVE has served me well, so that I cannot tweak. After my deposit was made and long awaited targets were hit the pressure was off. I could not resist the cattle/hog spread any longer since I've been wanting to be long Dec hogs but nothing telling me they have found bottom. Sold Dec cattle @ 167.10 and bot Dec hogs a few minutes ago @ 86.67.

I have no set risk boundries for these spreads other than my own comfort zone which is generally in the 4 dollar area before my anxiety meter gets the best of me. I do expect this spread to at least narrow back to the low 70 spread but it is always like watching paint dry then BAM its there. Many times 1 side of the spread will do nothing and all the profits are made from the other side, so many walk away thinking why did I even bother with 1 side of the spread. When these spreads get too disconnected like we currently have, the surprise play is both sides giving you the surprise present of both going equally in the opposite direction. I may get lucky and wake up some morning with a $10 launch in the hogs and a $10 drop in the cattle. The Dec/Dec spread is not as consistent as the June/June spread which does consistently give a 20-30 dollar spread profit if I am lucky enough to leg in with my technical guess with June cattle near the highs and apply my June hogs near the lows.

My impatience with watching paint dry always seems to dictate that I leave half of the spread profits on the table but I keep trying to maybe get lucky make a deposit of 70-80% of the profits. I have a few times gotten too impatient climbing on this spread and walked away with $3 gut punch only watch the spread do what this disconnected spread always seems to do but from the sidelines. The magic number this time might be $85 which means I have a gut punch coming that would send me to the sidelines to watch someone else reap the rewards. As they say "no risk, no reward"