I don't mean to say that shorting Jan-Dec was a bad trade idea either. My best guess (retrospectively of course) is that you got screwed by the flat price tanking. It just sounded like you were second guessing your sizing and/or mental state, which is probably a good thing to do from time to time
I certainly feel that talking with friends (or blogging in this case) is an excellent way to stay in touch with reality in terms of position sizing and stop loss limits. The easiest person to trick/lie to is yourself so having others to talk things through with is nice for accountability. I'm a...
Just my 2 cents worth on the Jun/Dec CL short.
If front month CL continues to plummet as some suggest it will into Q1 2015, this to me implies that increased contango in that spread is more likely than a return to backwardation. I don't know if looking at past ranges of the spread is relevant...