DKS total disaster trade. LEARN. So many lessons

How I wrecked this trade... let me count the ways
Daily setup: gap, earnings
Entry/play: bottom picker. don't do this.
Management/Psychology:

So much went wrong
First of ALL, after jwn trade, I was nicely up. Considered walking away on such a nice day. But F*!
Next, I looked at my picks, and jwn was gap and go. Others were gap and fade. I considered waiting for jwn to set up again, but instead got "too cute" and tried to pick bottom on dks.
Then dks had too-wide spreads, so I was scared to do a stop/market. Should have passed in the first place bc spreads. (do math: 5 calls with 15-20c spread I could lose $100 just on spread)
Then I yanked my stop on dks bc spread. Didn't even try to take the ask.
Then I did take 2/5 off for -26% on those 2.
Then I didn't take break even limit. ("It's going well now, I should just ride it". Mistake.)
Then I didn't take stop/limit
Then it went to new lows and I didn't yank it.
All this time the market is dropping out straight down.
Despair. Psychological damage. Account damage.
Set orders and walked away. Trade in progress.
"Hope" is a 4 letter word.



Meanwhile, JWN ndh... I backed the wrong horse and kept riding. F*!
I'm so deep into this (11am, down 71%) that I am having trouble managing the trade. I feel like I can't stop the 3 calls I still have bc it's down so much. But there's still $90 there. Not nothing. F*!!! 11:09 market bouncing, finally. Please take DKS up with you!

I need to bring this one to the top of my trade reminders list:
ALWAYS TAKE STOPS

Almost every time I yank a stop I regret it. Just don't do it. I'd rather have the opposite: regret the minority of times it doesn't save my butt.

JWN calls 48%

Daily setup: gap up, earnings. Gap off base at 5+ yr lows. Lots of overhead levels
Entry/play: premkt flat. 1st bar sell, then tall green volume came in. Maybe jumped in early to this.
Management: initial stop below day low. Quickly moved up to below entry bar. Tightened 1 when it stalled. Tightened 2 when it stalled again. Last 2 off on ultimate trailed stop.
Psychology: Great. Beautiful. I love how I traded this. I love how it paid. 

SPY tiny pos lotto -25% and lesson

Daily setup: struggling at the top of the box, testing 50ema
Entry/play: volatility bar, shorting for ndl
Management: trailed stop down, but coulda shoulda tightened so I wouldn't have come back so deep into the day range. Or, in retrospect, if I was going to give it room, should have given it to vwap. 
Psychology: The case of $55 burning a hole in my pocket. Greed. Waste of $14 that I lost.

UPDATE/Lesson: after 11:00 spike down, it ran back to highs. Upon re-study of this trade, don't regret getting out. Only learn to tighten stop on ndl so I don't run so deep back through it.

NVDA +18%

Daily setup: gap up volume, looking to trade above long term trendline
Entry/play: waited for pivot. Then looked for break to ndh. 
Management: stop below entry bar, then trail. When it stalled at 9:43, and market was topping, I got nervous and squeezed stop. 
Psychology: Good. Got my piece, and peace. It will always seem regrettable (also on TGT today) to miss the next leg up, but I need to stick with peace.

TGT flat on mistake trade

Daily setup: massive gap up, earnings
Entry/play: I entered by mistake. 
Management/Psychology: I looked at TGT in opening minutes, passed, looked at AAPL and wanted calls on that one. Somehow my interface didn't switch the linked option window to AAPL even though the chart was on AAPL. So, by surprise (!) I had TGT calls instead. What do you do? Some people might jump out right away. I decided to set a tight stop and see if I could squeeze anything out of it. It was on my watch list, after all, and it was acting decent. So I got about net 1%. And I missed the boat on a move that would have given me about 40%. But I think I should call myself lucky not to have taken a nose dive on a mistake trade.

Aug 20 reflections

Reviewing "lekachim" strategic trade reminders helps focus me. Do this every day.
Especially helpful lately is to remind myself to identify pivot before identifying entry.
This trade review blog is important to do and important to review.

Some other reflections on today:

• Don't knock 12% just bc pos is small. 12% gain (or even 7%) is better than taking a loss, and is psychologically way better than trying to ride and fret it all day. 
• Get my piece, and peace.
• 10-20% trades should be viewed as bread and butter trades. Don't knock these. The big ones are fun, but the small ones add up too.

BIDU calls +12%

Daily setup: Gap up, earnings
Entry/play: Gaps up must sell off first. Identify pivot to trade against. Watch level2 for entry.
Management: Saw my pivot after selling, hammer, green volume. Didn't want to jump in on runner bar. Liked the next bar long shadow doji to stop against. Watched level 2 for entry above doji and stop below it. Quickly moved up stop to below entry bar. Stepped staggered stops until it seemed to stall around 113. Market trending down, so I squeezed up stop on both. And a good thing!
Psychology: Good. Got my piece, and peace. Bread and butter trade.

HD calls +34%

Daily setup: Gap up, earnings.
Entry/play: Gap up must sell off first. Wait for pivot.
Management: Initial stop below day low, then quickly trailed belwo signal bar, then below entry bar. When it stalled near 216, It was not at my target, but I'm giving zero tolerance, esp bc market opened with a dump. Watched level2 for clues.  Took off 1 on limit order. Raised stop on remaining one arguably too much or too little bc I gave back a lot then missed the next leg.
Psychology: Good. I wish I lost less on the second one, but I like how I managed the trade. Felt good in it. Got my piece.

Aug 19 reflections

The very best thing I did today was review my "lekachim" list of strategic trading reminders. It helped me focus on proper trading technique. In particular today:

• WAIT for a pivot. stop against the pivot.
• As it pivots, identify my stop. THEN identify the entry
• Trade the ONE MINUTE TREND

I managed both my trades right, but I'm mad to have a loser. This is my "worst" kind of loser: one that never moves in my favor. I was wrong from the get-go. I find it much easier to take trailed stops in my direction, even if the gain is tiny.

MU calls -20% plus lesson

Daily setup: Gap up, sector strong on chip news.
Entry/play: Strong open then pb to good support, trying to bounce. Wrestling with 45 area resitance which is also vwap. Waited for a better pivot. After 1min hammer, entered next bar. Stop below hammer bar.
Management: Should have just stopped both below the pivot bar, but prior stronger pivot was close. I split it, even though close and I ate 2 comissions. Fortunately, this was a smaller postion than AAPL so I am still up on the day.
Psychology: I'm pissed at a loser, but I think I played it right. Even much afterwards, I see it traded 2 more legs down. Obviously it would have been very damaging for me to have held it. The relief of being out is less than the frustration of a loser.
LESSON. I think this is insightful, that I'm more pissed about a loser (in general), than relieved to have been spared a wipeout.
Why do I not dread the wipeout? Why do I not feel relieved to have been spared a wipeout?
Maybe I should examine that intraday setup more. can't see the vwap here, but it was ~45.
**Maybe if the opening pullback breaks the vwap, I shouldn't be so quick to buy a bounce.

AAPL calls +21%

AAPL daily setup: gap up.
Entry/play: opening indecision. 2nd bar new low and back in. trade above 2nd min bar, stop low of entry bar.
Management: Initial target 211.7, then trailed separate very tight stops.
Psychology: Rocket trades are fun. I like how I managed it. Feel-good, profitable trade.