Clockwork Friday +7%. Comfortably intense

Sometime during the session, I thought to myself, "This day is going to be annoying to journal." Maybe that means I overtraded? I did take A LOT of trades. Multiple trades on 7 stocks. I think I'll always wish for a better result, but I must not regret slippage on market orders. Slippage is going to be part of clockwork trading because market orders, especially stop market, is how I avoid the poison of big losses. And trading today's expiration on options... can't stick around for anything!

Maybe this is lazy, but I want to get something posted for starters so...

Didn't trade clockwork today. -13%. PTON wtf and BABA undiciplined

Wiped out my whole week of gains, and payed heavily in psychological capital.
Very emotional trading day today. Positions too big. Emotional trade management. Clockwork nowhere to be found after BABA #1.

First trade BABA didn't go for me. Stop -3%. No problem. Move on.

Next trade PTON jerked me right away, and I was IN TOO BIG. Instead of yanking my pos (arrogance), I bought puts so I could try to hold the calls (wtf?!). Now I'm holding big size in puts and huge size in calls, and it was hard to manage. It moved so fast, and I was struggling to manage both sides. In the end, I was +16% on too-big put position (about 2x what I should have had) and -58% on a wtf-big call position (3x what I should).
Do I need to say, this devastated my day.

So I tried to make it back in BABA. I took a new put position, which I managed poorly aside from it being sized ok. For starters, I let this go way too far against me. I can't even remember if I had a hard stop in (!). Then I got lucky. But instead of taking approx +50% at resistance, I tried to hold for a breakdown (multiday level, 2 days before earnings = stupid) in order to save my day. I shaved off a few smidges, but held the bulk against my ego and of course it didn't save my day, and I didn't even do too well because I didn't trade it like clockwork. Result +10%

Today was a total fail.
LET ME LEARN MY LESSON: 
Clockwork works! Trade like clockwork!
Small size. 
Tight stop is the right stop. 
Pay myself first.


BABA

PTON

Clockwork trading kept me sane and then saved the day. +4% day

First trade in ENPH was a quick winner, but second trade ATVI was a quick loser. ATVI dropped through my stop level before I could get the order in. Then I was scrambling and took a painful/oversized loss. I had decided last night that 5% would be my max loss day, and this put me up against my max loss. I allowed one more small trade, and from there I managed to save my day, mostly with EA. Proving the lesson: small wins and losses cancel out, big wins are the money, don't have big losses.

Kept my head and traded like clockwork, despite the impulse that "the next trade needs to save my day". Really, ticking small gains is what makes (saves) one's day. Tight stops are the right stops. Pay myself first.


ENPH
Gap above red bar, looking for 123 breakout

ATVI
Gap to all time highs. long move above premkt high.

EA
Gap down against new high breakout. Same space as ATVI, I didn't look into news, but watching for inverse?/correlation.

HZNP
Gap to all time high. Got chopped in high base, then took my $.

Clockwork trading paid +3% today

I did good clockwork trading today.
-smaller positions
-pay myself first
-tight stop is the right stop

Very sane trading. Taking targets and tight stops helps minimize emotions. Market was choppy, narrow range today and I'm glad I managed to squeeze something out of it.

SBUX
Gap up / island reversal. Into daily ma's. Passed when I should have jumped, but got another chance later for a few bucks.

FB
Meir called out. Strength play.

BABA
Gap against red bar

AAPL
Gap/strength.

Pay myself first. +6% day. Clockwork.

I should come back to this post over and over. and not forget this lesson. Even if this turns out to be a big day, I should never regret taking my piece. What an excellent hourly rate to make 6% on my account in 35 minutes!

I love how I traded today. I didn't really love any of my picks before the open, but I like this method of clockwork trading

- small positions

- PAY MYSELF FIRST

- tight stop is the right stop

As my account grows, it seemed counter intuitive to take small positions, take off half+ on easy (12%, is that so easy?!) targets, and use tight stops. It seemed like I would leave so much on the table. But you know what... so what? I was having a hard time making (keeping) money using other methods. This way is low emotions, and the small gains add up especially when the losses are small/none. PEACE

TSN

Gap down. Initial entry after surge, watching premarket levels esp 9:29 surge bar. Took off first trade on target and stop. I missed the precise entry when it moved again, but waited for a micro pause and watched lvl2. First exit when it stalled before my p/l target. Then trailed/squeezed stop on the rest.

BA

Gap down. Short failure to bounce. Exit on tightened stop, without reaching target.
This is the best example of the tight stop is the right stop.

BILI

Gap up against red bar. Spread was wide and it stalled at/without filling my p/l target so I yanked it all. I missed the money on this trade, but I do not regret that I stayed sane and didn't have to wait out a loss. 

AAPL

When the market bounced off the bottom, AAPL went bonkers. I refrained from grabbing a runaway train, waited for p/b which was vwap bounce in this case. This pos was big-ish bc expensive options. Trailed stop as it dallied under p/l target but hit eventually. Then trailed/squeezed. G-d I love how I traded today!!