Of course I traded today. +8% but ugh.

Was a great start. By 10:20 I was +7%. Just like clockwork. Traded next week options and small positions. Felt great. Had extra cash, but a feeling like I had gotten my piece.

But then, like an ass, while I'm logging it, I see something else moving. Jump in. Too big. Today's expiration. And lost. So, then I start stabbing around again, getting too cute, etc. UGH! What's wrong with me?! Eventually, B"H, the market shocked/dumped in my favor and redeemed me. But that was stressful.

Stick with peace. Take my piece. Peace.

+8% day. 

-0.28% week over week. I could have taken the week off and saved myself a lot of stress and toxic psychology.

Here's to a new week next week.

-1%. Spinning wheels. Can't I be rich and thin?

Phew this week has been hard for me! Spinning wheels. Overtrading. Today I recovered from max-loss to -1%, but it's not enough.

The market does look hard/choppy, but I have another niggling feeling. I started a diet this week. I'm not eating too-low calories, but I am not eating my old usual foods on the old usual schedule. I have a background theory that every time I start a diet my trading suffers.

Can't I be rich and thin?!

Anyway, I can't trade tomorrow. I just can't. This week has frustrated and drained me. Fridays can be treacherous. I can't take the chance. Down 7% week over week. That's quite enough!

Trade of the day was BA puts 11:05 to recover my losses. And then I still screwed around and lost my green day.

Notes to myself as a beginner

What I wish I could have said to myself as a novice trader...

Amateur day trading is like amateur surgery.
You would never put your well-being in the hands of an amateur untrained surgeon. Would you give your money to an amateur untrained trader to trade for you?
Guess what, you're that untrained trader.

You need an education. You need practice to absorb the education.
(And you're still going to lose money at first.)

Never trade with money you can't afford to lose, and there is a very real chance you could (will?) lose ALL of it.
I say this not just because you really could lose it all (ALL!), but also because if you are scared to lose money you will not trade well. You are going to lose money at first. Everyone pays tuition to the market, so minimize it by getting an education and wading in slowly. 

If you need to get rich quick, this is not your gig.

Draw from all educational resources: books, YouTube, classes, mentors... Flood yourself with information and ideas. Start to pick out what resonates with you, and pursue more of that. Before buying a course, get an introductory education and try to figure out what style suits you. Trading penny stocks is different from big caps is different from trading options.

An education should include:

Intro to technical analysis. Learning how to read charts
How to read a candlestick chart, including price and volume
Support/resistance
Trends, trendlines, moving averages
Multi-timeframe analysis
Screening
Setups

Intro to trade management. Distinct from technical analysis
Opening an account. Brokers, fees, cash vs margin
Familiarity with your trading platform and tools like screeners
Picking what to trade
Techniques for entering (how/when to place orders)
Techniques for managing the trade (stops, targets, adding/trimming)

Intro to psychology
Developing a style
Understanding your tolerances, greed and fear
Defiining and obeying max loss tolerances
Developing self-discipline
Figuring out what you're good/bad at


Looking back, I realize how much of an education I have acquired at this point. To facilitate learning, especially in the midst of active trading, I can't emphasize enough how important it is to debrief, introspect, analyze, and journal every day. Develop a manageable journaling technique that helps you reveal your weaknesses and hone your skills.

I would tell my novice self to go slower. 

Grow agonizingly slowly, vs through painful losses. Losses are part of trading. Newbie losses can devastate you before you can make it. Trading is not a get rich quickly scheme. It may be a get rich slowly scheme, but not if you go broke quickly.
Protect capital. Use stops. Live to trade another day.

-3% day. Ate a stops run and ate a rug pull.

Frustrating day. Opened with great BYND trade. MRNA jerked me. RCL jerked me. NVS was hard to trade so I took small gainer. And then I barfed the rest of my day on AAPL. Lessons: don't trade nms (do I need to ignore this every day?).

In the process of capturing the charts and reflecting, I think it has hurt me recently that I haven't done the work of journaling with the annotated charts. I should make a bigger effort to keep journaling with charts, even if it's a bit of a nuisance... especially when I lose it's like reflecting on pain. But that's how to keep growing and improving.

AAPL

What went wrong here, let me count the ways... 

Jumped into calls too late. Didn't stop "tight stop is the right stop". Didn't stop my whole position, I tried to let it ride.

Then the puts. I started the position at arguably the right time (but why short aapl when everyone watching for ath?). Didn't take the new low flush/reversal stop. Then I added. I was only saved by some news drop. Got some off then stubbornly held the rest.

Totally F*ed trade. 

BYND

This was the beauty of the day. Daily setup beautiful. Bought ndh and it ran in a split second. Yanked the first half on first stall. Yanked the rest on the next stall. This is the kind of trading I want to do all the time.

MRNA

I got jerked out of this. Didn't reenter. Based on the daily setup, I shouldn't have been in it at all.

NVS

This was a great daily setup, but the option traded slowly and with a 5c spread on a 50c option. I had to take target and tight stop. Glad for what I got.

RCL

Daily setup was good. I took first entry late, which made me go smaller and then want to add. I didn't take a target(!?) and then got my stop run out.

Wild ride for net zero?

Another day that come noon I'm nursing one last position that I regret.
This, on a day where again, no real great setups (just LLY breakout). I literally should have taken the day off.

After several trades this morning I was mildly up. I was already done and logging it when I saw the market about to flush. I got too cute and tried to grab one more. The market flushed(yay) and reversed(boo) before I could even close puts. I'm a bag holder and now red on the trade. If it stops I'll have my day gains mostly wiped out. Setting a bracket. Ugh.

Lets review the principles of clockwork trading, shall we?
small size
tight stop is the right stop
pay myself first

UPDATE:
Pure chop the rest of the day. I overtraded in general, and didn't stop while I was ahead. Finished the day +0.75%. Let's call it flat.
Another frustrating day.

So how will I act tomorrow? Of course it depends on the conditions and setups. If nothing looks good, how about a day off?

LLY long was the setup of the day. BA was a lucky shot, well played. The rest was f*ing hack.

Red day, wasted the day away. -3%

A red day that turned out "only" -3% (had been worse), but also cost me my day. I don't like the melted brain feeling when I waste my day on the market.

Opening bias was down, but the market traded basically up most of the day. Opening shorts didn't work. MRNA made its move much later in the day without me.

There was only one setup I really liked today, DOCU. That was my only green clockwork trade. NKLA was a great setup, but a heart attack to trade. Sometimes $1.5 spread on $5 option. 900+ vol on my option, but not liquid at all. I came out net green on NKLA but was not worth the stress on my whole day.

The last pieces of NKLA I held until the close. After 3:00 something made it move. The spreads were so wide on this I never should have been in it. I fell in love with the 60 minute pennant (midday post)

Looks like a red day, tbd

12pm and I'm still sitting at the screen with my last open position, NKLA, a loser.
If my stuff isn't working in the open, I should just walk away.
In fact, today in particular, there was only DOCU setup that I really liked... and that was the only green trade.

This seems like an obvious lesson.
While I'm not at my max loss, my stuff isn't working. It's not my day. Not in an unlucky kind of way. Just, this market action is not great for my system.

Of course as it happens, the last thing I'm in has pretty wide spreads and it will be a huge bummer to stop. But I've learned through many big losses that I need to take those stops anyway, even eating "big" losses, because it saves me from huge losses.

NKLA is currently at the point of a massive pennant. I've got my orders in and I'm going to have to walk away. Will check on it later.