Freakout! every rookie mistake in the books. -20% day

Lesson of the day, because obviously I haven't learned this before!...🤬
I CAN'T SAVE MY DAY WITH JUST ONE TRADE.

Was off to a decent start. And then I lost my mind. One more trade! One more try! Digging a deeper and deeper hole. And just to make sure I do EVERY trick in the books, I took home an open position (MRNA puts for next week).

So yet again, we review clockwork trading, because this is the only horse I need to ride:
Small positions (I disobeyed this one)
Tight stop is the right stop (I did ok here)
Pay myself first. ...

Pay myself first. I did this on the first few trades, but the bigger the loss the more I tried to hold (vs trim) for more gains.... then it would stop for a loss. Right? As if I've never learned this before? Pay myself first. Don't rely on one (big...bigger... omg!) trade to save my day.

Still up for the week (since last Friday), but down for the month (Wednesday). It's a really painful loss, but I know if I keep my head on straight and trade like clockwork, I can get this back, possibly even next week. Sigh...

I am not smarter than the market.
I am not smarter than the market.
I am not smarter than the market.

Pay myself first.
Pay myself first.
Pay myself first.

Small positions for the win.
Small positions for the win.
Small positions for the win.

backup blog resource

I backed up and "pdf"ed this blog. In blogger I backed up the theme and the xml (uninteligible code).

The surprise TREASURE was the web site https://www.blogbooker.com/ Which was able to create a hyperlinked table of contents and incorporate all the images, etc. into a PDF. I did the free version and I'm very happy with it.

+6% bread and butter day

I traded pretty well today. Felt smooth and clockwork.

In BA, at the same time as I traded properly, I kept hoping for the next big flush. As I write, it's hard up to almost 184. So BA didn't make the move I was looking for, and I was right to not take a big loss over it. Greed does not pay!

zzzzz. LULU paid the bills today. +5% using only half my capital

First trade was LULU. It was my #1 pick today. Grabbed a starter against fomo. Got a chance to add and it launched. Definitely trade of the day.

After that, mostly frustrations. I sat in INO puts and MU calls for seemingly forever, trailing stops but not getting any dramatic moves. On MU, eventually I started shaving off pieces and raising stop on final bit, essentially timed it out green but disappointed.

After INO ended, I allowed myself a small shot at SPG, which failed.

After LULU, was a sleepy/disappointing day. Market is apparently waiting for Fed to speak today. I only used half my capital today, but I'm sure I'm done.

SPY volume bars

Hard to miss the volume pattern over the past few days.

+13% day. Tough start, then got paid.

I came in with long and short picks. I like how I stayed clockwork, even during losing. At a certain point I had a gut feeling like "if this trade doesn't work, I need to stop." Thankfully, it worked, but I need to be conscious of and obey those feelings.


Day started off with SPY doing some volume selling, but OSTK looked like it would hold strong, but quickly gave up.

Next trade on PENN short did well, but the spreads were wide so I took progressive limits and a final stop.

BA was incredibly strong gapping with news. After my first failed long, I stabbed short and failed again. One more shot at calls, which I pieced into to reduce risk. That's when my day turned the corner with a really strong winner on this large-size trade. Something else to note here, is yet again BA shows it's propensity to make a second move outside (grabbing stops and sucking in suckers) before reversing for the big one.

A try at GILD for a small position because it has a history of not doing what I think. And again this time, it was "predictably unpredictable". I don't regret giving it a try, and I was right to be tentative.

Finally, NVAX, another one I went into oversized after an add. Spread was up to $2 on a $6 option, so I had to take limits at the same time as trying to give it room. That mid morning base around 10:40-11:20 was really uncomfortable for me. I'm glad it came out for big gains.