+10% day, but very destructive month

+10% day
But very destructive
-13% week
-53% month

A lot of days I liked my picks, maybe I played them wrong. Overall feeling that "up is down and down is up" where good gaps up sold off and good gaps down were bought.

What I can say about today is I traded small and with tight stops. I traded today's expiration, which is both a good way to gain and a good way to get totally burned. Today I gained, bc picky timing and tight stops.

Today I also used 15% pl target vs 12%. I feel it worked well, and I'm glad to keep shaving off these extra dollars.

QQQ gapped up about 1.5% this morning with FB and AAPL each gapping up 5%+ to ath. Looked gorgeous, but they sold hard and I did a good job waiting and waiting.
The picks that were "supposed to" go down, CVX, CAT, GILD initially ran up hard.

Up is down and down is up.
What is the psychology there? Gap to new ath, so profit taking?
The gaps down were arguably gap below middle range bases, so I can't say gap below strength (see AKAM, huge loser). If anything, gap below neutral.

+8% but missed so much more

Market opened -1%, but the only gaps down were breakout failures from yesterday. There were several amazing gaps up, but I was so wary bc down market day.

Market opened with volatility and I had 2 big losers to start. UPS finally made my day, and then good trade in QCOM, but I traded them too tight bc market was down and I was skeptical. Anyway, I still made a nice day, this 9Av.

AKAM puts from yesterday still riding. they are .20x.40. Could go to zero, I presume. Still open.

Small red day, having lost my gains. Partial still open.

I gave SBUX too much room. I didn't take off enough AKAM when I had the chance, but I think that one will still come back (half still open as I write). I wish SBUX didn't drop out so hard, maybe I had a bit high entry, but the market at that time was so strong, so I thought I was preempting the breakout.

Not such a great trading day, but at least I don't feel like I did something impulsive or wrong that caused my losses. Just a standard small red day of my system.

Update: somewhat bigger red as AKAM remainder will probably go to zero at this point. ugh.

Expensive rookie mistake. -15% day. OUCH!

Rookie mistake: MMM puts, I entered a market order (my usual technique) before the contracts really opened. So #1, the pricing I saw wasn't the market and I ended up taking 2x big position as I meant to; and #2, I got a TERRIBLE price. When it finally started moving down I took some off (not enough, in retrospect) and then just kept eating partials as it went back up.

So MMM was an expensive loss, and I didn't trade anything else during that time so I missed anything else.

When MMM seemed to be settled down, I bought MRNA calls that went against me too.
UGH!!

And now, at 10:45, I'm down pretty big on my smaller-account. I feel that feeling where I just need one big trade.

But what I need to remember is: Today is a market inside day, and my trades aren't working. More trading will probably not make me more money. It will just give me more pain and more toxicity. I need to walk away, lick my wounds and go do something productive with the rest of my day.

update I came back for a SPY short at the end of the day which helped. Small position that did really well, but only a small dent out of my terribly big red day.

Small trades add up +5%, and no more sloppy journaling

A satisfying green day!
+5% by 9:55 on my decreased account size--moved money out to slow myself down and preserve ammo.

My plan for the day was:
4 trades maximum
15% pl target (vs 12%)
Tiiiiight stops

AND, plan to annotate my charts. I think I've gotten sloppy/lazy with journaling as I've gotten sloppy with my account. No more zillion trade days that I'm too discouraged to try to annotate. Need to trade clean and clear, and then it should not be hard to annotate.

So with regards to aiming for 15%, I'm not sure how that worked. Today I think tight stops was more of what helped me than taking targets.

I like how I pressed in and got my $$ in the opening moves. I don't like when I mess around after 10. After 10 should be just trimming and trailing, not initiating.