Closing February

I did well today. Well enough to bring my account barely green for the week and to new account highs by a smidge. I'm actually a little surprised at this. I was sort of braced for old patterns of death spiral, but I think I'm in such a much better place with my trading these days (ironically said one day after I took my account -12% and back again).

All done today by 10:10 and I left my Plum Trades account on autopilot. Then I had the rest of the day to spend on Purim and Shabbat prep. Felt like I had so much time on my hands. The trader lifestyle.

End of February stats: 

ytd gain	83.63%
ytd w/l days	67.50%
ytd avg daily %	1.67%
month gain	51.89%
month w/l days	70.00%
month avg daily %	2.29%

Up $125 does not tell the whole story

The whole story is I was -$5000 and back today. Heart attack on wheels, as I like to say. 

What happened? Is it because I have neglected to annotate charts lately? Will do it now. All of them. Ugh.

I think on days like today, I try to make something from nothing. There were no trades. My setups weren't really there (arguably only the TWTR calls). I tried pulling trades out of my sleeve. I need different techniques for that. Ex: today I found myself trying to use the Meir Barak technique not to sell on spikes, but to then put the stop beyond the spike. I think that just led me to bigger losses today.

Market is weakening, and there is more volatility. It's hard to find my setup - things breaking from a base - because everything is just so wrecked that nothing is basing. So I'm trading things that are nms, maybe that's part of why my usual techniques aren't working. 

This tells me I should be developing more sophisticated plays for more volatile markets: reversals? oversold? etc. Maybe look at SmithInTheBlack for ideas? 

Definitely, I should be trading SMALLER, which I didn't do today. And I should be stopping, which I also didn't do well today. Do I like shooting myself in the foot?

I'm remembering the feeling from last spring, where I was "right" but wrong timing or couldn't hold on. I need to figure out where to tweak my system, and meanwhile not lose money or get toxic.

For starters, the markets:

TWTR Breaking above consolidation, very strong. Calls didn't work. I gave too much room. Not sorry I tried puts, but that didn't really work either. Wipeout on the add.

TLRY, calls (on what setup?), followed by puts. WAAYYYYY too much size, about 3x my usual. wtf?!

TDOC, cute little trade that I didn't let ride bc spread. I sold my best price at $6.70. Later in the day it went to $19 (without me). I got my piece. Lucky, considering I wasn't supposed to be in something that spready at all.

PLUG went a long way to saving my day. But again here, I was in really scary big.

MT was basic looking for continuation. I like how I waited for the entry, but the daily setup wasn't great.

Last and least (lol! see what I did there?), I became possessed to jump into AMC puts (tiny position), and then immediately became chicken. Took my first immediate chance out green for $43, but it did eventually go to my original target and not to my stop.

Adapting to volatility

What's working so far today: SMALL size, like 1/4 my aggressive size. SMALL targets, 10% vs 20%. Hit and run.

It seems counterintuitive on a big-moving day to take only the smallest trades, but this is how I can take profits, pay myself, keep some gains. 

Lesson is that in higher volatility, I will make LESS money.

Also working today... for a change... StreetSmart Edge!

Small loss on a shocking day

I was prepared for a drop but today's volatility really surprised me. Big gap down. Fast flush. Then steady climb the rest of the day. Was difficult to get an entry. Felt a lot like trying to trade last March during the corona crash.

I did a pretty good job keeping positions small and stopping when I didn't see setups disappointed to have a frustrating and losing day though.

Big loss, new lesson

After a long spate of strong (exceedingly strong?) uptrend in the market, today the momo dropped out. I'm currently at a reasonably/big loss. 

I traded too big.

On a down day, don't trust break out/up. (Obviously?!)

Currently holding one last position that feels too big, esp too big for the spread. Walking away with a bracket on it.... it stopped.

LESSON. In the case of a losing day, the remedy is go smaller not go bigger. Do I need to learn this over and over? When I'm "off", go small.

Today, probabaly esp bc Monday, I had ok-sized losses, just too many and on position size too big. So %-wise, controlled but it just added up too too much red. Need to keep positions smaller on days when things aren't working.