Countertrend trading

Zero tickers today for my best setups. Did I take the day off? I know myself. I traded. But also because I know myself, I took half position size and used less of my capital.

Today's setups were weak stocks gapping up into resistance. Lots of those, and I tried to trade them, particularly SQ. Here's some thoughts: opening ~30 min of basing (in which I got chopped or very hard to hold). Breakout (up into further resistance) did not sustain. Trying to short a top reversal also didn't work. 

Somehow (lol, I know how) I managed to make 1% this morning and I'm going to call it done. Caps a stellar +26% week.

Not going to annotate today. Most interesting trades were NVDA for the bounce off ma's, above one daily downtrend line, into resistance level in high 590s and perhaps to get stuck below a different downtrend line. I lost on an early short, but later the 1 min showed a clear resistance level so I went for the long break above. Net negative on NVDA.

SQ gap up on earnings above big red candle, but into daily ma tangle. I traded this both ways, lost both ways, until it finally moved at 10am and that's basically how I made my entire day.

Was not easy money today. Glad for my piece. Peace.

Friday morning

Number ONE: no today options

Jobs report this morning. Market ran up to juuuust below reistance. Gappers up screen are mostly oversold bounces and not gaps above bases. Gappers down also nms.

I have a few picks in mind for other kinds of plays, but... I think I should keep size small and expectations small. I've had a stellar week until now, +24% w.o.w. It would be a shame to blow it by stupid trading today.

What changed?

 Another day hitting amazing numbers. Did the market change? Did I figure it out? Let's not assume I'm so smart. I think the market changed. 

But, I am making an effort to do my best trading. No hacking into any old anything. Only MY best setups. Reasonable size. Easy targets. Then walk away. 

I can feel when my opening setups are expired. That's when I need to stop. Peace. There's plenty to do these days besides sit and sweat the market. So I think the reduced account and slightly bigger positions helps me leverage my specialty, then walk away.

Today's winning management included 10% pl target, 20% pl target, trailing stop. This has worked beautifully this week. Of course it all feels so genius when it's working. The hardest part is when it's not--to swallow my pride and walk away lightly injured and not massively injured. 

Seems like that's why the 10% tgt has been so helpful - maintaining psychological capital. Get that first partial off green, right away.

Today on the screeners I could see the shorts were the hot side. I did take one long in ASO, but the bear bias tells me to be skeptical of longs, and it was frustrating trade with bid/ask not logical and stop for loss.

*With so many paritals, annotating is getting to be annoying. I must stick with it! Annotating is trade review. Trade review improves my skills. 

Mazel?

But is it luck? I'm talking about SPWR, which almost killed me on the short, and then redeemed me on the long. I don't think the strategy was a matter of luck, but the strength of the reversal was more than I anticipated. 

I lost really big on the short. I stayed in it too long and added to the loser. Fatal sins. 

On the other hand, when it showed its intention, I moved out of the puts (too late, arguably) and into calls, which I loaded into strength. And then it launched!

Before that debacle/miracle... I had an excellent trade on UAA, and a little guy on UBER. 

I don't think I'm going to be albe to annotate today, so here's the plays.

SPWR short 9:31, held through the 9:00 hour. Stopped / reversed around ndh. Bracket on last few calls.

Took the 9:35 long to the top

Short 9:53 until 10:00 spike out on tight stop.

Hit and run

Another great day, but it's not because I'm so great.

I can only say that I'm sticking to the best picks. I'm taking aggressive size, but I'm exiting on conservative targets. I think most of all, the market is doing "my" thing. My setups are working. 

Today, it looks like this market will have some harsh selling. But at 9:52 I'm done. 

Again all partials in green. Again today I didn't even use all the capital I allocated to myself. Again today I left a lot on the table. But I am so at peace to have made goal $ in a short time. Limited my exposure. Peace! Go have my day.

Ba-BAM!

Hit and run today. 9:54 am. Up 6%, and I'm going to quit ahead this morning!

Every partial green today. Hit and run!! And I'm done for the day. Gorgeous!

Today I allocated my capital for 4 trades, took 3. 

First target 10% skim 1/5.

Second pltgt 20% skim 2/5. 

Always manually trailing my stop. 

Still have the sensation that 10% doesn't necessarily give me a green trade overall, but I need to be selling into the trade and booking where I can. 10% is a first target for now

The trade management quesiton these days is not the pl targets, but how much to take off. 

Charts later today if I come back to it. In general, the trade is "zigs, no zags"

Newness

 New week and new month. April was harsh. My trading was a real disaster, overconfidence, allowing outsized losses, not restraining at max daily loss. True arrogance and I got the slap in the face I deserved. 

April stats:

ytd gain	72.35%
ytd w/l days	65.48%
ytd avg daily %	0.81%
month gain	-28.64%
month w/l days	59.09%
month avg daily %	-1.26%

I greatly reduced my account. Recovery is going to take some time, but I do not want to see this hole get any deeper. It's so tempting to want to trade big for redemption, but rationally, I am off. The smart thing is to go slowly.