Late morning moves

Past few days, seems like the market struggles and chops for an exceedingly long time at the open before it finally makes its move. 

Today I hacked in LI and ROST before SPY finally did the job. 

At a point where I thought to double down on ROST, I had the decent sense to remind myself not to go bigger in something that's not working...go find something that is working. 

Another really clear lesson especially of the last few days: keep the losses small, so they're not hard to redeem with winners.

the ugly

Thursday is usually my favorite trading day. But today was tough. I wonder if I should be more wary of Thursday before monthly options expiration, and/or market participants trying to keep everything in a range after yesterday's huge drop.

I eeked out a green day. The good: very small positions. The bad: I overtraded and mostly just chopped around esp in the opening volatility. 

Also the market chopped frustratingly.

Learn: After I made 2 losing tries in the opening minutes, I should have either walked away, or just sat tight for different kinds of entries. 

Ended up trading QQQ both long and short over lunch to make back what I lost on BABA, AMD, FB. 

Another way to know I overtraded? So many trades, and ending so late in the day (1:20!) that I don't want to annotate charts. Picture this... chop/loss/try again/loss/chop/small winner/big winner... mentally exhausted trader.

I think I sit out tomorrow and let the mental crazies wind down.

Phew!

Made a big recovery today. Was down within a whisper of max loss, but closed up nicely. Thanks, again, to bollinger bands for helping me stay in a trade that's working.

A few minutes later, as I write this, the absolute dump happened without me. Did I trade it too tight bc I wanted to stay green? Probably. No regrets about that. It's after 11:30 already. I was in these longer than I like to be, went through some pain first and not going back to the red! 

I respected my levels. Ignoring levels is usually a recipe for disaster. Heard something wise: Have to only trade the now. Can't trade the past. Can't trade the future. Can only trade what is going on right now.

Did I trade the past by squeezing down to preserve gains? Maybe. But the way I look at it is at first, the stocks didn't immediately do what I thought would happen. So if it's not entirely behaving according to patterns, why should I give too much leeway?

Also the market is down 2-3%... why would I assume it would go lower vs bounce? Didn't want to sit with the risk any longer.

eating spreads

Market gap up today, day 3 (reversal bottom, follow through, gap). Based on the patterns into the screeners, even the strongest gaps up are into resistance, or not even overcoming resistance. Trade of the day may be short initial strength.

First trade was BABA calls. A few days ago it broke down the trendline then came back in. I think it might test the resistance downtrend and there is room there for calls. I got in late, and didn't wait around. Loss #1 (C trade). Then I started seeing gappers failing. Reversed to puts, but the first try didn't work (C). Second try I took off highs and got a B trade.

NVDA was also on my list to fall apart on this "up is down" day. I passed on the puts after the second high--though that has been a winning setup lately in general. Finally got in too late and ate the spread there. Second try was the win (B+).

Market volatility continues to be tough, and I'm adjusting by trading smaller. Trading smaller helps me take multiple trys on an idea, while cutting losses small. Of course I love a good A++ day! But B days also pay the bills.

Zigs no zags.

MOCO and DC area traders!  Bring your trading buddies and join us on Tuesdays. This is a friendly professional networking group for individual daytraders. https://meetup.com/potomac-daytraders-network/

inside day

Inside market day today. We've had a multiday/week selloff and a pivot+ft last week. This morning, inside. A pause day? Even so, day ranges are big enough to trade... carefully.

AAPL premkt and opening weakness. Hated it that the bar that stopped me then immediately dropped out. The next few minutes it whipped wildly and I'm happy to avoid that. Even on the 9:45 drop, didn't get to my target. Simultaneously the market and chips (AMD, NVDA) bouncing hard. Have to cut losses and move on.

NFLX is practically unredeemable on daily. Retested high and then puked. I held for an uncomfortable bounce and sort of regretted it. When the next leg stalled, I cut out. Peace. 

MOCO and DC area traders!  Bring your trading buddies and join us on Tuesdays. This is a friendly professional networking group for individual daytraders. https://meetup.com/potomac-daytraders-network/