indeterminate

Today's open seems bearish. No great setups again. Do I have to trade today? Can I stop myself? Maybe this is my remaining major weakness... No great setups in the morning, why not spare myself the grief and walk away. Barring that, keep it extra picky -- I'm already not being picky by being here, hm! -- extra small, one "best pick" and get what I get. Examine why I would even try!

MU is an eh' setup on the daily. Nice gap down, but just into the middle of a traffic zone. Don't expect followthrough.

I waited out the opening move. It failed vwap and I shorted. But it didn't followthrough (see previous paragraph). 

Picks I did not take: AAPL, NVAX.

Market chop this morning seems as confusing as yesterday's chop. There is nothing more for me to do here. 

This weekend is Shavuot. Chag sameach. Back on Tuesday.

full bull, I missed it

I missed the trade today. Chop open. RIVN didn't pay. Nothing else seemed clear. I watched for a while, and all my paper trades were wrong so I was glad. A little after 10, the market caught a bid and didn't look back all day. Looks like a bullish engulfing on the daily, but very low volume. 

RIVN short on the open. It RIPPED against me. I only had a minute to be annoyed until I was just really glad. It rocketed up all day. Tight stop is the right stop.

love how I traded today

I love how I traded today. I did a little more than my usual premkt prep. Can't go wrong with prep. 

I think most credit goes to trading like clockwork. Reasonable sizing (I'm pretty good at this), using stops (I'm good at this too), taking reasonable profits... that's my challenge. Especially with wider spreads. I need to be satisfied with "good" gains with a limit order--esp on a partial--than eating a wide spread on a stop. Peace!

I like how I read APPS. I might have thought it was a short, but I also saw that premkt it stabbed way below the support and recovered quickly to open just at/above support. Waited for a nice long setup, then grabbed what it gave. 

LAC one of my favorite setups, gap below trendline. I noticed after I was in that I had the monthly option (let's be real, it happens). It traded slow and also opened a spread. I took an early target and then when it just whimpered down after that I squeezed the stop way down. It did go lower later, but I don't regret getting my piece and having PEACE!

CRM was the setup of the day. All eyes on it today. Huge earnings gap up above the low box, but right into some overhead levels. Waited for it to stabilize, then grabbed. And didn't mess around. I had a target of 184, which it did eventually hit, but I was not willing to give back good (not great, but solidly good) gains. so I stopped it tight. 

$STUDY is this a cowardly move, to take profits before target bc I can't stand the volatility? hm. In a certain way, yes. But if I'm going to take small positions I need to get what I can grab. If I scale up some day (when?), maybe I would elect to leave a tiny runner on. But only if it was a very small (10%?) proportion of my original position... after locking good gains. Just for icing on the cake. 

get what I get

No pressing today. I noticed I had been pressuring myself to hit a daily target. I was pressing too much and was starting to "hope". There shouldn't be any hope in my trading. Just like there shouldn't be despair. I should trade the now, what's in front of me, on valid patterns. Take my p/l targets. Trail my stops. Don't get too cute.

So today, a very clockwork day. The market was opening slightly down/inside Friday's strong up day. Relevant gappers up were gapping into resistance, and those mostly China names. No great gaps down.

First I shorted BABA on failing at resistance. Other China names in tandem. Didn't fill at target, so I yanked the partial it at the tightest stop. Tried BABA again with another setup, on a tight leash.

AAPL short, similar setup, failing at resistance. I hesitated at the best setup at 9:33 because there was a strong premarket level slightly below. Shorted the break of that level. No target, but I was able to move my stop down and that's where it ended.

SPY calls. 0DTE. Oh how I love this trade. I need to hesitate before taking this trade. Am I bottom/top fishing? I'm not good at that. I need a better setup. Today I was trying to catch the bottom. On the 1 min there was an igniting bar. I did wait for the pb and new pivot high after that, so I'm ok with the setup I took. But it failed at VWAP and I cut it. Although I spared myself riding to the new low, in retrospect (of course!) I should hesitate on that trade when below vwap.

Bottom line, nice green day. Very sane. Very clockwork. Done by 10:11.