sidelines

I didn't trade today. Also no trading tomorrow. I'm in the doghouse, calming down from my tilt. Monday and Tuesday didn't go great, even trading small, so I'm discouraged. Headspace is "nothing will ever work ever again". I realize this is dramatic, but it's not conducive to good trading.

I haven't been seeing my "best setups" too much lately and so I hack around on sub-optimal stuff. I feel like I want to work on different kinds of setups, and/or different kind of screening. I'm really off kilter right now. 

It's a frustrating mental space. Maybe it's not the right climate for my system. Maybe I need new plays in my playbook. 

A little crazy how much the tilt affected my mentality. It's been a while, and maybe I thought that I'm past that. I haven't had a max WEEK loss for a long time. But it didn't happen out of the blue. It came after a series of forced trades and silently (actually, not so silent in retrospect) accumulating indiscretions. I need better checks on that. 

Hoping to corner myself to focus on reading and studying. Maybe working on additional plays. 

Anyway, tomorrow a Friday off is definitely in order.

same mistake - LESSON

Today I made the same poor judgement on BA as I did yesterday(inverse) on QCOM. I'm trying to buy a pullback of the gap/go. But I'm actually going in on more than a pullback. 

Yesterday, QCOM was supposed to be a bear play but it opened with a strong bull surge that I tried to short. Today, BA was supposed to be a bull play but I tried to buy a too-big drop. A drop, not a pullback. I should have passed.

For comparison, QCOM yesterday

penalty box

I'm in the penalty box this week after tilt on NFLX Friday for max loss. It's been a long time since I tilted, but I should never assume I'm immune. I am trading 1/10 my usual size this week, but already I've broken a rule on QCOM by yanking my intended initial stop. Maybe I need to paper trade tomorrow.

What I did right today, though, was trading "best setups". Not that they played out for me, but...

RIVN 

Setup - Gap below level

Entry - Strong open down

Management - initial stop above signal bar. Stopped partial on 2 bar reversal, took smaller target and tighter stop when I got the chance.

QCOM - for a short, but it was inexplicably stronger than the market. Is this one of the stocks people love to buy when it's hit? Or did wells fargo downgrade it so they could start buying?

Setup - Gap below level

Entry - I hesitated over really strong opening move, but wanted to short reversal down below vwap. 

Management - Initial stop 117.93, above mini range. Yanked that, then really tested my luck as market ran down without QCOM. Then WTF did I give it so much room? "Logically" because my gap and go is supposed to go. So I gave it room. But I gave it even too much more room.