nicks and cuts

Traded super tight tolerances today QCOM, MSFT, MU. Hard work for a green day that was straight down on indexes.As I write SPY -1.8%, QQQ -2.8%. If there's going to be any kind of Santa Claus rally, it's running out of time.  

I might annotate later, but I need to run out and I don't really feel like coming back to it. Frustrating day.

I guess if I think about it more, tight stop is the right stop, and the problem, if anything was that I picked choppy trades vs the no-bid trades that didn't zig zag so much. How can I anticipate that?

Chasing/flushing

Quickie recap today. Over eager before the numbers and then got flushed twice. Need to spend more time with the psychology book! And definitely I need to keep trading small. I don't trust myself yet.

Chased NKE, came out net even on 80%. Then got stopped before the reverse on the ndl so solidify tough net loss for the position. Why was I still holding all the way down there? I held all my stops, just shouldn't have given so much room (or maybe should have given a liiiitle more room?)

Then I got over-enthusiastic on a TSLA long for a reversal that didn't work, also hit with a flush and reverse. 

Looked at SPY after Consumer Confidence number and thought to buy, but passed bc I was overexposed already. Maybe that was the mistake of the day: not leaving myself room to trade after the number.

harnessing that mindset?

Market opens down again. So oversold I think anything could trigger a face ripping rocket launch. Yet, lots of weakness around the open.

My pick, META for a ST level breakdown. 

Entry after pop to resistance and drop. Again I didn't wait for level to develop enough, but in the subsequent minutes it held ok. 

Management. Initial stop ndh, quickly reduced to the level just above my entry. In a few minutes it flushed. I didn't grab the stall, and it rose all the way back. Continued down, but didn't quite make it to my T1 or pltgt. When it stalled down there I though to grab some off, but reduced my stop instead...only to yank it and then actually get my face ripped off. A +15% went -30. I felt all the points along the way I "should have" stopped. First fatal flaw is always yanking the stop. Why!? I can re-enter if it sets up again. Why am I arrogant like that? 

Knowing I was on the wrong side of META, I started a long even before the short stopped. Got a nice winner on the starter and a loss on the add. 

Then the RISK MANAGER arrives. I want to trade again. I allocate myself the minimal increment more money and get myself another META long. It chops and chops. Meanwhile, it looks like the market is going to roll over. I squeeze the stop on the META calls.

...and also the risk manager allocates another chunk and I open a concurrent SPY short via 0dte (not even 1dte???) puts. This is a bit of a desperate kind of trade, obv. BH it made my day.

PSYCHOLOGY

1. As always, I like the system of allocating money to myself for additional trading vs leaving it all sit there. Guardrail against bingeing.

2. I wish ruthless-trader will always show up! Shrewd entries. Tight stops. Sync'ed with the market. I should name her and try to invoke her. Where was she when lackadaisical-trader yanked the stop from META?

psychology

 I just started reading The Mental Game of Trading.
Here comes a new season of introspection and improvements!

Today, I was aware that META at the bottom was "hard work" but I went ahead and yanked my stop which is fatal flaw #1. Later in the day, I traded more eagle-eyed and I like that version of me when trading. More ruthless. I want to work on bringing that version of me more often. Details in recap post.

new playbook ideas

Breakout gaps has been a hard game lately. There seem to be rare seasons for good breakout gap trading... when the market is trending strongly. Working on other plays so I can trade additional valid plays.

I'm adding to my playbook: breakouts without gaps (trend trade); reversals off extreme daily levels (fade/reversal trade).

Today, Monday morning after a helluva week. Market is oversold but still showing weakness. The play for 4+ days: sell any bounce. 

AMZN setup = level breakdown on volume

Entry: waited out the opening flush. Felt fomo. On the bounce, it went above vwap, and despite waiting for this bounce, I was overeager on the entry. 

Management: It got near my ultimate stop then resumed down, but when it bounced again I got worried about holding full size so I trimmed part for a loss. Then instead of p/l target, I worked with a stock price target (a old/new technique). When it got below my T1 86.31, I squeezed the stop to capture a smidge more. Then stopped the rest on a different tightened stop while market looked to bounce.

Market is so oversold, I'm worried that a bounce will RIP. Later it dropped strongly as the market made new lows, but that's not my money. There is no scenario where I should still been in for the 10:15 bounce. That would be a re-entry play if anything, but I was done.

IWM setup = reversal off support

Typically I am not good at picking tops/bottoms, but in an oversold market like this, I would like to be able to buy support for a bounce. This is a terribly sloppy example. As the market (SPY, QQQ, IWM) was bouncing, I saw that IWM was one that had some sort of relative strength on the 1 minute. And hadn't broken down yesterday's bar. 

Entry: Very late! Watching lvl2 and very tight stop, grabbed 0dte calls. 

Management: Have to trade these tight, and take profits esp bc my late entry. I like what I did (easy to say on a winner). Initial stop below the previous 1 min bar. Sell half on the stall. Tight trail stop on second half. SCALP! Countertrend trades should be given zero room.

aapl long term failure

In terms of sentiment, AAPL is making a lonnnng term trendline breakdown.

AAPL (weekly)