LEN -33%

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap up against bear bar
Entry/play: after opening wobble, established uptrend, I bought ndh/whole#
Management: Initial stop hit quickly after b/o fail. bounced off vwap for ndh, tightened stop. Last piece stopped on worst-case stop.
Psychology: Ugh. What was wrong with this trade? The melt was on lower volume and I gave it too much room. Simultaneously, market melted back toward day lows (at market ath, though).

WBA lovely +20%

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap way down
Entry/play: short after pivot.
Management: Initial stop day high. Near day low, took a price target, then squeezed stop.
Psychology: Of course I wish I took more off at the price target, and then maybe given a wider stop to get to T2, which it did reach. But I got a nice piece.

SQ loser -25%, then revenge loser, another -38%

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap up into ma tangle
Entry/play: After initial pivot and surge, waited for another pullback then bought calls next surge.
Management: Stopped below signal bar. F! Then it based just like BABA yesterday and surged again. But meanwhile, the market started dropping out hard. I thought this would reject the daily ma tangle so I took a small put position after bullish pb/pivot and I ate that one too, including giving it too much room.
Psychology: Really bummed to not still have my calls when it finally ran. Looking at the chart, I picked the wrong stop, by just a few cents. I feel like sometimes I'll eat those and sometimes I'll be really glad to stop, so I need to comfort myself that I did my thing correctly but it didn't work this time. However, there was NO good reason to take the revenge put. I should have waited for a new long signal instead of rushing into puts.

Gave back my MU gains. Booo.

MU beauty +31%

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap up
Entry/play: very strong open, buy above 1st 1min candle
Management: Initial stop below 1 min candle. Price target, then trailed/squeezed
Psychology: Good. Dropped hard after my final piece and I'm glad to not ride those...even if it went bonkers higher after that, I got PEACE.

BABA +25%. Gut trade

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: Volume screen mover. The daily setup is NMS.
Entry/play: Volume mover caught my attention. Used premarket levels (.42) for bo level. Opening bar down big volume, second bar hard reversal up to .5. Waited for another pb, and on strong run back up I preempted ndh.
Management: Had to go down again, and after some minor bouncing, I added on strong green bar, then trailed/squeezed stops.
Psychology: No regrets!! I got my first sell a smidge early, then got nearly top tick on the rest. I got MY PIECE. PEACE!

Musing about stock drama

What I'm looking to trade is a 1 minute surge. Drama!
I want to be in and out fast, and within the opening ~30 minutes of trade. So I'm looking for stocks that are going to make a profit-worthy surge out of the open.
Which stocks might move like that?
Something with a catalyst. This is showing that there is a "rationale" that people are reacting to.
Something opening out of a range. This is showing that something significantly different is happening. These stocks might dump quickly. I can't jump on those trains. I need a rational pivot. Or pass.
What constitutes a pivot? If the stock gaps down, I want to see a temporary move up. Not just dump. I want to see the shorts cover, then buying exhaust, then I'm in for the renewed selling.
Opposite for gap up. I want to see temporary move down. Not moon launch. I want profit takers to get out, selling exhausts. Then I'm in with new buyers.
What constitutes "drama"?
Today I thought the market gapping down against/below strong bull bar was sufficient drama. But yesterday's strong bull bar was all time high. So maybe gap down below all time high isn't sufficiently scary for drama.

GS 2 trades for net +8% (based on p/l)

TRADE 1: -2%
Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup:Entry/play: gap against bull bar, back into base
Management: waited for tradable pivot, entered arguably too early, could have waited for a cent or two below signal bar.
Psychology: OK. I think I should have taken half off when it stalled at ndl, or squeezed more on half... in retrospect. But, glad I was trailing my stop. Not to trail it would have been HOPE, and I don't trade on hope anymore. Just system, even if the system has nuance.


TRADE 2: +12% on luck
Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap against bull bar, back into base
Entry/play: after getting stopped out, it gave a bear candle, so I tried to go short again against that bar. But I took calls instead.
Management: Tight AF stop. Above vwap squeezed on half. Trailed up other half.
Psychology: Frustrating. On one hand, frustrating to take the calls when I meant for puts. On the other hand, I was blessed to make money on that instead of what would have been a big loser. Thankful for luck here.

NVDA -38%

Trade my best setups or PASS.
WAIT for pivots to stop against.
Take MY PIECE. Peace.

Daily setup: gap below bull bar. Relative weak day yesterday (market new ath). Overall, not my best setup, in that it never left the base yesterday, and gap down was still within noise area.
Entry/play: short after pb... top tail at premarket resistance for pivot. Should have waited 2c more to get below signal bar, would have kept me out of this trade.
Management: stop above signal bar
Psychology: ok. followed my plan. Small position so big %loss was not big $loss.

AMD +19%. Peace.

Daily setup: 123, gap.
Entry/play: waited for pivot
Management: Stop below pivot. P/L target, and squeeze stop.
Psychology: Terrific! Great start to the year. Healthy trade, green right away, straight to target, then held my gains.
After I sold, it dropped below most of the stops I had along the way, but then it went bonkers. That is not a regret. I got MY PIECE. If I had extra money, I see where I could have re-entered, but I never should have tried to hold. I did it exactly right for me. Good form. Healthy psychology. PEACE.

Happy New Year 2020

This year my trading vision will be 2020. Cliche of the year, but it is my goal.

I want this to be the year that I solidify my skills into a top profiting trading year, using good form and healthy psychology.

How?

Trade my best setups or PASS. (good form)

WAIT for pivots to stop against. (good form)

Take MY PIECE. Peace. (healthy psychology)

FB money burning a hole in my pocket loses 41%

Daily setup: long term trendline break
Entry/play: surge, pullback near VWAP. I entered wrongly. I tried to preempt the VWAP bounce and priced it with the money I had left to trade with. I should have waited for stochastics to cycle all the way down. If I had, I would have lost less or I hope I would have seen the dip and passed altogether.
Management: first stop was sort of random, since I didn't buy against a decent pivot. Second stop was against a pivot buy my trade trigger was set wrong so I sold it even farther down.
Psychology: first trade today was huge winner. I went small into this one by force of funds availability, but I should learn from that lesson, after an amazing trade, go small and don't ruin the day. I got what I deserved here for playing it wrong. I'm just glad I didn't ruin my day bc of it.

CAG +86% and left sooooo much behind

Daily setup: gap above box on earnings
Entry/play: 1 min new high
Management: This surged so hard I couldn't edit my order. Front half filled before I could edit the order. Second half I took off WAY too soon. I bought .3, sold .45 and .7. It went pretty smoothly to at least 1.7 as of this moment. 16% stock surge almost straight up.
Psychology: I got my piece, and I'm so happy. I couldn't have anticipated it going this bonkers.

The way to hold this trade is NOT to hold and hold. I know those can go painfully against me. The way to have held this trade would have been to shave off smaller chunks.

FDX +19% feel good trade

Daily setup: gap below box
Entry/play: short after flush and pullback
Management: I didn't jump on the 1 min entry. I waited for VWAP test and for stochs to cycle. When it didn't quite make my T1, I tightened stop on half. When it made ndl, I squeezed.
Psychology: This trade felt terrific! I was green almost immediately. Had a very clear pivot to stop against. I like how I waited.

I'm back! MU +5%

Daily setup: gap up (extended)
Entry/play: On purpose I arrived at my desk a few minutes in, so as not to get involved in Monday opening chop. Nice entry: after thrashing around, it tested whole number then bought the move above.
Management: I hoped for a 20% p/l target. I could have gotten 12%, but I tried to hold on. At first with a wider stop, but after an uncomfortable retest of vwap I squeezed my stop. Update: after another 15 minutes of chop, I could have gotten my target.
Psychology: No regrets about not waiting out the chop, that could have gone either way. On the other hand, I'm not in the mood lately to take singles (10%), but that's really what I should do for parnassa. AND maybe what I REALLY should do is press the one minute trend with a squeezed stop and not give any leeway on the front half.

These things go together. I can't take smaller parnassa then give wider stops. If I tighten my game, I need to tighten both sides.

M accidental calls paid off +22% b"h

Daily setup: Melnick pick for a short 2/10 conviction
Entry/play: I jumped the gun on his entry. He didn't enter, actually (imperfect setup), and I bought calls accidentally instead of puts.
Management: Initial panic, then set stop and a target, and squeezed a win out of it.
Psychology: BARUCH HASHEM, I can't tolerate any losers right now and He gave me a winner. I can't call this anything but hashgacha pratit.

BYND not my setup! -39%

Daily setup: nms. none, really, Meir Barak was talking about it and I got too cute
Entry/play: short after test ndh and bounce back down (lacking volume)
Management: yanked stop, gave it too much room, it surged against market drop and I kept holding. Poor technique in every way
Psychology: Bad. NMS, gave it too much room. gave up most of my DIS gains on this stupid thing.

Repeat after me... I can't trade just anything... I can't trade just anything...

DIS +45% textbook

Daily setup: gap above flag
Entry/play: long after pivot
Management: trail stop, tightening near target. Exited on tight stop, then on raised/tightened stop.
Psychology: Good. Textbook beautiful trade.

SPY -6% peace

Daily setup: strong day surge. today expiration
Entry/play: above high resistance level
Management: trail stop
Psychology: A loser can still be peace. Yes I missed the move I wanted, but I also did not want to do the pullback, which was an unknown at the time. If anything, I should have waited on the entry. But most of all: small loss. lesson learned. peace.

NVDA +34% peace

Daily setup: Gap above high box
Entry/play: 1 min new high after pivot
Management: trail stop, p/l target then squeeze stop
Psychology: good. I got my piece and peace. If I was going to give it a little more room I could have had more, but that's not my play right now. My play is for gains, and peace.
AND, it was so nice to get solid gains, early, and go have a day.

psychology / focus

I feel like I've been floundering recently. A lot of greed/fear (LOSING mentality) and not using the "got my piece" WINNING mentality.

So, I'm concentrating my focus. I'll say it right now, I'm going to leave a lot on the table. I'm not going to get homeruns. I'm not going to try for homeruns. I'm going to try for success.

That means losers don't hurt. Targets are taken. Return to peace.

JWN -18%

Daily setup: gap to top range after flush
Entry/play: 1 min run up after drop
Management: didn't take hod which was box resistance. Suffered the rest of the day and the rest of the crappy things I do.
Psychology: crap

psychology/mood post

Is it coming across? I'm annoyed. I'm trading greedy/scared/swearing... These are glaring warning signs that I'm not chill.

Need a reset. Need to take a series of singles. I'm not going to repair this quickly (greed), so I need return to strings of success.

Next week is Thanksgiving week. I'm going to take the whole week off. Seriously.

LK -65% on stabbing around

Daily setup: recent flier. gap up to new highs
Entry/play: preempt ndh
Management: gave it too much room.
Psychology: just fing aggravated

TSLA -27% all kinds of wrong

Daily setup: gap below high flag
Entry/play: puts after opening drop and stabilize
Management: didn't take p/l target, then after a pullback I got scared and tightened stop too much
Psychology: too big. too scared. didn't take p/l target and so I missed my price target when it got there. I already know trading tsla to go one strike out to help slow it down for me, but I really played this too emotionally.
Update, I also stabbed at calls in there, for a loss. Efffff

AMD +23% missed the big bite

Daily setup: pullback day (along with market) after recordbreaking run up
Entry/play: postO, preempting ndl when market also weak.
Management: too early! had some pain before it came back down (recurring theme). So then I was spooked out at breakeven on half, and didn't have guts to hold for my whole target, which it did eventually reach.
Psychology: Glad for a winner, but I don't like trading scared. Means I'm in too big, I guess.

LRCX +10%

Daily setup: gap below high box
Entry/play: turn down after surge
Management: spreads, ugh. In the first min or two, I could have gotten 2.7 for 20% p/l target, but I "wanted" 3.0. Missed it and went through torture (plus 50% loss, approx) before it came back in. Then squeezed stop/limit.
Psychology: Bad. Big spread problem, known to me. Need to take limit orders and be satisfied in that environment.

NOW +108% toxic gainer

Daily setup: Gap up
Entry/play: postO, after a really volatile open, new high after stabilization. Very big position for my account size.
Management: Terrible. Didn't trail stop well (big spread) and yanked it. Didn't take target. Took it home. Exit day 2 at my original dream target, but with a blind limit order. I can only call it lucky bc I got top tick on a whipsaw.
Psychology: Greed and luck = toxic gainer. This is one of those trades that skews my mind. I didn't take a decent gain opportunity day1 bc wanted more, yanked stops. Day 2 got fing lucky.

NVDA -15% day 3 exit

Daily setup: Previous day rinse, entry day surge, within high base
Entry/play: postO, ndh. kind of a chase
Management: um, not good mgt. yanked a few stops. Tried to yank one day1 stop, and luckily I wasn't fast enough bc would have been fatal. Day 2 it went hard against me, day 3 I got lucky and got a surge day (vs total destruction).
Psychology: terrible. broke lots of rules including not trailing stop into a gainer. sweated this trade for 3 days. DON'T

NVDA beautiful dump +95%

Daily setup: relative weakness, surge failure, nms
Entry/play: preempt ndl
Management: trail stop. Only one put so when it got close to a conservative target, squeezed stop.
Psychology: great. Being on the right side of a dump is fun!

QCOM +44%

Daily setup: Gap above high flag
Entry/play: new 1min high
Management: combination of targets and stops
Psychology: ok. Bummed not to have taken more at 2nd target (greed), but glad as always for the stops