FAST OPTIONS TRADING. Fast in/out. Apply trading rules like CLOCKWORK. Have a day. Sleep at night. This is my personal trading journal*.
Trading has felt so good lately. Like I'm in a flow state, everything just makes sense. Is this something in me, or is this a state of the market?
In part, I think it's that I'm taking reasonable position sizes and taking acceptable losses. I'm taking my targets and managing my trades just like clockwork.
I'm not trying to be smarter than the market. I'm synced. It feels good, and I'm raking it in! ...watch out for euphoria! Just stick to clockwork.
A great trading day! Took a harsh loss in the morning (clockwork, but ouch), then found several other trades for a really great day.
Need to post charts, but also need to hustle out right now.
XPEV, BLNK, VLDR, AAPL, RKT
What a day! I opened with huge gains on QS and I really like how I played that out today. Put my account into a new league today!
My other trades today were nothing to write home about, except for overtrading and wanting to hit more homeruns. I like what I did in general, but it didn't play out well.
Also the market dropped out today. A real change in character from the past several days. The momentum left the building.
QS up big premkt and I'm feeling very distracted by it.
Also, despite yesterday's down day I'm feeling maybe overconfident. Also feeling like there are so many huge moving stocks in my screeners.
As a result I've started reading https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/ and maybe it's putting me off my game. Or maybe it's showing me where the action is. Feels frenzied like dotcom bubble.
Not proud of how I traded today. Not excited to take QS calls home. Also took home lotto calls on CRWD (of all things?!).
Ugh!
Today's goal was to hit and run, for 10% and peace. I did 20% in just 10 min. Ba-BAM!
The past several days I've stuck around, trying to push for more and spent a lot of money and psychological capital while churning my account. Today, all around satisfying.
I had only 2 good picks: DOCU and MRVL. Didn't allow any piddling around in not my setup. Got in. Got my piece. Peace!
Not all gains/losses are equal. Some are emotionally expensive.
Another trying day. In and out of these trades several times. Coulda shoulda taken the real big gains from the open and walked. The rest of the day was churn/give back.
Market is all time highs, but not getting much volume and not giving good confirmation...equals chop. At least, I should be on the green side of chop!
Hacked at PYPL today and it cost me too much. More red than green today. Biggest red on PYPL (both ways again, fml!!), LI, BA, and you know when I'm reaching into SPY I'm overdone.
Winners: JKS (from overnight), BA.
UGH!!
Took home one dinky MRNA call overnight. It surged like gangbusters on news. Thankfully I applied a lesson learned the hard way and I dumped it on the open. MRNA traded down from there and never looked back, closing huge down on day. Wish I could say I shorted it, but at least I got a gorgeous piece before it tanked.
But then I got "too cute" with PYPL... including trading blind when my system wouldn't load entirely. Gave back about half my MRNA gains.
A few other tiny +/- trades (NFLX, NIO, JKS). Took home one JKS put.
Here it is! Clockwork Trading... the logo at least. As my self discipline is tamed, as my gains become more consistent, I am nearing my goal of starting a real trading business. Trading in an entity and *paying myself*! I can see it coming into reach.
Red result today. But the day was neither big enough loss to stop nor big enough win to stop. First FUBO calls was too much of a chase. I sacked my day on BNTX loss that was too big (position was too big, gave too much room on failed move).
What I did do right was wait for the CRWD trade, even though I lost, I first looked at it in the opening consolidation (~9:40) which it failed hard out of. My trade was at 11:06, and I didn't stick around to see what might happen bc earnings later this week, so maybe the big breakout is not going to come. .
Made money both ways today, but couldn't capitalize on any big flush or surge.
LESSON: I've learned this before and I'll eat it again, but when the price breaks out but doesn't follow through, then it's a failure and I need to protect capital tightly.
ANOTHER LESSON: Even though I think I took a good opportunity on CRWD
Charts maybe later. Right now I'm a little fried.
I finished by 9:45 with a huge day. Very satisfied. Went downstairs bragging. (Watch out for that exuberance!!)
Checked back later and I had left a lot on the table. Do I have fomo? NO! ...Well maybe a little, but rationally I know that wasn't MY money. I traded MY trade. I got MY piece. I am at peace with that.
NVAX option widened at one point almost $2 spread on $6 option. I can't sit in that. I need to pick a target and take it off. MRNA was a little easier to trade, and I had 2 so I could scale out.
In both cases, I wouldn't have survived the drop after my move. If anything, I would have wanted to trade them again later, and I know for a fact that is not MY trade.
PEACE!
I thought I wouldn't trade today but I'm aware that I have a certain addiction to trading. I went in for "one little trade", and today I'm managed to do just that. In about 10 minutes I made a nice little trade, and I shut it down.
I chopped myself up today, above/below zero "not enough" to stop. My gain made me want to try one more, my loss was small enough to authorize another trade. All I really did was spin my wheels for a modest loss by the time I quit.
I had a nice profitable day, and a great win ratio. Nothing to complain about. I see I left a lot on the table with QCOM and XPEV, but that could also have gone the other way. I can't complain about these gains. Peace!
I can not believe this trade. Best trade (%basis) of my entire career... by FAR!
I started with 3 calls @0.22 for a starter in the second minute. At 9:46, I added 10 calls, which filled at 0.06. Total trade cost $129.67 for 13 calls, as much as I was willing to allocate to way otm calls on tomorrow expiration. Then it was just straight up launch. I took an initial pl target, then just trailed incremental stops along the way. Total gains $976.69, an average of 653%. I can't believe it, I'm sort of in shock. (I wish my swing TSLA call would do this!!!)
With that brag out there, I realize I haven't journaled for a while. I've been chugging along. Pretty good Clockwork.
I'm using a new money management technique to steady myself: I open my account each morning with enough for 2 trades. After 2 trades, I can evaluate how I'm doing, how the market feels, and opt to allocate myself enough for 2 more trades, and so on. This is helping me pause before diving into trade after trade, and stops me from going too big.
Instead of p/l daily % gain that I wish for, I'm hoping just to make a pretty modest $ gain (while not losing!). Sometimes I can do it with the initial chunk (in which case I'm allowed to trade more bc I'm "on"!). Sometimes it's a struggle and I'm glad to slow myself down. Sometimes it's not my day and I can slow down losses.
Why have I not been blogging? No good excuse. Lazy, I admit.
Market up premkt, but gaps down look better than gaps up.
Puts won the day today, for me. BYND, DDOG. One loss, one win on NIO puts.
Market is nuts this morning on weekend news strongly projecting Biden and also very optimistic Coronovirus vaccine news. Market is positively crazy. All trading platforms are having problems. I couldn't get into any of my brokerage accounts. I restarted my whole computer and walked right into an extremely ill-timed Windows update took about 15 minutes right around market open.
StreetSmart Edge (main trading platform) finally let me in well after 10:00, but it wouldn't accept any trades.
It's for the best. I'm walking away for now with my account in tact. Zero gains. Zero stress. B"H
Review trading principles and trade like clockwork: Small size. Tight stops. Pay myself first.
Today premarket, the only "sort of" setup for me was NIO. I also watched BABA and JKS. I noted to myself that on days like this, without many compelling setups, I should probably not trade. As a compromise WAIT.
Waiting paid. I waited for NIO. Took it at a decent entry. It didn't run wild... which I shouldn't expect on a non-compelling day. I grabbed my profits and PEACE!
What comes next? Trading size reduced to not risk opening gains. Should I try to push my luck? I took a starter on JKS short, a bit late entry. Lost on that one. Later, went for it long into new highs after 2 tests, and got a bit on that.
And now, I.Am.Done. Hold on to these gains and go get some other stuff done.
Beauty day today. I'm trying to trade with more focus, more planning, more clockwork. I think I did well today, except for secont try into NIO I accidentally bought puts instead of calls. Closed them within seconds, but ugh!!! And the calls would have been big gainers. Price of carelessness.
Something I did really right was after my first 2 trades were huge wins, subsequent trades were smaller.
Today I made $35 for all my sweat and fears! Not quite enough to overcome the $44 I lost yesterday.
This morning, at least there were a few good looking picks (very few) and I did not overtrade. So I can say that today was just a stinky day. Was also a very narow range inside day on the indexes. LLY made the money (also lost some). Traded a difficult range and wide option spreads until about 2:15. UGH! I hope I don't do that again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmryR1iu9dA
25:40 - lose well / ego.
Losing is not a failure.
Not taking your stop is a character flaw. You lack discipline.
It was a "good" losing day. I held my stops and took my losses. Peace! esp later in the day I saw how much worse...Thats what stops are for.
If anything, I jumped into BABA so early that I didn't see it fill. I couldn't see it to sell it at a nice profit a minute later (as if I would have, but I didn't know how to manage it). Basically traded blind in that opening minute, which I don't like. The bright side, the first opening position was smaller bc it was potentially a chase.
I think I had good picks to day and played them pretty well. ROKU was the one that got away, for a short off highs, but it wasn't clear at the time that the market was going to puke. Or at least, maybe I could have seen that my breakout longs didn't run "right", but that's not enough evidence to short a heart attacker like ROKU.
The part of my trading I am trying to REALLY work on is avoiding the big damaging loses. I have a lot of thoughts on the topic, as this is my perpetual downfall and possibly THE single thing that stands in the way of my dreams.
Today BA was the only possible setup, and was not really my best setup. Still I dug around in it, both ways, ultimately giving away what little gains I had on the week. UGH!
