More chop

It's been a tough week. Monday holiday. Tuesday huuuuge loss day. Wednesday and today chop for miniscule gains. Tomorrow I'll need to just take it easy. 

Warning sign

I did it all wrong today. Took a chunk out of my account. A few times I gave myself "last trade" (a few?!... Does "last" not have a clear definition?)

I know I could learn a lot by reviewing charts today, but I feel too wounded to even peak at it. Maybe later tonight.

I busted good run today. I need to get a handle on it quickly. 

ROKU got me today. 

Stopped me by a few pennies before running up. I feel like this happens when I ignore the "right" stop (tight stop is the right stop) and try to give it room. I seem to give it not quiiiiite enough room and I get my stop swept before the reversal. 

Knowing this, I give it "more than I think I should" room, but I seem to still get hacked like this. As if it's personal!! AND IT IS PERSONAL. It is my personal message, over and over, that the tight stop is the right stop. Otherwise, I'm in uncharted territory and I derserve what I get.

Computer issues

I've been wrestling computer issues for a few months now. I've bought and returned 3 (4?) computers which didn't solve my problem in various ways. 

Today I'm trying to use for the first time, the web-based version of StreetSmart Edge. It seems good for starters, but I await seeing if it's the actual solution. 

Meanwhile, I intended to trade small today, but it's such a juicy open!  

UPDATE: The data feed at the open felt like a disaster and I switched back to the regular application, which was a little better?? But now I'm going back to the cloud version to see how it feels in the flow of the day (vs "monday" open).

Insight into my recent give-backs and rebounds

This morning I had a beautiful huge up morning, really quickly. Determined not to make a dent in it, I quit. Done! Charts below. Week closes at an account all time high.

I have been pondering what has made me punch myself in the face like I did a few days this week. I think it's euphoria. A feeling of invincibility. The opening trades were clicking so well, that I thought I could just keep drawing water from that same well. 

But the climate changes after that opening volatility. Prefer to do like today, and leave it at that, without meddling in the morning's produce.

I think if I wanted to go back in, after big opening moves, I should wait at least an hour for all new setups. Consolidation. Bases. Maybe turn on bollinger bands. Maybe wait for stochastics to run to extremes and/or align on multiple timeframes. 

Baruch Hashem, I had an overwhelmingly profitable week this week even despite some destructive midday trading some of the days this week. 

The up days are stellar. See how I left a lot on the table today. When it's "my" day, I need to press. When it's not, I need to lay low. HOW TO DIFFERENTIATE??! Maybe I just do my thing, get.my piece and peace. But WFC... bummer, but I identified I was scared, and I did the right thing...reduce.

Peace.

A stellar day!

The market this morning was so HOT! I was up like crazy in the first few minutes. Chopped after that. Stabbed in/out too much again, but less so. For a little while I was enticed by the big position greed problem, but I reigned myself in today and did very well with it.

My worst trade was RMO... adding to a loser problem... in way otm tomorrow expiration. I lost 50% on that. Exemplifies all the worst trading sins: adding down, illiquid option, too far otm for too unlikely a move.

Thankfully a few gigantic winners to overwhelm that one.

Fortunes made and lost

Today I made and lost about $1000 4 times through big positions, market gyrations and GREED. Can you imagine if I would have kept maybe $3000 today? Realistically, I would have make $1000 and walked away happy vs frustrated.

Instead I just kept looking for the one that would get me back. And then I would squander it again. Red day.

Be aware of GREED!!

Surge day

Very profitable but not easy to trade day today. Not exactly clockwork, in that I traded bigger size than usual. When it works, it seems "smart" but when it doesn't work, it really burns!

Took home DOCU lottos. Already extended on 1 min, but the daily bar just broke above resistance near the close. 

flushed it again

I'm having this problem of trying to trade out of my wheelhouse. 

I HAVE A SPECIALTY!

My specialty is to trade gaps out of consolidations... at the open, where the volatility is. I trade like clockwork: small size, tight stop is the right stop, pay myself first.

Listen up, self! Stick to my best trading skills. Don't trade later in the day and flush it away. I don't even have a method for screening for mid-day trades. Anything I do is unstructured and unproductive. 

Stick to my best.

Monday glitches

Lessons from the past few weeks... dramatic opens and the trading platform/s and/or trading servers can't handle it. Avoid big plays on the open.

Today, open down after hot surge up last week. Setups are reversals off launches vs breakouts/down, so I need to wait anyway.

A flat week

Closing out a flat and rather frustrating week in my account, in which, on a few days I made very nice opening gains and then depleted them. Cut profits short. Let loosers run.

I can say I did trade like clockwork. The lack of discipline was failing to "know when to walk away." I squandered my gains. 

Today's trade was to close overnight TSLA lottos. Closed way too early, but was also distracted. 

Stick to opens!

Past several days have been frustrating. I've had nice opens, but second batch of trades knocks me back.

I had been going on the premise that if I'm doing great in the open, then it's "my" kind of day, or I'm tuned in, or whatever, and I keep going. But the 10:00 trades haven't been working. So stop after Round 1. If I come back, it should be much later, after the 5 min setups settle in.

A nice clockwork day gone bad.

Ahhh. Back to clockwork. Best setups. Best plays. And it worked. Flow day. Everything like clockwork. 9:40am StreetSmart Edge platform crashed (with my orders in, and seemed to execute properly).

So now I need to decide: allocate myself more money/more trades? Or call it a day?

Well...fml...I did not call it a day. Currently all the way back down again with CGC(second try,stopped for major pain) and MRNA(nms?! in too big).

Update: And then all hell broke loose with protesters (rioters!) storming the Capitol Building and utter chaos still unfolding. 

Another frustrading day of hacking

What else can I say here (see previous post). Up was down, down was up. I stopped in the morning for small red day, but came back later to make it worse ugh!

I should quit hacking for no other reason than it's a pain to annotate and it's no joy to journal it. Double punishment for losses.

Contingencies. Agressive vs slower markets. How not to lose my pants.

I know what to do when it goes my way: Take off half at +20%, trail stop on the rest.

I know what to do when it goes instantly against me: Eat it at initial stop. 

What do I do in between? This is I think where I suffer. I skim, I add, I get chopped up. I need to think about how to handle this.

Today another struggle day. Up was down (long setups didn't follow through) and down was up (gappers down were bought hard). Let's think about what that means... profit taking? sustained profit taking? How do I know? How do I trade it? Smaller size? Quicker targets? 

I think the answer here is smaller size and flexible targets.

Smaller gives less emotion. 

If I've lately been going 1.5-2x size for aggressive. Need to drop back to 1x size or smaller.

Watch the volume. Watch the Level 2.

Stick to only the most liquid options so I can hold my levels.

If my trade is stalling at 15%, maybe I should take that vs press for 20% pl tgt, especially in chop. Stops are not a good solution, as I can't always eat the spread. Also psychologically, I don't want to always go out on the worst scenario.

Say something to myself like, this is no longer trending, or, this is not the trend I was looking for. ...and find my way out of the trade. But still, when to give up, and when to hang in? Volume. Level 2. Watch the indexes and other movers.

Lack of aggressive follow through

An interesting thought I heard while watching the videos tonight: trading for an aggressive move, but it doesn't give an aggressive move, means scale back.

My treating technique is rather aggressive. Today the aggressive moves weren't happening. I should have dialed it back.

Losing day to open the year

At the open there were a few good picks. The longs didn't sustain (NIO, FUTU, MT). My only short pick (BABA) was my best trade of the day.  At that point I was down very small on the day. And then I started hacking around... making matters worse. What I did do well, though, was take my stops consistently.

At 2 different points, I realized the market wasn't behaving "my way" and that I should be calling it quits. 

The feeling that the trades I was taking "should have worked". This is the sensation that my techniques aren't winning in this market climate. I need to know to stop pressing. At least step back (paper trade!) while it plays out.

But I didn't want to close red. So I dug the hole deeper. My brain should have listened to my gut! 

As I go back through to annotate charts, it seems so clear that my methods weren't working today. I need to recognize those days. Just paper trade against fomo. 

Small losses are cost of doing business. Big losses end careers.

LESSON: Trust that feeling that the market isn't doing my thing, and take the rest of the day off! When I'm losing, every trade seems like the one that will save me, but in reality I'm off kilter and better to stop the bleed.

29 total exits. 8 wins and 21 losses (28% winners).

Good morning 2021!

First trading day of the new year. Some good picks. StreetSmart Edge crash on the open. 

I didn't want to jump in anyway, so restart/recover.

Good luck!

2020 year end gains/review

An up trading day, thanks/no thanks to TSLA. Perfect setup for a really big breakout. I was down several(!) hundred trying to buy dips and stopping out. Finally it chopped (more nicks/stops/adds) and then launched. In the end, I was down too big on it, so my huge green resulted only net +$250. But glad to be back green. TSLA continues to run like gangbusters, but I got my piece (?somehow) and don't want to enter new today expiration here at 11am. Consolation is I have it in my swing account, so I'm getting paid for the whole move.

Trade of the day was FUTU, +50% average.

Also had PLTR for approx flat.

My account is at an all time high heading into 2021. Baruch Hashem!

Next year, I know what I need to do, TRADE LIKE CLOCKWORK:

Small size

Pay myself first

Tight stop is the right stop

This year was very choppy in my account. I can do better! I can control my postion size. I can use proper stops. I can take my gains... I can 10x my account in 2021. Sounds crazy, I know. But the stats are there. If I do my work right, I can rake it in. 

Happy new year. May it be healthy and peaceful. 

Thinking 2021 goals

I'm deciding whether/which goals to set for my trading in the coming year. 

The one goal which is absolute certain is to trade my clockwork rules: 

- Small size

- Tight stop is the right stop

- Pay myself first. Get my piece and peace!

When I follow these general rules--when I trade like clockwork--I trade well and the money comes. 

Other aspects of my trading are more nuanced. More art than science, maybe. Picking my best setups, waiting for good entries. Scaling out. 

In addition to daily balance tracking and narative journaling, I want to add some analysis on my "stats". I have discovered that I can download my p/l to a spreadsheet so that is an easy way to enter trades. I want to track at least my win/loss ratio and hope to sensibly assess that along (ex: how to handle split/grouped lots) with my $ p/l.

To be continued.

Dopamine overdose

I've hit the point of ecstasy this morning, beyond exuberance! My brain can't handle any more dopamine or adrenaline, or whatever is making this feeling! Between my scalping account and my swing account, I have had a huge green morning. I was jumping around trying to manage all the rocket ships I'm riding. I scaled back/locked some in, and it feels pretty obvious that I am not clearheaded to take any additional trades today. 

Market climate right now feels super hot. Morning scan shows only SPAC/meme stocks making ridiculous moves. Is this what it was like to trade in the 2000 internet bubble? Just rake in money every day? Will it burst? Gives a vibe that only retail is trading this week (preceeding Christmas). I can ride the rocket, rake in what I can, but not stick around. Get MY piece and get the heck out!

I must bring charts, but I need to calm down.

One of the things I'm noticing, in QS and TSLA, I let volatility shake me out and I missed the move I "predicted". How do I contrast that to trades where I am "right" to yank it before the target. In part, it depends on the action. Also, this is why I like to take more than 1 option, so I can scale. In TSLA I was just too scared (too big?). In QS, I was deep green so why didn't I hold?

Premkt, only momos

In the premarket this morning, basically only things in my screeners is momo/meme stocks. I need to take it easy, and definitely stick to next week exprirations!

Green to red.

 Was up pretty nicely in opening surge. Gave it all back. 

My picks were good. Opening surge was good. Greed undid me, I wanted more.