Disappointingly small gains bc crap

 Market pullback day today. Not a lot of compelling setups. My best pick, and my best gainer was UAL out of the open. After that, I should have walked away, but instead I hacked it down and up on crappy picks, to land up 2% on day. That is a "disappointing green day" for me (greed!!). 

-->Rather than being disappointed that I didn't make "enough", I should be disappointed that I didn't trade well. However, I did learn a good lesson:

LESSON: That feeling that trades aren't giving 20%... that I need to take off pltgt at 10% first. That is the feeling of chasing. If I buy too high, I need to sell too soon to make sure to lock it. If I have a better entry, less chasing, the same exit is better profit. This seems obvious, but the lesson is the smack in the face that I've been chasing too much and trying to redeem it with smaller p/l targets...and moreso, losses.

LESSON #2 (repeatedly learned 🔨): Stop hacking at crappy picks.

UAL gap above some sort of consolidation. I waited for pb and got the move. Good one. The rest were crap. QS was a good setup yesterday. Lost on it yesterday too bc spread and crappy action.

so far, NO good

Up is down and down is up. I think that means profit taking, and not enough momentum for strong followthroughs.

 Lost a lot fast this morning. 

Currently, the trade that could redeem me is still open, QS puts. I've grown 8 gray hairs just waiting out this sideways movement. Bracket orders set. To be continued...

QS also ate me up, to conclude a big down day. 

Too aggressive on a up is down and down is up kind of day. Got chopped.

Tomorrow, half account and half size positions.

Sizing and burns

A topic I think a lot about, how do I maximize the highest probabality trades?

Looking at this p/l, my losers all contained within -20% (and also rational pivots, not just a pl number). But my sizing resulted in a max losing day today. 

How do I use this information to improve my trading? Look in the usual places... greed and revenge! The big lots sold are full positions stopping out. However today nothing went immediately against me. So full positions stopping should signal one or both things:
1. I'm not taking reasonable enough targets off before it goes against me. (true today, I tried to push again)
2.  I'm trading too big that a few of these burn badly.

Tomorrow I'm out for big kid's college graduation! Next week is wedding week, so I hope to trade MT, but WRF I'm doing bigger things!! Baruch Hashem for these wonderful simchas.

A losing day

 Down 2% today. While that is within my tolerance of an "acceptable" loss, it is still a disappointment. I couldn't get traction today. I was down/up/down. 

Was a gap down / trade up day today, but the trade wasn't easy. I was pushing for 20% pl tgt. Not sure that was the undoing, but might pull back on that tomorrow.

TTWO was definitely the one that got away today (net loss), and was on the wrong side of COIN in the early minutes.

Should have been a 10 minute trading day

 Baruch Hashem!!

I made +5% in 9 minutes this morning. Amazing!

Then like an idiot I didn't stop. Wrestled (including back into red ! ) until 2pm, and came out +7%... but not without wasting half my day and a good deal of psychological capital.

Glad to be done. New ATHs!
+19% week over week.

big volatility, big gains

There were some good moves today. I got big gainers and big losers, but best of all, +3% day. I'm getting closer to my account ath from 4/7. That's 5(?) lost weeks when I was losing instead of building. Waste!

No time to annotate today.

Technical analysis as self fulfilling prophecy

 If enough people are watching it and using it, an indicator can be a magnet.

How about SPY today, traded as low as the 50 sma, and closed at the 50ema, by literally a few cents.

B"H gains on a tough day

 Had to ride a lot of volatility for my gains today. The action was "agony" (lol, let's keep some perspective on life here). Made worse that I was trading NVAX with spreads that were out-f'ing-rageous, So I did it to myself.

Market "should" have fallen apart today. Lots of bearish trades, but the volatility was roller coaster. Maybe also bc I picked difficult options. 

volatility $VIX

How does $VIX affect my system? Does it help amplify moves? Does it increase spreads (which is harder for me)? What should I learn about VIX?

Recovering (almost) from a huge loss

Today was one of those days where I think... If I would have only taken the opposite of these trades. 

Market opened with big followthrough gap down, and was broadly bought. I hope today's lows will be a strong pivot for uptrend moves to come.

My balance got as bad as -$3000, and I closed at -$200. Saved to a great extent by COIN long, once the uptrend finally got going.

A draining day, but thankfully not a damaging day.

Tuesday isn't going to be easy (premkt post)

Big down open coming today. SPY -1.3%, QQQ -2%. Continuation down, in a climate of weakness. Well, momo weakness.

Today's gaps down are huge / extended. Lot of pain out there. For me, this is exactly why I'm a daytrader. I wake up this morning, market is getting wrecked, and I'm ok. Yes my long term account is getting hit, but that account has a long term horizon and I'm not sweating stuff like this.

In my trading account, I come in with a clear head this morning. I'm not in pain. I just have to find my best plays and play them my best. 

Word of the day will be patience. I think I should avoid the 9:31 plays and wait for a few bars to reveal themselves, unless I just do it super small. I'm also a little worried that the brokerages/markets will be overwhelmed and I will expect to see the fill problems we saw in January.

Only things on the gap up screener are the leveraged inverse etfs.

Disappointed in +4% day?!

After I stopped out (with more than reasonable gains), 2 of my plays surged. I stopped on tightened stops...Too tight? Not if it would have gone against me! Yet I'm frustrated that I was "right" but missed on more money. 

This is a time when I have to remind myself that I got my piece, and I need to be at peace. I traded my system and got my money. If I start deviating from my system, I'm more likely to lose big than gain big over the long term. 

Let's go to the charts...

Countertrend trading

Zero tickers today for my best setups. Did I take the day off? I know myself. I traded. But also because I know myself, I took half position size and used less of my capital.

Today's setups were weak stocks gapping up into resistance. Lots of those, and I tried to trade them, particularly SQ. Here's some thoughts: opening ~30 min of basing (in which I got chopped or very hard to hold). Breakout (up into further resistance) did not sustain. Trying to short a top reversal also didn't work. 

Somehow (lol, I know how) I managed to make 1% this morning and I'm going to call it done. Caps a stellar +26% week.

Not going to annotate today. Most interesting trades were NVDA for the bounce off ma's, above one daily downtrend line, into resistance level in high 590s and perhaps to get stuck below a different downtrend line. I lost on an early short, but later the 1 min showed a clear resistance level so I went for the long break above. Net negative on NVDA.

SQ gap up on earnings above big red candle, but into daily ma tangle. I traded this both ways, lost both ways, until it finally moved at 10am and that's basically how I made my entire day.

Was not easy money today. Glad for my piece. Peace.

Friday morning

Number ONE: no today options

Jobs report this morning. Market ran up to juuuust below reistance. Gappers up screen are mostly oversold bounces and not gaps above bases. Gappers down also nms.

I have a few picks in mind for other kinds of plays, but... I think I should keep size small and expectations small. I've had a stellar week until now, +24% w.o.w. It would be a shame to blow it by stupid trading today.

What changed?

 Another day hitting amazing numbers. Did the market change? Did I figure it out? Let's not assume I'm so smart. I think the market changed. 

But, I am making an effort to do my best trading. No hacking into any old anything. Only MY best setups. Reasonable size. Easy targets. Then walk away. 

I can feel when my opening setups are expired. That's when I need to stop. Peace. There's plenty to do these days besides sit and sweat the market. So I think the reduced account and slightly bigger positions helps me leverage my specialty, then walk away.

Today's winning management included 10% pl target, 20% pl target, trailing stop. This has worked beautifully this week. Of course it all feels so genius when it's working. The hardest part is when it's not--to swallow my pride and walk away lightly injured and not massively injured. 

Seems like that's why the 10% tgt has been so helpful - maintaining psychological capital. Get that first partial off green, right away.

Today on the screeners I could see the shorts were the hot side. I did take one long in ASO, but the bear bias tells me to be skeptical of longs, and it was frustrating trade with bid/ask not logical and stop for loss.

*With so many paritals, annotating is getting to be annoying. I must stick with it! Annotating is trade review. Trade review improves my skills. 

Mazel?

But is it luck? I'm talking about SPWR, which almost killed me on the short, and then redeemed me on the long. I don't think the strategy was a matter of luck, but the strength of the reversal was more than I anticipated. 

I lost really big on the short. I stayed in it too long and added to the loser. Fatal sins. 

On the other hand, when it showed its intention, I moved out of the puts (too late, arguably) and into calls, which I loaded into strength. And then it launched!

Before that debacle/miracle... I had an excellent trade on UAA, and a little guy on UBER. 

I don't think I'm going to be albe to annotate today, so here's the plays.

SPWR short 9:31, held through the 9:00 hour. Stopped / reversed around ndh. Bracket on last few calls.

Took the 9:35 long to the top

Short 9:53 until 10:00 spike out on tight stop.

Hit and run

Another great day, but it's not because I'm so great.

I can only say that I'm sticking to the best picks. I'm taking aggressive size, but I'm exiting on conservative targets. I think most of all, the market is doing "my" thing. My setups are working. 

Today, it looks like this market will have some harsh selling. But at 9:52 I'm done. 

Again all partials in green. Again today I didn't even use all the capital I allocated to myself. Again today I left a lot on the table. But I am so at peace to have made goal $ in a short time. Limited my exposure. Peace! Go have my day.

Ba-BAM!

Hit and run today. 9:54 am. Up 6%, and I'm going to quit ahead this morning!

Every partial green today. Hit and run!! And I'm done for the day. Gorgeous!

Today I allocated my capital for 4 trades, took 3. 

First target 10% skim 1/5.

Second pltgt 20% skim 2/5. 

Always manually trailing my stop. 

Still have the sensation that 10% doesn't necessarily give me a green trade overall, but I need to be selling into the trade and booking where I can. 10% is a first target for now

The trade management quesiton these days is not the pl targets, but how much to take off. 

Charts later today if I come back to it. In general, the trade is "zigs, no zags"

Newness

 New week and new month. April was harsh. My trading was a real disaster, overconfidence, allowing outsized losses, not restraining at max daily loss. True arrogance and I got the slap in the face I deserved. 

April stats:

ytd gain	72.35%
ytd w/l days	65.48%
ytd avg daily %	0.81%
month gain	-28.64%
month w/l days	59.09%
month avg daily %	-1.26%

I greatly reduced my account. Recovery is going to take some time, but I do not want to see this hole get any deeper. It's so tempting to want to trade big for redemption, but rationally, I am off. The smart thing is to go slowly.

Oooofff

Big down day.

Down week

Down month.

Friday options, fire.

Next week I'll be trading with only 1/4 my account, or maybe paper trade. Need to chill out.

May is wedding month. Probably good to lighten up anyway, because of other stressors. Not to mention lousy trading climate.

Ugh!

Fighting the battle

I traded great today. Felt synced. Took $1/10 acct pos size today. Made an 8% day, and so far a +15% week. Best in a little while, but not enough to turn the month green.

Was the action good today, different than other days? No. I still had frustrations to get even 10% p/l targets. The problem with smaller targets, is even though I lock some gains, the remaining position can still go negative. But that's what the market is giving now. 

I'm trying to not only take targets, but skim partials along the way. It results in a lot of transactions, but it lets me take gains and still ride. I think this is a good way to manage bigger positions. I'm going to try to stick with this for a few days. In the case of total losses it may burn, but in the case where I get my move it will add up and allow me to maximize my capital.

One more trading day in April. As of today, I'm down 8% on the month. My first losing month in a really long time. Even so, my w/l days is 61% this month (vs 65-70% recent past months). What does this tell me? I think it tells me that statistically I'm still working a winning system, but I'm letting my losing days get too big. I feel like I got too big/bad both ways: 1000cuts by taking small positions and not stop additional trading at a certain point, and also getting whacked on big positions. Which is worse? I think 1000 cuts is worse psychologically. Even though small positions should help mitigate bad psychology, that's only true if I stop trading. If I grind all day, then no.

Just 2 tickers

Traded a little bigger today. The frustration with going toooo small is it doesn't add up before the plays fizzle out. Today I took the best looking setups, went a little bigger. Gave first TSLA puts too much room, but managed to recover.

PINS gap below trendline. This was spready and hard to sit with. Glad for what I got.

TSLA relative weakness. Initial short didn't work and took my biggest hit of the day on the 9:38 puts. Calls went fast. Then the short finally set up. 

Neither of these followed through/easily. Nothing seems to go nuts like when the market was so hot a few weeks ago. I'm glad for the strategy of taking smaller gains. Singles. Need to book green, especially if I'm heavy.

Wednesday morning

Fed day. And a lot going on personally. I hope to hit and run today. BEH will be a day with moves. I'm tempted to go a little bigger today in general. Only a few decent setups. Most of all, keep my head. Stay clockwork.

No Hail Marys

(Tuesday journal)

I did pretty well today. Had to keep catching myself and refrain from the impulse to take that "load the boat" trade. I'm temped to take the oversized trade both for revenge or for greed. Oversized trades are a bad idea in both cases. Clockwork - small size, tight stop, pay myself. 

Taking "only" 10-15% feels little disappointing and doesn't give as much cushion, but it's "not nothing" and it adds up ok. 

Get what the market gives. That's my piece. Peace.

Stick with journaling

A green day. Not to $ target, but I got my % target and I can't argue with that. There were a few picks, and I dabbled in a few others. Best gainers, MVIS breakout, NIO reversal. Got hacked in the cryptos RIOT, MARA for mostly losers. AAPL small dabble for +/- flat.

Interesting trade today was COIN. Huge clear resistance 305, but miners struggling and my previous days' COIN trades have busted so I was really skeptical about 305. I waited for a strong pullback and got calls. I went in pretty big ultimately, took some off for 8% ahead of 305. And then came the moment when you have to have trades entered. I had a tightened stop below 305 (even before the bo), and tstop if it went to 305.5. Logic: lots of people watching 305, but such a clear strong resistance, it seemed like maybe pop/drop. In the blink of an eye I saw a bunch of orders execute before I even saw the price move (another reason to enter orders). It popped to 306 and dropped to 301 in a split second. My orders got filled for +5% and +4%. Not the huge winner I hoped for, but peace.

I've been feeling lazy about journaling, but these disciplines will be what helps me grow my account back to April 7th highs and beyond. 

Trade of the day MVIS

Green day. Green week

Phew! I love how I traded today. Finally. A good solid and satisfying day. But I did some things differently that I feel really contributed to the satisfying +$.
What worked today?

Starters, there were a few solid setups for a change. That's the first big deal, right?

Next, I traded really small. And I gave a very tight leash bc I traded today's expiration. I've learned when I neeeeeeddd to use stops, I need to trade small enough to not care about the spread. And, even though I traded small, I resisted the urge to add to losers. I realize I have been doing this more lately. I start with small size, then it holds near my stop so I add (while red), but then I stop, eat the spread and it's a bigger loss. 

A fault today, how did I hack so much in RIOT and NIO? Like I couldn't pick a direction?

INTC - gap down on earnings. Only support nearby was 58, which was prior support and also the 100dma. I know that people like to load INTC when it's down, so don't expect a lot of followthrough. I also know that these very popular stocks trade with wierd options action. Whether it's a little laggy, or doesn't somehow exactly correlate... so use limit orders and try not to be scared to hang in there. Last partial is a little regrettable, but that's why I put in stops when I look away.

KMB - gap down on earnings. Bigger spreads. Really wary of this one. Got in with a decent entry, possibly a limit order. It moved well, but I only wanted to get out on limits, and I got a nice piece.

The rest of the morning I spend hacking in/out of RIOT and NIO. 

RIOT and MARA both gapped to their 100dma. But people love these blockchain names so I tought there was a chance RIOT would run up. When RIOT didn't dump, I hacked around both long and short in a base prior levels. But the continuation move above was undeniable and I jumped in long. Kept a tight leash and had a nice trade, at yesterday's close area, I tried another short and got burned. Then grabbed one last long, before deciding to call it quits on RIOT. Pretty big hack job for just 4% net gain

And NIO. In premkt, NIO was doing big volume and looked ripe, but hadn't moved above yet. I can't remember why I bothered trying the early puts, but the later puts paid. 

morning vs afternoon posts

By the end of the day, I have nothing to say. Trading is frustrating.

This morning, here I am. No really good setups. Plan is same as yesterday. Hang tight. Wait. See what I can scrape out of it. 10% targets maybe. Small positions. Just grab those smidges for green.

Can't trade whole day today (not that I ever want to ...) so I need to hit and run.

no setups

 No setups for me this morning. I'm going to sit here for the open and sweat my swing trades. 

NFLX down to bottom of range on earnings. Maybe that will shape into something, but that will have to be verrrry small trade.

S# not working!

 Nothing is working. 

Now I'm thinking it's these small range days, or at least small range mornings when I'm active. 

More loses today. Even if small, because I'm trading super small, it's so disappointing.

I'm comforted to hear my gurus also saying it's been hard lately, but they seem to be making at least a little money. 

I need to figure out how to be more consistently profitable during this climate.

going into Tuesday

Nothing compelling this morning. I carried MARA puts overnight, which I'm rather regretting right now. That will be the only thing I pay much attention to in the opening minutes. After that, I need to wait for other setups.