wide spreads but got my piece

No regrets with either of these trades. Both had incredibly wide spreads and I did leave a lot on the table, but I also didn't ride the zags. My goal is "zigs no zags". Just trade the open and then go have a day. That's my best trading - hit and run. Lately I've been sucked into trading all day, whittling down/giving back morning gains and building stress. I don't want to trade like that. I'm allocating myself less money lately so I don't mess around.  

Today there were 10am econ announcements so I knew I wanted to be out before then. 

slow and steady

 Today's goals were to size small and only take opening setups. I made most of the money in AMD (shown) and a little in a tiny SPY scalp (not shown). 

Felt like a very good day, probably because of the small size. Everything just stayed sane. Also the rest of my day felt great. I only traded the morning and the rest of the day was a pleasure. Why do I keep myself in front of the screen, only to take nicks out of my opening gains. Just rake it in and leave!!

Maybe I trade this small for a while and stay sane for a while. There's a lot going on this week in terms of economic announcements and earnings, yet the market remains in an infuriating range. 

vestigial psych problems

 It's been a while since I had a clusterF of a trade like GM where I was in too big for the spread involved and I was afraid to take the stop. Hopefully this will keep me properly smacked in the face for a while. The stop level was clear. Better to take a "bad" loss than this utter waste of money. If it goes back in my direction, I can always re-enter. Or move on to something that's acting better.

Similar problem in LVS, but I was somewhat better sized for the drawdown. Poor R:R on that one, if I were to complain. 

Other than that, quite a very good day with a basic gainer on ON and a nice day-maker on TSLA.

Post holidays

 I'm back. It's been 2 weeks of wonderful hectic with Pesach and the kids around. Today, back to business. 

It was a slim green day today. Was initially up but didn't walk away. Went red, then struggled back to green. I want to get back in the habit of hit and run. If I'm done at 9:45. Great! It's beautiful outside and there are a million other things I'd love to be doing instead of sweating the market all day.

Today I identified an inside market day = don't chase, don't expect followthrough. Add to that, should be a hit/run/and run away! kind of day.

Focus: be done before 10:15. 

risk/size

AMD, nms exactly. Gap down red against green, but didn't go outside. I tried it with full size anyway. I don't think I regret that (on a Monday...). I didn't take full size on the calls, but still made way more that I lost, maybe bc I went 2 otm. Maybe I would have done better with 1 otm (vs my usual atm). Still a decent day.

Another good lesson in. Need to take stops. I would have gotten creamed if I had tried to hold the puts.

1. Puts. didn't cut it soon enough. My gut saw the reversal, but my brain didn't yank the position off. 

2. Calls. Really nice gain. Had fomo shortly after, but really, I got more out of the calls than I deserved bc I skipped my 20%pl partial. I did follow my rules about the second half, and I was glad not to ride down, but can't help wishing for the continuation.  I did follow my rules about stopping to capture a big move like that. If I wanted the next leg, that would have been a reentry, not a hold/wish scenario.

 

red on a strong trend day

I didn't love any picks this morning, except MNST which I have been waiting for it to trade out of this base. I bought and added calls in the opening session (oval). They were monthlies, so they didn't move well and there was some strong 53.5 resistance that was all in premarket. The option did.not.move. And I closed it for flat. Anyway I never would have wanted to hold through that entire midday range. By the end of the day it popped to my target. 

My only regret is that meanwhile the market had a pretty amazing steady uptrend day and I missed it bc Friday. But I also don't regret having my day for other things and avoiding the 0dte mes. It might not have been a mess today? But either way. I had a lot of other things going on.

partials, targets, and whether to hold

UBER spreads were too wide. UBER trade net 0 gain. To me, that's a good example of why taking partials matters. It lets me give the rest of the trade room. In this case, partial loss, then add back when it started working again. Then partial at target, and ultimately I gave it back. Without the target it would have been a big loser.

Ofc in retrospect I see a lot I could have done differently on UBER, including probably should have just passed on it in the first place. The spread was too big .15x.18. Didn't seem like much, 3 cents, but otoh, that's 20% just in the spread. For starters maybe I should have taken a different strike. Or, maybe the setup wasn't compelling enough in the first place to risk it at all.

On AI, taking the target did comfort me psychologically and helped me hold for a higher level. My T1 and T2 were still way above, but at the end I decided I just wasn't comfortable holding the risk anymore and dumped it.

Mom is having some heart stuff, went to the hospital last night for monitoring. BEH will be ok.

 

Yesterday - to hold or not to hold

These trades are both from yesterday/Wednesday. 

First MU. I didn't hold through the resistance level, though it sliced it easily and gave another amazing leg. 

Then COIN, I tried to hold through resistance, and it didn't push.

Maybe the primary difference: MU was a breakout on the daily. COIN had a certain break, but was also still in a certain range.

In other news, I'm trying to set up ThinkOrSwim to see if I can trade there. So far I hate it, just like the few other times I've tried to switch. Schwab bought TDA and I'm worried they're going to discontinue SSE. I'm trying not to get caught flat footed.

 

won the lottery

Held 2 big losers overnight that had gotten slaughtered by the Fed action. One went to zero, the other went +214% averaged across 10 exits. Lucky, but very meaningful for my account!

Absolutely no trading tomorrow = Friday. A day I must stay out every week, no matter how careful I think I will be.

back off track (see yesterday)

3:40 fed day

Sat long in these junk trades all day. Holding overnight. Will handle it tomorrow.

back on track

Today I traded like my best self. Like Clockwork. That's after a few weird days and a freakout Friday. My life is so much better when I don't trade Fridays. Just don't. Please!

TSLA, obvious breakout. A little too tight on the front half stop, but that's the thing about partials... you get another chance on the second half.

On the other hand, I finally got a price target on NVDA, then gave too much room on the second half and watched it deteriorate. Arrows point to better stop places. At least I cut it somewhere bc it kept going almost straight to ndh after that.

outrageous strong day

Mish-mosh here. Not sure I'll have time to spell it out.

Huge day to take notice today. I traded mostly NVDA and QQQ0dte for huge gains. 

Dumping index and nvda charts here. Also wanted to show stochastics on 5 min in combination with one min in context of trend. Maybe will explain another time.

don't like how I'm trading

 Today like yesterday, I opened with losses and spent the day battling back. I don't like spending the day battling back. I'm out of sync on the open? 

Tomorrow is Thursday, going to just take it small and scrape off smaller targets. Would be nice to have an easy green day, even if small, without all the pressure.

Tried BAC short, but mostly made it on IWM puts midday. Can't even annotate, so much scalping around core position. Don't like trading like that.

rainbow day

 Market rainbow arch day. The opening part of the day felt like up is down and down is up, even though the market was steadily trending up. 

I fixated on META and TSLA. They were not moving up in the way the market was. I traded too scattered. 

Also a COIN trade. 

I wish I made more of the META trade, that was the best setup this morning.

Was notably down until about 11:30. I don't like spending the day battling back. I don't even like still being at my desk at 11:30!

Frustrating that the meta and tsla moves went almost right after I gave up. Market seemed to be rolling over and I wasn't expecting them to bump like that. 

I spent almost the whole day underwater, and finished down just $50. But it was a frustrating day.

Thinking about whether I like myself trading like this - small pieces in and out instead of massive hit and run. It's a little more calm in some ways but a little more frustrating in other ways. In general, it gives better risk control and I'll probably do it more. It's a real "pita" for annotating, though!

small size ftw

Wow I had a great day today. I took a lot of trades, but all with small size and that adds up! It's smaller-than-ever size for me, proportional to my account. I really didn't think it was going to pay. But it really helps me control my losses better and that's the road to the gains!

Market is nuts lately with new bank panic/fears in play, govt to backstop or not to backstop... Not sure I understand everything, certainly not all the macroeconomic stuff. 

I had 2 picks before the open, USO for a breakdown and NET was an iffy one for continuation down. I played those for a real decent start on the day. Then started scalping 0dte on indexes (where I tend to go for lack of stock plays). That put me at first back underwater, and then wayyy in the green on the day.

I used to watch just SPY and QQQ on the 5 min for market trend/sentiment/feel. I recently started watching SPY, QQQ, IWM, DIA on 60 (sometimes 15), and it has been much more insightful.

Some of thee charts.

These are the first clockwork trades I took: USO, NET. 

Then QQQ for bottom picking, got a terrific pop.

Other trades today were micro scalping around indexes.

hit and run

Market is extended down. Not my best climate bc usually my setups are pretty played out and I'm not good at reversals. Plus, Friday and I'm getting ready for sheva brachot, can't get stuck at my computer today.

These options were spready and moved really fast. Got my piece by 9:50 and not going to put on any more risk. 

A day to take notice

I think the uptrend is cancelled. I think today was "a day to take notice" in the indexes to the downside. 

Other recent days to take notice:

Oct 13, 2022 Bottom reversal bar in SPY. 

Jan 6, 2023 Ignite back up out of higher-low base.

Feb 1, 2023 Above (all but one) trendlines and Nov pivot high.

At that point I declared a new major uptrend. 

Perhaps today it died.

Today was a high volume strong selling day in which we let out levels in SPY, IWM, DIA (major 325 level is gone). Recent relevant bar was March 2, and that is taken out.

Only QQQ didn't give up the ghost today.

I did a lot of trading today. Very nice green day on account in morning trading with notably 2 big wins in JD and with SPY 0dte puts into the close for icing on the cake.

	net % g/l
spy	112.28
jd	89.60
baba	50.12
jd	46.45
coin	21.61
spy	7.73
asan	-8.87
baba	-18.93
asan	-24.86
baba	-30.12
qqq	-55.57

Sampling of the trades...

Neutral day

 Maybe I overtraded today, but I didn't oversize. Took a few small gains. Got a good ride on the morning NVDA bump. Also had several small losers. 

Debating whether it's better to just size up and take what I get, or size down and have lots of chances. 

Heartbreak of the day was I had a target on TSLA short to close when TSLA went to 192.28. Then I had a sick kid and had to run off for an hour+. TSLA traded down to 192.3 then bounced. Reduced my stop when I came back, but only managed to get +4% out of that trade vs much more. That's assuming I would have played it right if I was watching, which also isn't a sure thing. 

I'll call it a neutral day, though it is slightly red on the account.

Tomorrow and Wednesday, Jerome Powell is scheduled to speak at 10am. Not bad tomorrow, it reduces the desire to be at my desk and I can go hear Megilla at a decent time.  

economic numbers, to trade or wait?

Still trading really small size. Esp today 0dte, even though I thought I would trade next week, there was not a lot of liquidity one week out, so I just had to trade it tight today.

Economic numbers today at 9:45 and 10:00 added volatility. Should I have waited until after that time to trade at all? Should I have gotten out in front of it? I don't have good answers. Maybe hold small size to see if I can get through it, then add?

WOW.... I left a lot on the table w META, but got MY trade. If I wanted to hold longer I should have had next week option instead of 0dte

A lot of little trades

The market has been tough lately, and/or I haven't been trading well lately. So it's back to basics: smaller size, tight stop is the right stop, pay myself/lock gains. Today there were a lot of setups compared to previous days. Not that the trade was easy.

No trade day.

Can't remember the last time I had a no trade day. 

A few gaps up into resistance, and the gaps down were all doing the thing where it drops a ton in one bar in after/pre market and then just churns back up all day. Very "up is down and down is up" day. Profit taking. 

SPY and QQQ both re/tested the 200dma today. Has not been fun to trade lately. It's a relief to just be out today. This screenshot as of ~2:20 midday

Nice Monday hit and run

 That's how I like to trade!! Grabbed a half-size position on opening strength. Didn't add. It launched, went strongly through a few levels I had marked. When it did a big green 1 min bar at 9:40 into 121.50 level and couldn't directly continue, I yanked the whole position. Not sorry to be out for the ensuing wide range chop. Hit and run! Heading out to have a great day doing other things.