BIDU +6%

Daily setup: gap above huge base
Entry/play: long above early 1m pennant
Management: based on $ available, I took one itm call. Then traded scared. Trailed stop, and eventually tightened enough for decent stop/limit.
Psychology: At first I regretted getting jerked out, but ndh didn't hold. It dropped back down to vwap. Much later it made another new high, but I don't mind being out before the flush. I got my piece.

QCOM +17% just so glad for a winner

Daily setup: Gap to new highs
Entry/play: new high after high pivot
Management: target and trail
Psychology: pretty good. I left a LOT on the table (as of 10:20, it trades 92.25 and option would be up 100%), but I would have had to hold for a flush. Just so glad for a winner.

XRX overnight +50% (11/5-11/6)

Daily setup: gap up
Entry/play: preempting new high?
Management: had already run up a lot on daily, and big spreads. Should have passed.
Psychology: F*ing wide spreads, too scared to take stop/market. Yanked a stop limit. Got real lucky holding overnight. ugh.

UBER +1% (Tuesday 11/5)

Daily setup: gap down
Entry/play: vwap test and 1 min new low
Management: trail stop.
Psychology: bummed for loser. so much chop lately. but no regrets when it continued against me.

$BABA burn -20%

Daily setup: preempt breakout of huge base
Entry/play: strong green volume. good pivot. hold vwap. new high
Management: It peeked above important level, but I didn't tighten stop bc 🤑 greed. Finally stopped below level I can't deny.
Psychology: bummed again. BABA doesn't love me again. I imagine I've lost more than I've ever gained trading this pos. I don't regret giving it room, but I definitely am bummed to get the loser scenario vs winner scenario.

XLNX didn't take my piece -16%

Daily setup: Gap up into resistance, no news, market starting to come down
Entry/play: lower high
Management: trail stop. didn't get target, stop on reduced stop
Psychology: bummed. second loser of the day.

$MU I got suckered -8%

Daily setup: volume gap above downtrend
Entry/play: New high after pivot low
Management: Trail stop. I didn't tighten near top, and I didn't leave it loose enough to survive.
Psychology: Bummed. I was "right" but got scared of big red volume bars. I think this is a case of the small chance I'll get suckered by doing the right thing. I'm going to eat these sometimes.

AMGN +39% for lucky AF day 4 exit

Daily setup: nms
Entry/play: entered day 1 on surging above box
Management: I bought high and it reversed immediately.
Didn't stop bc I was in too big. spreads too wide. (I should turn this into a song) . I held it like an idiot for 4 days until I was lucky AF to get out above water on day 4.
Psychology: I can't even say bad here. It was really messed up mentality in every way.

LESSON. Aside from the other previously known/learned/ignored lessons or intoobig/spreadstoowide, This option, WAY in the money on expiration day, had close to ZERO volume. The spread was 25%+ just in the spread. Impossible to get filled.

This whole trade was a bucket of luck poured over asinine behavior.

FB toe in the water -24% YESTERDAY

Daily setup: Gap above base
Entry/play: new 1 min high after pb
Management: didn't get a target. Trailed stop.
Psychology: Bummed! another loser. Not painful $ loss, but frustrated my system isn't working.

MSFT -35%. I'm in a slump

Daily setup: gap above huge base
Entry/play: instead of buy 1min new high, I waited for a 1 min inside bar for a pivot (hm?)
Management: I was looking for few-day run, so I got Nov 15 calls. But it just kept fading and I had to dump it.
Psychology: Bummed. I feel like I'm in a pretty big slump lately. I thought this beautiful setup "had to" behave right, mkt making new all time highs today, etc. Another loser.

weekly wrap

I've fallen sorely behind on journaling. Trades this week:

Mon/Tues holidays

Wed, 10/23 TXN puts. Earnings gap below uptrend. Got off a smidge for +28%, remainder jerked against me fast for -8%

Thurs 10/24 TWTR calls. Earnings gap/vwap play +12% on tiny position

Fri 10/25 AMZN lotto puts after earnings -100% (should have done the vwap play, calls, instead!!)

After a month of holidays, looking forward to returning to nice steady trading next week.

KO +91%

Daily setup: gapping above high downtrend
Entry/play: postO, trading back above vwap
Management: combination of targets and squeezed stops. Many exits trying to optimize/preserve
Psychology: fine. a really nice trade, but doesn't do much to offset NVDA loss.

NVDA lost my pants

Daily setup: holding from yesterday, setup = praying
Entry/play: na
Management: going for broke? as of 1:00 I have an order placed, in case of miracle, but currently sits at zero.
Psychology: Today's psychology on this was fine. I essentially wrote this off yesterday.
Catastrophic.

Lesson: I went in too big to stop (greed!), and I ate it sooo big time.
Control position size for sanity.

BYND stabbed at it -37%

Daily setup: Rolling for another down day into June gap
Entry/play: preempt ndl
Management: trailing stop
Psychology: Hoped this would nosedive, like the market was doing, like NVDA was doing to me. Instead this one whacked me also. Small pos, but still a slap in the face on an already painful day.

NVDA huge pain, took it home

Daily setup: no freaking setup
Entry/play: opening bar surged. I bought next bar new high. *this is not an appropriate technique for nms
Management: P/l target should have been what turned out to be high of day, but I got greedy and had my order 5 cents above. so I didn't fill. Then I stopped, painfully. Then I didn't stop ndl. Then I added. Then I didn't stop sensibly....then I took it home. Bottom line: no f*ing management to speak of
Psychology: Horrible. I'm riding on only luck, and so far I have a HUGE dent in my account. Literally praying for this to gap >200 and run tomorrow.

NVDA relative strength +32%

Daily setup: relative strength play on market turn
Entry/play: market turning up, nvda relative strength and volume after good move yesterday. Very small pos to not mess my already good day
Management: After the flush to vwap and back, bought small box, stop below box. Almost shook out on tight stop to not mess my already good day. When it surged to p/l target I squeeaed and trailed stop.
Psychology: Excellent. Small pos for bonus money after 2 other really nice trades. I think this has a lot more in it, but I got my piece. Peace

TTD not my setup. +23%

Daily setup: nms, high volume reversal of yesterday bar, under 50 and 200 on daily
Entry/play: short after first leg down then rest.
Management:  initial stop above pivot. got p/l target, then squeezed stop.
Psychology: ok. Wide option spread, maybe wasn't quite small enough bc that. Plus stock very jumpy. I think I got pretty lucky on the target. Squeezed stop saved me a heart attack even though it went to my ultimate target much later (time decay would have negated that anyway). No regrets.

ADBE on back up system +13%

Daily setup: Gaping down into/below mess
Entry/play: waited a good few min for it to make a ndh then turn down. Small position bc trading without all my usual tools.
Management: My primary computer wasn't working temporarily on the open. I watched charts on TradingView and trades on phone. Initial stop above day high but was watching to move down quickly. Target. Then stop.
Psychology: Good, except for nerves about unusual computer setup. That's why I went smaller, for sanity.

NVDA -20%, followed by lotto

Daily setup: gap and trade above resistance, postO
Entry/play: after it flushed and came back, based a few min, bought a surge.
Management: It immediately struggled. Initial stop below flush. Raised to below the few min "base" I bought. Stopped on a hammer, but then went down MUCH more. Mistake here was going too big after BABA beautiful winner. I almost sacrificed my day.
Psychology: Ok. Bummed to lose a lot of previous gainer. I went too big on this second trade after first win. Should have gone smaller to preserve more. Good move to raise stop. Friday, etc.

PS- after I stopped on hammer, I took lottos on next min above hammer, bc fomo. As of 10:30, not looking great.
Update, eod. Went to zero.

BABA +32% so fast

Daily setup: Gap and trade above W, postO
Entry/play: surge, 1 min pause, buy next high
Management: Initial stop below previous surge bar, but needed to move it up quickly. P/L hit quickly. Yanked a smidge when it stalled, stopped the rest.
Psychology: Good. Very good. Was a risky entry (Friday? Hello?) but BH it went ok.

FB lotto stopped -$25 (dollars)

Daily setup: lotto for move above fin resistance, strong market
Entry/play: testing resistance, pullback and going again
Management: Lotto sizing, and usually I'd play it "double or nothing" but I got chicken about it and set a bracket and walked away. It stopped.
Psychology: Fine. Bummed I didn't win the lotto, but didn't get hurt on this trade nor my good week.

NFLX +12%

Daily setup: Strong opening move, then base. postO
Entry/play: 1 min move above base
Management: Market had surged and also basing. Market looking to move, this looking to move I got calls. Initial stop below base. Stopped 1/3 on tight stop below recent few min. Reloaded when it strengthened again. P/L target (didn't sell at first trigger, when I feel like I used to get better fills), then stopped on squeezed stop and last bit on wider stop (these executions didn't seem to time lag more than I'm used to. didn't notice about fill quality)
Psychology: Good. Nice calm trade by the book. I wished it would fly, but It didn't fly in my timeframe and I got a good piece. PEACE

BABA +4%. Is this what commission free trading is going to cost me?!

Daily setup: Gap down below bear / pullback
Entry/play: after initial high, below 1 min reversal bar.
Management: I planned to go small. I'm working on sizing based on conviction. Initial small position triggered my limit order but it didn't fill had to stop partial. Next spike up, reloaded. Next spike down, greedier limit also didn't fill. Left my stop high and got ripped off. Reloaded again. Next time put a price trigger market order, which filled poorly. Rode it up again, setting stop, trailing stop, and another really terrible execution on my stop.
Psychology: OK, since I was never in too big at any given time. Mad about slippage.

Schwab, I used to love you. Are you going to rip me off on slippage now? You made more from me on slippage today than you would have made on commissions. I will keep my eye on this.

MTCH +10% well done

Daily setup: top gainers screen, post open, gapping and holding
Entry/play: sort of a vwap bounce after surge and stabilize.
Management: First of all, small position. Big spread, so even smaller position. Initial stop below recent pivot that bounced even above vwap. My profit target triggered, but limit order didn't fill so I went back into the wringer, though never below water. It never hit my target, so I got a stop/limit and and I auspiciously took off the last part right before the close/drop.
Psychology: Good. Hard to get too upset about a position this small. And that's exactly why to play a trade like this small like I did. Acct total gain today was green but miniature. And sane. By far I didn't use my available cash, but I traded sane and scraped out a few dollars. A good day.

UBER +1% thanks to zero-comissions. Itchy fingers trade.

Daily setup: Post open, volume mover screen
Entry/play: pennant coming to tip. calls based on gap up and market holding up. Trading on phone, postopen, itchy fingers means only super-small position
Management: This isn't even a setup for a lotto, although I took lotto sizing. I hoped to get maybe a few tens of dollars profit on this trade. Instead it stopped for a literal sliver. BUT, thanks to first day of zero commissions, this was barely green instead of barely red. Thanks Schwab!
Psychology: Good. I really wanted to trade today, but had a morning commitment. On the subway home, I played this little guy. Even if it would have fallen apart, I would have been ok bc lotto sizing. That's the way to handle the itchy fingers trade.

PEP +44% after lucky AF

Daily setup: preempting new all time high. nms. no good reason. not even volume
Entry/play: revenging tesla? nms at all? too big. today's expiration totally stupid
Management: I played this huge position like a lotto. I could have devestated my account.
Psychology: Terrible. See other post. This ate my whole day and caused tons of psychological damage.

5 min chart:

TSLA -54%

Daily setup: NMS. at all. no good reason
Entry/play: already huge selloff, but I tried to short new low?
Management: terrible pick, terrible entry. instant loss. and then I tried again? WTF?!
Psychology: Terrible. Very destructive.
Lesson, learned again the hard way: I can't trade anything. Trade only my high probability setups.

Remedies to failures

I respond better to cues about what TO do, vs what NOT to do.
So I have reframed today's failures into remedies.

Failure	Remedy
DONT TRADE FRIDAYS.	Take Fridays OFF
I arrived late. Trades starting at 1030 are by definition NMS	Only trade my setup. My setups are on the open. Only trade opens.
Don't trade today's expiration	Fridays are DAY OFF.
Positions too big	Trade reasonable size, to stay rational
Yanking stops	Stops are for safety
Swearing	Reduce size to reduce emotions
Hoping for luck to save me	Proper pivots, proper entries, proper stops
Forfeiting my day to the market	I like trading fast and having my day.
Money burning a hole in my pocket	Cash is safety
Not walking away after first small loser	After a loser, go SMALLER, not bigger.
Revenge trading	Trade only my setup, or walk away.

Raw emotions

Such a huge mess today.
Two unnecessary trades, both terrible. Occupied my whole entire day and really cost a lot psychologically. End of day was small loser but midday I had been down devastatingly much more.

I will log them properly over the weekend but I want to comment on my emotions while it's still fresh.

At the close yesterday I had made my weekly target almost to the dollar. I don't really want to trade on Fridays but usually I find it irresistible. First fatal mistake.
DONT TRADE FRIDAYS.
Just don't F-ing trade on Fridays.

I arrived late. Second fatal flaw. My trades are out of the open. Trades starting at 1030 are by definition
NMS.
All the more reason to skip Fridays.

Third fatal flaw: Trading today's expiration. That's really getting too cute. Fatal.

Add all the other fatal flaws, terrible habits and detrimental behaviors:
Positions too big
Yanking stops
Swearing
Hoping for luck to save me
Forfeiting my day to the market
Money burning a hole in my pocket
Not walking away after first small loser
Revenge trading

Thank Gd I got lucky at the end of the day. If I had a critical loss, I would have deserved it. But I got off cheap for my indescretions with a small loss.

FB -19%. A waste of $34

Daily setup: nms. Tradenet called it out as a potential, but I played it my own way.
Entry/play: After 1 min surge and flag, I tried to buy hammer pb.
Management: stop below hammer. Phew! so happy to have stopped out before the market duuuumped on 10am announcement.
Psychology: After excellent TSLA win, I thought about packing up. I should have. Even though I went small and waited for a "good" entry, this was just a waste. Thankfully not a big waste, but not my setup, not my timing. Just a simple case of money burning a hole in my pocket and getting too cute.

LEARN: when trading post-open, be aware of economic calendar!
Also learn: after a super good opening trade, go ahead and pack it up.