M accidental calls paid off +22% b"h

Daily setup: Melnick pick for a short 2/10 conviction
Entry/play: I jumped the gun on his entry. He didn't enter, actually (imperfect setup), and I bought calls accidentally instead of puts.
Management: Initial panic, then set stop and a target, and squeezed a win out of it.
Psychology: BARUCH HASHEM, I can't tolerate any losers right now and He gave me a winner. I can't call this anything but hashgacha pratit.

BYND not my setup! -39%

Daily setup: nms. none, really, Meir Barak was talking about it and I got too cute
Entry/play: short after test ndh and bounce back down (lacking volume)
Management: yanked stop, gave it too much room, it surged against market drop and I kept holding. Poor technique in every way
Psychology: Bad. NMS, gave it too much room. gave up most of my DIS gains on this stupid thing.

Repeat after me... I can't trade just anything... I can't trade just anything...

DIS +45% textbook

Daily setup: gap above flag
Entry/play: long after pivot
Management: trail stop, tightening near target. Exited on tight stop, then on raised/tightened stop.
Psychology: Good. Textbook beautiful trade.

SPY -6% peace

Daily setup: strong day surge. today expiration
Entry/play: above high resistance level
Management: trail stop
Psychology: A loser can still be peace. Yes I missed the move I wanted, but I also did not want to do the pullback, which was an unknown at the time. If anything, I should have waited on the entry. But most of all: small loss. lesson learned. peace.

NVDA +34% peace

Daily setup: Gap above high box
Entry/play: 1 min new high after pivot
Management: trail stop, p/l target then squeeze stop
Psychology: good. I got my piece and peace. If I was going to give it a little more room I could have had more, but that's not my play right now. My play is for gains, and peace.
AND, it was so nice to get solid gains, early, and go have a day.

psychology / focus

I feel like I've been floundering recently. A lot of greed/fear (LOSING mentality) and not using the "got my piece" WINNING mentality.

So, I'm concentrating my focus. I'll say it right now, I'm going to leave a lot on the table. I'm not going to get homeruns. I'm not going to try for homeruns. I'm going to try for success.

That means losers don't hurt. Targets are taken. Return to peace.

JWN -18%

Daily setup: gap to top range after flush
Entry/play: 1 min run up after drop
Management: didn't take hod which was box resistance. Suffered the rest of the day and the rest of the crappy things I do.
Psychology: crap

psychology/mood post

Is it coming across? I'm annoyed. I'm trading greedy/scared/swearing... These are glaring warning signs that I'm not chill.

Need a reset. Need to take a series of singles. I'm not going to repair this quickly (greed), so I need return to strings of success.

Next week is Thanksgiving week. I'm going to take the whole week off. Seriously.

LK -65% on stabbing around

Daily setup: recent flier. gap up to new highs
Entry/play: preempt ndh
Management: gave it too much room.
Psychology: just fing aggravated

TSLA -27% all kinds of wrong

Daily setup: gap below high flag
Entry/play: puts after opening drop and stabilize
Management: didn't take p/l target, then after a pullback I got scared and tightened stop too much
Psychology: too big. too scared. didn't take p/l target and so I missed my price target when it got there. I already know trading tsla to go one strike out to help slow it down for me, but I really played this too emotionally.
Update, I also stabbed at calls in there, for a loss. Efffff

AMD +23% missed the big bite

Daily setup: pullback day (along with market) after recordbreaking run up
Entry/play: postO, preempting ndl when market also weak.
Management: too early! had some pain before it came back down (recurring theme). So then I was spooked out at breakeven on half, and didn't have guts to hold for my whole target, which it did eventually reach.
Psychology: Glad for a winner, but I don't like trading scared. Means I'm in too big, I guess.

LRCX +10%

Daily setup: gap below high box
Entry/play: turn down after surge
Management: spreads, ugh. In the first min or two, I could have gotten 2.7 for 20% p/l target, but I "wanted" 3.0. Missed it and went through torture (plus 50% loss, approx) before it came back in. Then squeezed stop/limit.
Psychology: Bad. Big spread problem, known to me. Need to take limit orders and be satisfied in that environment.

NOW +108% toxic gainer

Daily setup: Gap up
Entry/play: postO, after a really volatile open, new high after stabilization. Very big position for my account size.
Management: Terrible. Didn't trail stop well (big spread) and yanked it. Didn't take target. Took it home. Exit day 2 at my original dream target, but with a blind limit order. I can only call it lucky bc I got top tick on a whipsaw.
Psychology: Greed and luck = toxic gainer. This is one of those trades that skews my mind. I didn't take a decent gain opportunity day1 bc wanted more, yanked stops. Day 2 got fing lucky.

NVDA -15% day 3 exit

Daily setup: Previous day rinse, entry day surge, within high base
Entry/play: postO, ndh. kind of a chase
Management: um, not good mgt. yanked a few stops. Tried to yank one day1 stop, and luckily I wasn't fast enough bc would have been fatal. Day 2 it went hard against me, day 3 I got lucky and got a surge day (vs total destruction).
Psychology: terrible. broke lots of rules including not trailing stop into a gainer. sweated this trade for 3 days. DON'T

NVDA beautiful dump +95%

Daily setup: relative weakness, surge failure, nms
Entry/play: preempt ndl
Management: trail stop. Only one put so when it got close to a conservative target, squeezed stop.
Psychology: great. Being on the right side of a dump is fun!

QCOM +44%

Daily setup: Gap above high flag
Entry/play: new 1min high
Management: combination of targets and stops
Psychology: ok. Bummed not to have taken more at 2nd target (greed), but glad as always for the stops

BABA -8% coulda shoulda

Daily setup: none, really
Entry/play: 1 min move above nice day low pivot
Management: trailed stop... but not enough. coulda shoulda take half off at struggle around day high, but I wanted more.
Psychology: Greed/disappointment. On one hand I played this right, but I played it like it should have gone up, but there's nothing in the setup that says it should have run. So, I should have taken a conservative target. At least on half.

why so sparse

Hey Fast_Options, why so slow?
I do feel a bit in slow motion lately. Generally, several assorted commitments have eaten my mornings. But that's what I like about trading. The absolute flexibility to live other parts of my life too.

SPY wednesday calls +54%

Daily setup: 123
Entry/play: new 1 min high after pivot
Management: trail stop
Psychology: OK. It moved my way and I got a good gain. Nothing to complain about.

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.