Career best trade. Unbelievable!

 I can not believe this trade. Best trade (%basis) of my entire career... by FAR!

I started with 3 calls @0.22 for a starter in the second minute. At 9:46, I added 10 calls, which filled at 0.06. Total trade cost $129.67 for 13 calls, as much as I was willing to allocate to way otm calls on tomorrow expiration. Then it was just straight up launch. I took an initial pl target, then just trailed incremental stops along the way. Total gains $976.69, an average of 653%. I can't believe it, I'm sort of in shock. (I wish my swing TSLA call would do this!!!)

With that brag out there, I realize I haven't journaled for a while. I've been chugging along. Pretty good Clockwork.

I'm using a new money management technique to steady myself: I open my account each morning with enough for 2 trades. After 2 trades, I can evaluate how I'm doing, how the market feels, and opt to allocate myself enough for 2 more trades, and so on. This is helping me pause before diving into trade after trade, and stops me from going too big. 

Instead of p/l daily % gain that I wish for, I'm hoping just to make a pretty modest $ gain (while not losing!). Sometimes I can do it with the initial chunk (in which case I'm allowed to trade more bc I'm "on"!). Sometimes it's a struggle and I'm glad to slow myself down. Sometimes it's not my day and I can slow down losses.

Why have I not been blogging? No good excuse. Lazy, I admit.

Puts on a green day

Market up premkt, but gaps down look better than gaps up. 

Puts won the day today, for me. BYND, DDOG. One loss, one win on NIO puts.

Market goes nuts. I don't trade.

 Market is nuts this morning on weekend news strongly projecting Biden and also very optimistic Coronovirus vaccine news. Market is positively crazy. All trading platforms are having problems. I couldn't get into any of my brokerage accounts. I restarted my whole computer and walked right into an extremely ill-timed Windows update took about 15 minutes right around market open.

StreetSmart Edge (main trading platform) finally let me in well after 10:00, but it wouldn't accept any trades. 

It's for the best. I'm walking away for now with my account in tact. Zero gains. Zero stress. B"H

Regroup. Clockwork. Take MY piece.

 Review trading principles and trade like clockwork: Small size. Tight stops. Pay myself first.

APPS one single call, bc spreads. Can't see flag here, but provided decent pivot. Big spread gives big loss on stop.

NIO. Take MY piece. Here it seemed smart.

SQ. I took my trade. Here I missed a big move, but I got MY piece.

Waiting pays.

 Today premarket, the only "sort of" setup for me was NIO. I also watched BABA and JKS. I noted to myself that on days like this, without many compelling setups, I should probably not trade. As a compromise WAIT.

Waiting paid. I waited for NIO. Took it at a decent entry. It didn't run wild... which I shouldn't expect on a non-compelling day. I grabbed my profits and PEACE!

What comes next? Trading size reduced to not risk opening gains. Should I try to push my luck? I took a starter on JKS short, a bit late entry. Lost on that one. Later, went for it long into new highs after 2 tests, and got a bit on that. 

And now, I.Am.Done. Hold on to these gains and go get some other stuff done.

Nice up day, even though error trade

 Beauty day today. I'm trying to trade with more focus, more planning, more clockwork. I think I did well today, except for secont try into NIO I accidentally bought puts instead of calls. Closed them within seconds, but ugh!!! And the calls would have been big gainers. Price of carelessness.

Something I did really right was after my first 2 trades were huge wins, subsequent trades were smaller. 

Another frustrating / hard trading day for lunch money

 Today I made $35 for all my sweat and fears! Not quite enough to overcome the $44 I lost yesterday. 

This morning, at least there were a few good looking picks (very few) and I did not overtrade. So I can say that today was just a stinky day. Was also a very narow range inside day on the indexes. LLY made the money (also lost some). Traded a difficult range and wide option spreads until about 2:15. UGH! I hope I don't do that again. 

Tiny red day. Ate it both ways on NIO.

No good setups on the open. So why did I even trade?

AZN looked decent. My only winner. Gave it back on NIO (twice)

Watch this video over and over

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmryR1iu9dA

25:40 - lose well / ego. 
Losing is not a failure. 
Not taking your stop is a character flaw. You lack discipline.

-6% day. mechanical misjudgements. technically ok

 It was a "good" losing day. I held my stops and took my losses. Peace! esp later in the day I saw how much worse...Thats what stops are for.

If anything, I jumped into BABA so early that I didn't see it fill. I couldn't see it to sell it at a nice profit a minute later (as if I would have, but I didn't know how to manage it). Basically traded blind in that opening minute, which I don't like. The bright side, the first opening position was smaller bc it was potentially a chase.

I think I had good picks to day and played them pretty well. ROKU was the one that got away, for a short off highs, but it wasn't clear at the time that the market was going to puke. Or at least, maybe I could have seen that my breakout longs didn't run "right", but that's not enough evidence to short a heart attacker like ROKU.

Flat on volatile week. BA mistakes today

 The part of my trading I am trying to REALLY work on is avoiding the big damaging loses. I have a lot of thoughts on the topic, as this is my perpetual downfall and possibly THE single thing that stands in the way of my dreams.

Today BA was the only possible setup, and was not really my best setup. Still I dug around in it, both ways, ultimately giving away what little gains I had on the week. UGH!

Fakeouts, and I got burned.

 Fatal flaw. Giving losers too much room. Doesn't matter how good a trader I am if I blow it on oversized losers. Last bits are so close to zero, all I can do is hold overnight and hope I get a lotto win. $OSTK, $NIO.

Frustrating day, my own fault.

 A down day. Bigger than I would like, -12%. My own fault.
Starting with: I didn't get a good night's sleep last night. I showed up for work a bit late, and didn't bother to restart my (flaky old) computer. 

At the open, I missed the NFLX long bc my stinking computer, which was my juiciest play and would have paid so well. I stabbed at a few others, including jumping in tooooo late to NFLX. JD calls got me twice, including the second time when I didn't take the gain because it wasn't "enough" (UGH!!). The biggest loss, though, was BA calls. 

I should bring annotated charts of my losers, but I don't have the heart... another fault.

Why I love daytrading...

 Some people say daytrading is risky, but what I love is the short-term exposure. Make my money, lock my cash. PEACE!

Today near the open I traded BA long based on long term trendline breakout. I had a very nice trade for about 20% avg. Later in the day, I came to check on it, and bc some news it dropped out. My green move looks tiny in the rearview...

Losses recovered. +22% stellar day!

 Ahhh! Tremendous day! B"H

Past 2 days have been bigger losers than I want to have. I am happy to redeem myself today, but I still need a good method for preventing significant losing days. 
I don't like stopping to trade if I still have cash. I need a method to pause, though. Trigger to pause should probably be
If first 2 trades are losers, pause until setups come on the 5 min chart. 
Always stay clockwork.

BA - I know it does this, doesn't launch right away. I bought too early. Today this was a loooong term trendline breakout so I "trusted" it to go. I've been burned before (including yesterday), but today it worked even though the mkt simultaneously traded down.

BYND - Champion of the day! Continuation of yesterday. Jumped on the train because I know the personality of this stock is to runaway.

JKS - Daily is crazy overbought. I tried to short it several days ago, but today Tradenet called it so I tried again. Didn't rinse fast after my entry, and I chickened out for a small loss. It did bounce down from VWAP (47.14), but I didn't try again.

Struggled for flat, then breakdown for -7%

 Lots of volatility with upcoming elections (less than 1 month) and Trump with Covid in/out of hospital. Gap up day on mkt, with a move above a small resistance. Breakouts didn't sustain. Breakdowns didn't sustain. 

I wish I had grabbed more profits while I had them (bigger partials, tighter stops), but I thought it would be a runner day. Why? Do I think every day should be a runner day? What would have made this a compelling runner day?

Red day. Under control. -7% ouch.

A thought on the "up is down and down is up" phenomenon: let's say market gaps down, so people go for shorts, but then the market trades up. Shorts have to cover, sending big green moves into gap-down stocks. But the stocks with original relative strength don't have as much excitement for new longs, so no new buying in down mkt, just maybe some profit taking (selling).

Example today. Market big gap down. Open traded up. I waited well, but shorts (DAL, WYNN) didn't work, and moved higher and higher. Otoh long AAPL didn't work either.

I think I traded right today, except I didn't stop after 3 losers. Next week options. Good position sizing. 

Last AAPL calls (second try) still ride. I'm still hoping! Bracket is set.  (Update stopped for a loss as market plunged)

Need to go build a sukkah (quick! it's tonight!).

1 min, midday

5 min, near eod

up down up. +5%

First hits were up (STM, OSTK). Second hits were down (CAG, TSLA). Third hit made my day back (OSTK).

OSTK was really the star of the day, making and regaining most of my profits. 

I have not been upset to take these big losers. It's a bummer to go from up a few % green to down 1%. Today I came back again, but how will I behave on a day I don't come back again?
I MUST NOT DRIVE IT INTO THE GROUND!

Take my losses. Lick my wounds. And ALWAYS stick to clockwork. 

CAG - was on my gap up list, but gave it up fast for bear engulfing. Missed the short.

MRNA - Daily caught my eye for a reversal. I missed this one too.

OSTK - a lot to unpack today. Top pick of the day for daily pattern so tight, volume breakout today. My general technique is to chase these, but sometimes I get really burned. So this time I took half for starters and added to full when it surged again. So then where's my pl target? This paused immediately after my add so I got scared and adjusted for 20% on my starter vs on the full. The spreads were big so I had to shave into it, when it started perking up again, I added back and though it was tough to wait it out (as SPY dropped!), I did ok, including on that last sell which I was super bummed about... until I wasn't. It is now trading even lower.

STM - new ath on volume. Grabbed it. Took off less than half at the top, regretably, but still closed it green.

TSLA - Daily breakout of steepest downtrend line, but another one overhead. Bought shares in  swing account (to hold), but one call here disappointed.

I left money on the table, but still very satisfied

 I liked my picks and plays today. I liked my trade management. I love my gains (+14%). I left a lot on the table, but on the other hand, I felt well synced with action and like how I managed the trades, orders, spreads, etc. Very satisfying.

BABA Gap above pullback bottom. Enter on opening strength above premkt level. Add on continued strength. Then it pulled back and I got nervous. Lowered my first target. Then shaved on targets on the way up.

BLNK Gap above resistance on massive multiday strength. Enter on drop/recover 50ma and vwap. Big option spread, coulda shoulda taken more off at pl tgt #1 (greed, I took 3/10 vs 5/10). Then I missed T2 bc kid/school. Stop was fine, even though I missed the next leg. I don't want to be sitting scared in a trade. Better to capture gains and move on.

DKNG. Not really my setup. Took a stab bc everything so strong today, but I chased and then got scared so I just yanked it for minimal loss. Didn't try again bc it would still be chasing.

MRNA Gap above resistance. Opening bar flushed (not shown here) and recovered. I entered a small partial. Added on continued strength. Then it went bonkers and I shaved into it.

ZM. Tried to get cute here. Looking for it to give up daily support level/s after strong open. First try, glad to stop and super-glad not to be in for the ndh. Second try didn't flush like I wanted. Stopped for b/e.