FAST OPTIONS TRADING. Fast in/out. Apply trading rules like CLOCKWORK. Have a day. Sleep at night. This is my personal trading journal*.
Hashgacha pratit. Today (after hitting max weekly loss yesterday) coincidentally, YouTube showed me this video from one of my favorite traders, Mark Melnik, about trading on tilt.
So I looked for a few more.
Gamer context https://youtu.be/kAI9LZHMoZA
Poker context https://youtu.be/B_ifQZ0auZY
"Tilt" is a topic for me to look into more.
Trader life: Took my daughter to the doctor this morning and missed the open. A good day for it, because of my ponderings on trading not my setup.
When I did finally get to my desk, I traded much more carefully, deliberately, successfully. Though I'd say the market wasn't necessarily easier than it's been any other day. I just traded like less of a jerk. And smaller, on fed day.
In other news, I am trying to get my commissions reduced by Schwab. There is a seemingly secretive application process. Hope for the best.
I'm not trading my best setups. Strong wake up call last night when I went to this blog to show some example trades. Very few recently are the setup I claim to specialize in. Eye opener! I'm trading nms. Constantly.
Trading strictly my best setup is something I used to hound on. My system works on my setup. I shouldn't expect my rules to work on a setup they're not designed for. So What! if my setup isn't showing very often lately. It doesn't mean I can trade any old anything. Maybe it means I have to develop other setups/skills. But I can't go rogue!
I've already been aware that I need non-opening plays. Maybe "TTG triangle" is one I should develop for later in the morning. How to scan?
No more sloppy trading!
Thankful to Ethan, Angel, Rob and the DC Traders meetup people, including a terrific presenter Casian(sp?). Wow!! I've missed talking shop with other traders!
Today was first day trading from my new standing/treadmill desk. So far, I'm not in love. It's not comfortable (that's not the point), but I don't think I traded poorly because of that.
Frustrating trading day. EH didn't stay up. I gave it too much room and exited net flat.
AMC I did my fatal mistake again. I picked it for a long (momo breakout). When the long failed hard, I tried puts (overbought reversal). Don't reverse on my thesis, just wait for another setup. And in doing so, missed the moneyyyyyy trade long.
Was a down day yesterday. Wrong side of CRSR and hung in there too long. Nice gains on MARA and NVAX, but net red.
Experimenting with Friday strategy, which can boom or bust. I routinely play with fire, but I need to moderate the types of explosions that can happen on Fridays. Risk control is #1. Trading as if it will only go in my favor is a recipe for disaster, even if, when it does go for me it's incredibly lucrative.
Today I first tried next week expiration, which in this case is monthly options. Surprisingly there was no volume on the trades I was watching and what I took didn't ignite. So I adjusted course. Smaller positions with today's expiration. Scaling in so I don't eat a big loss.
Going small isn't new to me, but scaling IN is not my usual. This might be something interesting to experiment with on other days as well, so I can build some really big positions when it's working.
Closing the week +6%.
Trade of the day was RBLX. I had it both ways. One of my fatal flaws to work on is when something I'm watching for a long starts to fail, I take it short. NO! Just wait for the long to set up again.
Had a sizable down day, and took a loser home. Both problems relate to a spready option that I made cardinal sins on: in too big, on something too spready. Gonna take a pretty big reversal on this guy to recover.
Meanwhile. CLOCKWORK.
As tempting as it is to try to pile in and recover quickly, remember!... dig out with a spoon. Get back on track. Don't be driven by emotion/greed.
Clockwork works. Stick with clockwork. Day in and day out. I will get my piece, and be at peace. Why do I keep messing around, thinking I'm "too smart"? That's how I eat it.
This morning the market is pushing near highs. Most of the gaps up are stocks curling off interim lows, and some meme stocks. It's not the really strong stocks on my gaps up. And the opposite, gaps down are generally strong ones and the crypto/adjacent.
The plan will be to sit tight. Enter small. Tight stop is the right stop. Pay myself first.
Chopped around this week for net -1.5% w.o.w. This is small numbers for me, but still disappointing. Not even for a negative week, but for the missed opportunity of progress.
Market feels difficult again... Also I might be trading like a jerk sometimes. Definitely there was a day where I thought... if the moves aren't coming, I'll take bigger size and smaller p/l targets. And, of course I ate it that day.
Current trading mental challenge is accepting these days that trades don't develop and just sitting out. Ugh!
Phew. Yesterday's post. Wednesday was a market inside day. I got hacked for a small loss, as expected. Caught AMC, but didn't maximize the run (100%+ price run).
K+A wedding was amazing. And now we're done with planning, celebrating, and I'm back to work. I am looking forward to giving my trading my primary focus again. I have a lot to accomplish this year!!
Today's trading was rough. There were setups, and I scraped out a little bit, but it wasn't one of those fabulous days. Still, 1.5% is no shabby day. Pile a few of those up and there's nothing to complain about.
May stats. I had an exceedingly good first 2 weeks of May, and gave about half of it back the second 2 weeks of May. Net gain, but really disappointing finish.
I have been very caught up in goals, expectations and pacing toward higher and higher p&l.
That is arrogance. I should not be pressing so hard for numbers. I should be taking the best trades, the best way, and not getting emotional over "high score" all the time.
Stay cool. Take my trades. Get my money. Peace.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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.
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.
