Trading Recap 1/20/15

Yesterday I fucked up. No, I didn't lose my ass shorting ZFGN early. Worse. I hesitated to trade again and didn't trade at all when I again had a 100% hit rate for my "calls", which doesn't mean shit. I feel that same level of disgust at myself as when I had that long rambling a few posts ago. I keep thinking that the hesitation is gone but it still lingers in the back of my mind, like a splinter I can't take out. I keep going back to what my thoughts/emotions are when I am contemplating entering and the things I keep coming up with: being afraid to lose and being afraid of being wrong, as mentioned before. But when I look at the worst thing that can happen should I enter a trade, which I guess is blowing up (losing money), I've lost money already - been there done that. My streak goes away? So what? I don't get a bonus for having a streak - it doesn't mean anything. I was wrong? Been there done that too many times to count. Every time I enter a trade, I make it seem like a big deal. "Ok this is it I'm in the trade and filled." So fucking what? I want to be a trader, I'm supposed to trade. That is the nature of this business. It's not a special fucking moment where the trading gods come down and congratulate you "Wow you made a trade. Congrats." It's part of the job; it's even in the fucking name (TRADEr). A lot of this also comes down to the fact that I am too focused on the results and not on the process. Yeah, I only have $700 and don't have a big account but it's going to stay at $700 if I don't fucking trade. I need to focus on my process (which I have been) and not worry about the $, either gain or loss. Overall, I am tired of being a bitch and being a trader in my head and not being an actual trader. An actual trader in reality has to fucking place trades.

Tomorrow it's go time. I WILL take any and all trades that I perceive as good trades. End of discussion - even if I have to trade naked outside in the cold.

ZFGN: After seeing the failed follow through in the premarket I developed a short bias and wanted to short any failed follow through or a parabolic/lower highs. Neither came. Instead I should have realized that it had nice range and any higher lows could be a decent long. I won't chew myself up too much for missing the long since I didn't understand at the time what would get it going since at that point all shorts were up for the most part so a squeeze seemed unlikely at the open. Anyway, fast forward to the parabolic and at first I thought about shorting when I saw the volume increase near $10 but avoided it, thankfully. However, the way that the parabolic shaped was something I have seen and recognized many times. It was around $11.50 and I was looking to short but hesitated because it looked too strong. This ended up being the top. I try to avoid front side shorting, especially for my small account, but this pattern was quite clear to me. Even though I didn't short here though, there were plenty of opportunities on the backside that I didn't trade. I wanted to short $10.50s and didn't see the $11 stuff and hesitated again and then even at $10 too.

NFLX: I originally didn't have this on watch but saw that it had given up all of its after market gains from the night before which made me think that it was weak and a short was possible on failed follow through. I saw it in the $106-107 range and thought this would be a good short on pops. I should have just went in with risk to r/g and it wouldn't have been a problem. Ideally you start in small and can add on pops as long as the trade is valid. Anyway a few seconds later it washed out and I figured I missed my entry.. but was I wrong. It went much lower than I thought it would have and would have made a great trade.

OPTT: I saw this rocketing up and kept it on watch. I checked the daily chart and it has a lot of potential resistance in the $2.5 area. I saw it tried to break out and get rejected, which was a short signal to me. I saw it at $2.1 when the high was $2.44 and thought it was too late, which is retarded as mentioned many times before. I can't keep this notion of having to get the top tick or else I am chasing/not good entry. I am taking things too literally when people say not to chase etc. There is plenty of potential downside to be had still.

NXTD: I had this on watch for a parabolic/lower highs to short into after everyone was properly squeezed. It felt crowded and it was one of the few runners going on at the time so a lot of eyes were on it. However, it just stuffed (which I didn't see in real time) and just fell from there. By the time I actually realized there was a trade it was when it had that massive red candle, which I still could have shorted into and made money, proving yet again how on certain plays it is ok to not have the absolute pristine entry.

SUNE: I had this on watch for failed follow through which did happen but I was too busy looking at ZFGN and other stocks to really take notice. I did make a note that it would be a nice short in the $2.30s-40s but wanted to save my account BP for other plays at the time. This had a very nice quick washout to $2.

Overall, a day with lots of opportunity in which I did not partake.

Things to improve on:

1. Don't worry about not having the best entry. If the trade looks good and you can get a decent entry then take it.
2. Don't make taking a trade this big thing. Trading should be a calm and collected process. Plus you want to be a trader so... you need to trade.
3. Be more on the lookout for stuff moves.
4. For ZFGN, volume doesn't tell the full story when it is going parabolic. Unless it has huge, huge volume then it can still go higher like it did from $10 to $11. Keep looking for patterns like this for an edge to trade off of.