Today was a pretty profitable day. All profitable tickers with some decent trading all around. There are still psychological issues that are present when trading such as still being fearful while in the trade which I still have to work on. I must remember to be focused on the present moment and to remember what I have been writing about: giving things enough room, not freaking out over losses which will never be huge, not caring about the money, etc. These are all things that have to be worked on. On the flip side I did have some conviction in some of my trades that allowed me to hold on and profit.
X: I saw that the market was gapping up while this was gapping down so I thought it had relative weakness finally and could pullback due to profit taking. It had a nice base of support from premarket so when that peaked and it peaked the prior support from yesterday, I got in on a pop. It worked well similar to yesterday but it ended up holding a support level pretty well so I just got out for flat essentially when it started to push. It's easy to say what a proper setup "should" look like as a stock can do anything before it gives you the move you want but I didn't like how it just pushed so quick above vwap which was now below my entry price. I don't know if the stop out for flat came from a fear of losing money but I guess I had a good feeling it wouldn't work when it had that push. I think if it got under vwap again and peaked again then I would have tried again.
BUD: This play came off of scan. It had long term support at this level and it came quickly down to it on big volume. I wanted to see some confirmation first of it bottoming out before buying. I saw it was flagging after getting a push up above vwap. I tried buying dips but didn't get filled so when it broke the flag I bought the retest. I was looking for it to go to 103 at least but it stalled out in the .70s and I moved my stop up to protect profit. It could have easily hovered around there and then gone further to my target but that's ok. Later in the day, it went to vwap which I missed and then broke to 103s. That would have been a decent entry, but I didn't see it. I did see it afterwards though and it looked like a lower high so I didn't bother with it. It was a lower high but then it had a higher low right after and went up from there. So the lesson here obviously is that anything can happen and thesis/big picture is much more important than how the candles form. The price tells you if you are right or wrong but how you interpret it is up to you. Just because it has a lower high like this doesn't mean it's done with. Obviously, it could have just kept fading back down but the overall picture suggests bounce. Psychologically-wise, while I was in the trade and it went against me for a few cents (basically nothing) I felt like it was just going to be a loser right away and that it was a stupid trade. Then it makes new highs and I think ok maybe this can work. This bipolar shit has to stop. You take a trade, you have a stop area in mind, and a target. That is it. Nothing else. DON'T REJECT YOURSELF, LET THE STOCK REJECT YOU. SAME WITH LIFE.
TOPS: I was interested in this the most because it wasn't HTB like the others. I thought it had stuffed out of the gate and I missed it but it went higher. So there is something to remember here about not all stuffs are it of course. This also held vwap right all the time so there wasn't a reason to short this unless you anticipated the stuff. It did have a nice breakout from 5.50 area but I wasn't really looking at these for a long unless they setup later in the day. Especially with the way DRYS looked which was picture perfect for a short. So it made that big push in the morning but I didn't short that because I was unsure how far these were going to go and at that point DRYS hadn't setup properly yet. But later on I thought TOPS looked weak and it had a "breakout" but was very weak on the level 2 and it looked like one of those times where it breaks out but that's it. So I had a top tick short and rode it down for over a point but at that point DRYS was really fading and I thought there could be a big washout so I saw TOPS consolidating after making a big move down and I decided to press my bet but adding even more for a bigger wash. Whether or not it was the right thing to do, I'm not sure. I guess I got greedy and maybe misjudged the amount of shorts that had to cover too. Either way I added in and it made new lows but then came right back and went to my average. Now it was at my average with big size so I unfortunately covered out of panic/necessity in case it had to go a lot higher due to shorts covering. It was unfortunate but I guess the lesson here is to cover in these scenarios where everyone is still trapped short and the dips like this will be used for covers. Obviously, it could have kept fading and I wouldn't be writing this. It's hard to say to be honest. I didn't touch it later in the day as it was just consolidating/grinding higher and DRYS was making new highs surprisingly. As far as lessons go, the first short was great and the add is 50/50 to be honest and covering it out of necessity I think was ok because I realized I screwed up and had to eat it. It could have gone a lot higher. I was fearful/confused to short it when the .40s couldn't break out which would have worked for a scalp although it went higher eventually. However, I did reshort it at a meh avg at 5.15 because I thought it looked good on the 1min but this was more 1min BS that I shouldn't be focusing on. I got out of that trade for flat in pieces. It went lower but whatever. So the lesson here is no 1min BS again. Honestly looking back the 1min pattern I thought I saw wasn't even there so the real lesson is to make sure what you are seeing is fact.
ESEA: There are good lessons here this stock. I was interested in it after it looked the best with $5 failing and DRYS looking like it was peaking. The peaking action/stuffs on DRYS were very convincing to me so I shorted the best stock out of all the shippers that looked the weakest. I shorted against $5 but when it broke to $5.10 and looked like it was going higher I covered in a panic and that was the short term top. $5.10 ended up absorbing and then it faded off a bit. Right here is where over/under obviously comes into play. I let the what if get the best of me here and the fear of losing and fear of going red on the day got me to cover. Horrible. At this point I was pretty disgusted with myself. It then came back to $5 so I got in again but this time it broke out a big higher. I was already down at this point and while I wish it didn't stuff like this I had to be prepared for it to do so. I was definitely thinking about getting out for flat, reducing size, etc. My conviction was decreased but still there due to the shorts that could still be in this. I'm not sure if it was me not willing to get out unless it really went higher and to not cover unless I was really wrong/not taking a loss and my conviction but I stayed in it and eventually it hit my target and I got a nice trade out of it. But I am still disgusted how emotional I was while in it and was afraid. While it would have sucked if it went higher, worse has happened to me. Perhaps I have to use less size for these. I'm not sure. Or I should just calm down and if I take the hit then so be it. But I can't trade in the long term like this. I have to remain in the present, be willing to accept the full risk when I enter a trade, and not let the market give me any painful information - everything is neutral.
Things to work on:
1. Having more of a concrete plan.
2. Being ok with over/under. Accepting the full risk for the trade.
3. Letting the stock reject me, not rejecting myself.
4. Be in the present at all times.
5. No more 1min stuff.
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