I was pondering over some thoughts earlier in the day while speaking to a trading buddy and it hit me how important that you surround yourself with like minded individuals that don’t have the exact same perspective. What I mean by this is that you need to have people that are working towards similar goals, but that aren’t necessarily going about it in the same way that you are. I told this buddy how I took some ideas from him and they mentioned that they were the last person to look up to for that kind of stuff, however I think it’s key to realize that you can learn something from EVERYBODY.
I definitely don’t have everything figured out and I use those various views to challenge my own thinking and processes and use the deltas that I find to try and build a better me. You need some outside perspective in your life to help broaden your horizons and I’m thankful to those that help bring that kind of perspective.
Success ( however you determine to qualify it) isn’t just something that falls into your lap. If I look back at all the things that I have been successful at this is a a backdrop of study, practice, perseverance, repetition, focus, and even failure that were all repeated in no particular order until that thing became like second nature.
I specifically remember learning Rachmaninoff’s Prélude, Op. 3: II. Lento in C-Sharp Minor my senior year in high school and the amount of practice and study that went into learning that piece was intense to say the least. What ended up being a beautiful piece being played on the piano for my music guilds started off as a hot mess of notes on a sheet that I had to feverishly work through to get to the beauty underneath.
Much like my piano example above I think that trading itself is along the same sides. You don’t start off playing a beautiful song, or in this case trading a beautiful chart, you have to start to make sense of the price action on the screen much like you would music notes and figure out how to play them correctly to create a beautiful piece.
You WILL mess up, you will get things wrong, but you must persevere. The interesting thing with trading is that there are so many factors including your own mental space that are parts, that it can be quite a bit to put into perspective and shape correctly if you are not paying attention to all of the details.
Today I realized that there were two details that I have been overlooking that warrant closer attention. The first is that I need to focus in GREATLY on the setup and really only stick to 1 setup until I am absolutely crushing that and THEN branch out into other areas.
Today it became clear to me that I am lacking focus on the details of my setups and because of that I end up with these weird choppy trades that should be nice winners. Well that ends today. AS @P3Trader mentioned above selectivity is all around us and based on the data we need to pick the most idea situations for our entries.
I also realized that I was missing some key criteria for my trades in regards to paying attention to catalysts. I’ll highlight it below, but I had a trade that was “working” and then a
catalyst hit and I almost lost my bacon. It still ended up being a loser and I lucked out that it wasn’t worse than it was (got out near my original stop levels), but still I need to be aware of ALL of the things surrounding what I do. The data was literally right there in front of me, but when you’re not being selective this is the kind of stuff that happens.
The goal is to be 1% better every day, so I’m taking this accountability on these fronts as my step today and will look to continue to improve upon this.
My risk management has been rocking lately, but now I need to piece this together with solid setups to kick off some parabolic growth.
Trades
$GRTX
I had the right read, but missed the main entry after my initial stop out and then just ended up chasing positions (I know I know) in the place where I was telling myself up front would be good COVER’s.
I mean seriously I deserved to lose on this one. The one saving grace is that risk management kept this well within where it should’ve been. Right read, but piss poor execution.
$MIND
I was hoping that this setup had pushed a little higher, but the darn thing just had volume dry ALLLL the way up to the point where it was range bound for 4 and a half hours. For me I just lowered my risk to right above my entry $.01 and I was either going to get my puke on volume or it was going to stop me out. This is the kind of hit that I ‘m good with taking. The plan was the plan and the ticker just had a different plan and that’s ok . I stuck to my plan and kept it minimal (like rreeeaaaallly minimal ).
$PTPI
This was a really nice setup with a picture perfect retrace. I only risked 1/2R on this one when I should have risked a full R given the setup. This is the setup that I should be patiently aggressive on instead of being timid. Initially I was thinking that this would be good for a retraced down to 3.15, but as time progressed I started to think that 2.90’s were likely. The bounce off of 3.18ish had me a little thrown off so I covered a 3/4’s at 3.15 only to watch it go to my thoughts and a little bit more…oof.
I like that I took my initial plan and left some flyer on to go beyond, but I need to get a better feel for the potential so I don’t underestimate how these can go.
$SEAC
Meh, I didn’t pay attention to the earnings date on the ticker and was looking to cover my position aftermarket around 1.19 only to get blindsided by the swipe on earnings. Luckily I was able to get out not to far away from my original stop level (1.64), but this was ALLLLLL on me not being in tune with the market. Forward looking events/catalysts are criteria that I HAVE to be aware of before I get involved with anything.
It was a cheap lesson compared to what it COULD have been. I tried the same trade afterward when I saw the fail, but it just didn’t work out. If i see the trade I want to take the trade, so not upset about the retry except for not waiting for a bounce to get a little bit better positioning (I would’ve stopped out either way, but I still want to put myself in the most ideal scenarios).
Missed Trades
ESSC
heck of a para move and fail here. I was a day early trying it yesterday. Honestly this isn’t the type of setup I want to focus on right now, but it’s something I will track for sure.
$EFOI
$NES
Super clean day2 bear flag. I was watching it, but never participated
$ISIG
Sweet range here, just didn’t have it on watch.