It’s been a while since I’ve done a retrospective and that was very intentional. I was starting to get the feeling that I was doing it for the wrong reasons, so I took some time to step back and reset my mental state. A part of me wanted to do some of these to show people how I’m doing, but what I really need is just a place to lay down my thoughts so that I can continue to build as a trader. No ego, no chest bumping, just a good honest look at what I’m doing and where I can use improvement.
These really do help me have some accountability for myself and look not just my good, but even my ugly trades in the eyes heads on and look at some reoccurring themes.
As of late I’ve noticed a few things about my trading that I have to address. The first thing that I noticed is that whenever I start to get on a “hot streak” I seem to get a little bit more relaxed and loose as the days go by. This usually translates into me being less patient with entries and more aggressive on size, which always leads to a trade or two where I get smacked in the face. Luckily over time i’ve managed to get to a point where even when I’m getting those red days they aren’t absolute crushers like they would’ve been a year ago, but they are still unecessary setback that I have to overcome. The truth about this “game” is that you are never safe. I don’t care how long you’ve been doing this or what kind of success you’ve had, you can rest assured that the moment you start to get ahead of yourself is the moment that you WILL be humbled. There’s a great audio book that I’ve been listening to entitled “when genius failed”, which talks about long term capital management and how they went from the top to the absolute bottom after managing BILLIONS.
If a multi billion dollar fund can go down, you can bet your hind parts that you can go down JUST as fast (if not faster) when you have absolute PEANUTS in comparison. The EGO has to be checked at the door EACH AND EVERY SINGLE DAY.
The second thing that I noticed about my trading was that I was letting others influence my actions a bit too much. Hearing some of your “hero’s” saying that they are taking a position can give you the illusion that it’s time for YOU to add to a position, when in reality it just means they are in the same trade as you, but you DO NOT KNOW THEIR PLAN OR RISK. There are guys who I REALLY look up to that I have to block out completely, so that I can make the best trades for me.
If you look at my charts I have tons of arrows. That doesn’t always mean I have tons of size, but it’s what works for ME. You have to find what works for YOU and constantly work on that. It’s not about what others are doing, but about what you are doing.
Lastly I’ve been realizing that I need to focus more on the names that I have on my watchlist as I’m much more prepared for those and the action that I may see in the day versus the hot runners in the AM where you’re doing alot of that analysis real time. This doesn’t mean that I can’t profit from them, because I do, however when I look back over my watchlist and the profit that happens there it is much less stressful, which I think is a very underrated situation to be in. I trade much better when there’s little to low stress, so I should put myself in those situations more often and for me attacking my watchlist should be priority 1.
With that out of the way, on to the trades.
NIO
This is a trade I should’ve have touched as I wanted completely prepared to enter the position and got a little fomo. Again you can see the infamous shorting weakness got me upside down. Had i just waited for the top of the channel I would’ve been able to cover into the key levels and rinse and repeat. The setup was clean, but my entries (even with starter size) was complete trash.
GEVO
Ended up basically being a wash trade where I took a .10 hit. My first mistake was not covering into that flush before the open (I have GOT to stop being greedy). I often let however much size i have impact if I’m locking in profits or not and I can’t do that. Regardless of your size a good trade is a good trade. This is especially true when SSR is on. I have my reasons as to why I think they triggered SSR yesterday, but I should’ve kown that they would push. Worst is that in my watchlist I was saying i wanted a push to 4.80, so why I didn’t lock in and wait for that push (which wasn’t as high, but was still up there) is beyond me. My plan has to be my plan and reactive trades need to be that…reactive, nothing more. Right idea, but wrong timing and caused a wash
DNMR
This trade ended up being pretty nice. In hindsight though I should’ve attacked the open as it pushed back to 30.82 and then faded to 24 by the close….absolutely incredible. The name was SUPER thing off the CNBC mention in the AM, so I went in with small size, but even small size works out when you have a killer setup. I have to keep reminding myself that I’m not looking for the $$, but the trade and the $$$ will follow. Small trades add up and this one is no exception.
BNGO
Trade of the day here. I tried a little near the open, which I should’ve only been looking for a long setup honestly given the volume. This is something that I am working on automating in my scanning software so it’s even more evident as to what I should be looking/waiting for. Overall I’m happy with the trade, though I should’ve covered that front side trade a bit sooner. I like that I didn’t let it get away from me, so very happy about that, but would have liked to cut it much closer to my entries like I did the first time around.
The backside was pretty clean and I sized up and took it for a ride. Watch the tape and seeing the change was key for this one and it paid off in a big way. Getting back to the simple things of volume and price action have proven to get me out of the little slump I had a few weeks ago.