Chapter 1 Trading journal #33 - 02/25/2019 +$40 “Winning is coming harder than losing”
Day overview:
- Gave back a lot. Was in so many trades that were not my setups. I really need to stop it. And trade only my setups. I’m watching myself daily and It feels like I’m making small progress toward staying out of the trades and being more selective, but there is still a huge amount of work to be done in this direction. Patience is probably something I need to work on most. It gives great entries and a calm mind (although sometimes there will be trades, but this is ok.)
Positive: I didn’t have any massive losses. I was not fighting any stocks. I almost stopped trading but was not able to recognize what was going on.
What’s to work on:
- I need to keep working on my daily mantra. Trading is not fun, it is a way to make money, and I have to respect this main idea and take all the trades based on this premise. In regards to this:
- I will not short the bottoms. Only pops work for me.
- I will sufficiently decrease my trading after 11:30. The probabilities of success go down BIG time.
- I will use proper stops and provide enough breathing room to a stock.
- After each entry, after every stop, and after every big move, I will reevaluate my thesis via different timeframes!
- GTFO if hurt right after your entry and you were not ready for this.
- I will recognize my setups. A low high is invalidated when above the money box!
$ATEC $+71
- A couple of mistakes here — added to the bottom (small size) but still and didn’t get out right away. Took a loss without any reason to do so. Could have been only 1 cent. Once again GTFO if it’s not what you think.
- I kept it more or less right, but still should be given enough breathing room for a stock
- Do not get fooled by randomness. Do not get into the position if the chart says yes and the tape says nothing.
- I learned one more pattern on the tape. Big guys are covering, hitting the bids and the offers are flipping higher, but there is no buying whatsoever. So what to do in this situation, wait till you see that these big covers are not able to push offers higher + there is still no buying ( or it is but couldn’t do much)
- Also the other pattern, bids were not able even to hold small size and were flipping down right away. Basically, this is the third confirmation that the stock is ready to go down
Once again to reiterate what I learned here. Bids and offers were telling the same story. Offers were lifted only when someone was covering until they stopped + no regular buying on the tape + bids couldn’t hold ( no real buyer here)
$CIFS -$18
Frontside, I guess was ok to give it a chance, but the size should have been smaller. I lost $18 on not my best setup. Bullshit from my side. Watch your size and your real risk.
GE +$8
- Failed to recognize here a range trend as opposed to trend trade. Hence got chopped many many many times and gave everything I made on this stock.
- When you trade such liquid stocks, you have to recognize when there is a chop and when there is a move.
- Basically stocks like this move in this fashion: move -range — range — move — range. It’s ok to hop into the pullback on the move. But when this is a range it’s ok only to take an entry from the bottom or top of the range. That’s it.
Recognize what are you trading. The moment they start to chop you> Re-evaluate! is it still a move or already a range?
KHC -$13
Use less size, but use Proper stops!
TTNP -$1 FOMO
FOMO entry here — should avoid completely.
Recognized and got out!
DHR -$4 is not my playbook
Not my playbook. The good was that I used more or less the proper size and stop to be in this stock. the bad is that It is far outside of my playbook. And I would have been better off.
$CRON -$6 Not my playbook.
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