Trading Review: 04-06-2016

Day-Trading: -$1498. Wow didn't actually realise I had lost that much until I calculated it.. That's shocking. I was going to cut size by 30% as per plan of two losing days in a row... But that deserves a 60% cut for the next few days.

Going into the day I wanted to focus on maintaining my flexibility so that I didn't have to hit any uneccessary stops - I obviously got that balance completely wrong.

So three stubborn trades. What do they have in common? MOMO and VRX are the most comparable, EVHC is somewhat different, in that it would have been fine if I had a stop and hit it. So will compare VRX and MOMO.
(1) Started in too early. Both actually had nice pulls, but was too early sizing in counter-trend. VRX wasn't quite as bad; but MOMO was a shocker for being too early.
(2) Got above 2/5s size counter-trend without a hard stop in place. Obviously point 1 and 2 go hand in hand.
(3) Didn't close up position after counter-trend move held. MOMO was such a clean hold, right at vwap, and such a clean grind off vwap. VRX was less obvious, however, a trailed stop-loss would have been an excellent move.

So what actually went wrong?
(1) Not being prepared for worst case scenario and scaling around that (scaling early).
(2) Not closing trade when being shown was wrong.
(3) Not having a hard stop in, so that if price hits it it's off my hands.

Number 3 is really the important one. Simply having one in the marketplace, even if it's miles away prepares you for that outcome.

So what the hell to do about it?
(1) Wait for at least 1 ATR move to start trying to counter-trend trade something.
(2) Have hard stops in on everything. To ensure discipline surrounding this I will add the routine of writing 20 lines "I will have hard stops in the market" to my psych mastery daily routine.
(3) Post 10:30am keep size under control when trading against vwap. Scalps against levels are the exception to this, but they have amazingly defined risk.

Food for thought: MOMO, and VRX I definitely had an edge trading, so no excuses for losing money on the moves. I was thinking that I needed to be more picky, but the volatility/trends are there to make some decent money, I just slopped it.

Swing Trades: +$605. Good payout day for swing. This covered up the huge day-trading loss, which I guess is why I didn't notice it had got so bad.

Trading: 04-06-2016

8:03: Cold shower was particularly cold this morning, but then got used to it by the end of the two minutes. Weird.

8:09: Now I know what I have to do today - be prepared for worse case scenario and avoid getting stopped out. Keep flexibility high. Take profits quickly. Really want to ensure today is profitable to (1) Restore any lost confidence, (2) Make sure I don't have to decrease size (2 losing days in a row...). Want to get back on winning steak.

8:39: Short 5 minute meditation. Not particularly enjoying the meditation. That being said, a good idea to sit down focus on breathing and slow mind down just a little.

9:43: Caught short in a parabolic on MOMO on the open. Covered down some size at a loss to increase ability to short pops - really good mindset, there is an edge to the cover, despite it being at a loss.

9:58: As per mission plan today am focusing on ensuring I have a lot of flexibility to add as positions go against me. Thus far this has saved me with MOMO, and has kept me minimising CREE - which is fine.

10:00: Literally just added to MOMO after getting sick of waiting for pop right before it popped.

10:11: Somewhat annoyed about that MOMO add. It's above vwap and moving averages still cleanly showing uptrend. Yes it did look like it was stuffing, but that's one indicator out of quite a few - no reason to get to 3/4 size.

10:45: Sensing stubbornness start to kick in. CREE a really obvious long, and I'm holding short "looking for the stuff". Not the play.

10:53: Hypothetically if I didn't have too much size already on MOMO, shorting into the high of day, and covering risk immediately would have been a great play. Looking very strong, but by playing the channel can end up really nice. Am now watching it for a high of day rejection type setup. Too strong to fiddle with on the short side too much.

11:13: Have been trying to position for flexibility and avoiding stop-losses and have ended up holding a few stocks when I shouldn't be. Hard balance. The key here is that I am holding them through a grind (therefore no edge), whereas holding them into solid one directional moves is different (E.G. VRX move versus MOMO move).

11:29: Very much feel like I'm trying to pick up pennies in front of a steam roller today as VRX goes parabolic, when I'm already short. Also feeling somewhat of a "lack of methodology" perhaps today - whether or not there's any validity to that I'm not sure, but may be something to have a think about. Perhaps go through my favourite setups to reaffirm.

12:50: Definitely think it's worth going through exactly where my edge is. Far too much counter-trend trading today just for the sake of counter-trend trading. As for the stubbornness - holding full size positions as they go against me, that's just not good enough.

Trading Review: 04-05-2016

Day-Trading: -$889. Really disappointing day. Of course, the day I increase size by 10% as per plan is the day I have a losing day (not to mention a max drawdown losing day).

Won't go through each trade. Two/Three main mistakes which sort of lead to each other:
(1) Not buying weakness into downtrend, and losing flexibility as fully added too early. This happened a few times, but the main example is VRX where I wanted to get long on the opening washout. I ended up trying the trade (2-3?) times and stopping out. When I trade something like that I am usually prepared for 1ATR down-move, and try and position myself if worse happens (e.g. 2 ATR). VRX barely had an ATR move down, yet I was stopped multiple times. And when the turn finally did come I didn't buy weakness (as within a downtrend) and had a horrible average and therefore couldn't justify managing earlier thus missing sales.
(2) Not taking profit ASAP. In line with #1, and partially a result of. I wasn't booking profit ASAP. This is incredibly important, because taking profit allow you to recycle the position. You can take profit even if you haven't achieved 1R. Provided that you have a plan for getting back in.
(3) Getting size too early/managing size poorly. There were a few times when I had too much size too early (which lead to stop-outs), where if I hadn't had size too early the stock turned into a nice channel that I could have scalped to lock in some risk.

Swing Trades: +$151.

Really interesting observation about TSLA calls. Because they expire this week, they got hit pretty hard when TSLA dropped (but still well within the realm of within the uptrend and not breaking my conviction). They went from about 60c to 20c. Picking some up at 20c, just purely for the sake of flipping them into 50c+ would have been a great move to cover risk.

Covered a little GBSN as it looked like it was gearing up. Only covered 1/3 and well within realms of locking in profit. I didn't believe the gearing up pattern would work, but a "long signal" seemed like a good place for locking in risk. Won't cover until low $2s on the next cover though.

Getting squeezed on AVXL. Would like to add soon by shorting the $7.50 calls, but will wait until closer to $7.50. I'm pretty confident it finds a peak in this $6.00-$6.50 range, but really need to save my "bullets" for the possible gapup/squeeze move and fluke that it actually gets 7+. Selling them calls for 40c makes sense (that's about another $1 move higher before getting fill) - so will put a GTC order in for there.

I knew something seemed fishy with the price of the MNKD options not decaying and being quite high. I'm short the puts... Weird mistake, and I took so long to pick it up.

NUGT only got a fill on the long put exposure, which is good because it's probably the one that I want to have on first. Will try be pretty picky on the other side of the trade (the short put option). I had a little bit of an epiphany last night when thinking about the miners versus gold because the miner strength has perplexed me a little while gold is selling off a bit. While I still have a fair bit of conviction that the trade will work out. I will be quite picky on the half that I haven't got on yet (wanted two put options, not 1). Note that getting short the puts at good prices is somewhat equivalent to managing the long put.

Trading: 04-05-2016

7:53: Pretty intense cold shower this morning. Feeling all sleepy, quite tired- ahh nice hot shower. Them boom, ohh that's cold. Was good! First day on increased size. Want to keep everything completely normal!
Frustratingly, because the NZD has gone down quite a bit I am only $500 away from PDT - which is one of the factors I identified as a contributor to my stubbornness. So will be mindful of this, and focus on never drawing down there in the first place.

8:11: Time to being initiating a short swing in NUGT. Want to pick up a put spread for about a month out. Think within a month it could easily be $35 (even if gold doesn't breakdown there should be some benefit to leverage decay). So will work around the idea of establish a 50/35 put spread. However, I intend to piece into the position slowly, and will sell the 45 puts expiring this week, then 40s for next week - to try and collect as much credit as possible without ruining the trade. Also want to learn from the NFLX/TSLA trades, around the open is a sellers market, after is a buyers market - so I have selected the prices I'm prepared to pay/sell and will (at least until noon) stick to those prices.
The other reason I am prepared to attempt to sell closer ones to collect slightly more premium is because if it goes there that quickly I should make money trading it. If I was to flat out do the purchase the 50/35 spread it would cost around $4.80/$1.20 - good to record that to see if I can better it.

8:44: A short meditation of 10 minutes. Seems to be a moment when I know I'm relaxed enough.

8:45: So thinking about the increase in size. It would be relatively confidence crushing to hit max draw-down on first day of increased size, so really want to be mindful of that! Keep stubbornness in check, while at the same time not overcommitting to not being stubborn. - get that sweet spot.

9:51: Little bit jumpy, not much on and may be trying to force.

10:10: Have been bottom fishing on VRX all morning - now on third attempt. Haven't been full size, but down $250 currently. This is a little bit much. Need a reminder when counter-trend trading to focus on buying new lows, selling pops, until it reverses trend by getting above vwap.

10:36: ENDP which I took a reasonable stop on (-132) a reminder to piece into positions over time, locking in some risk and adding size as they confirm.

11:15: Reminder that focus now becomes finding good prices (buy support, sell resistance) rather than joining trends/momo, unless they are super clean.

11:32: Retried VRX. Was a silly idea. About due for a nap. Need to refocus and forget about somewhat tough morning.

11:47: About done for the day, have one trade left on that's pursuing for decent profit, and that's NUGT. But am sensing that I am be falling into the trap of target trading. Very rough day, and have mis-traded a few setups. Kinda annoying to have a day like this the day after I increase my size.

11:51: Compared with other days, it's not 100% clear what I have done wrong... So recapping a little now may be worth it: (1) Should have been buying new lows within downtrends, (2) Getting size a little quickly, and so not having flexibility. (3) In line with those two, not taking profits quick enough has been a crusher today.
If I had done 1 and 2 then (3) taking some profits quickly is really beneficial to lock in risk. ENDP I would have been able to recycle position a little, despite it holding below a key level. And VRX, the bg loser of the day, I tried the long 3 times on the open, then I finally nailed it and had a worse average than I should have. If I had been less hasty on the adds I would have only had one or two trades on it max, for less net loss, and then had a better average on the eventual move that I caught (and hence would have managed to lock in quite a bit, whereas I narrowly missed taking some sales).

11:57: All this being said, can be too harsh. But I would estimate based on price action that I would be down around $50 on ENDP (max) and about down about 0-100ish on VRX if I had traded correctly.

1:16: On break missed the easiest TSLA long ever. But shouldn't get too stressed about it. Gold is back down again and has stopped perking up, but NUGT still perking, so going to have the complicated stop plan again of not stopping on the NUGT perk if gold doesn't confirm.
VRX would have been a great scalp against the level at the low.
DIS I was stopped at the low. I may or may not have added at the low instead of stopping, not 100% sure on that one.
Bring all this up just to show that there has been some volatility in the past hour that I could have taken advantage of. The other thing is that they were very clean opportunities - buying things as they retest the lows, buying a super super clean breakout.

1:23: VRX either rejects here and goes back to lows, or gets over vwap and goes to high of day (similar to TSLA the other day, had that stupid second move down). I will take this trade as a binary trade if it gets over vwap - then be done for the day no matter what the outcome - still have to manage NUGT trade as well of course.

1:30: Definitely being tempted by target trading here, but I have two good trades on with potential for big rewards, so happy to let them ride.

1:30: Gold making new low while NUGT still in that recent consolidation near the high. Crazy stuff, could see a serious unwind!

1:32: Think it might be worth swing some VRX (just for a gap up, not long term), so will look to hold 1/3 or 1/6 depending on what kind of prices we get into the close. To make a difinitive choice now, I will sell if it gets to $31 by end of day, otherwise will hold for gapper so long as holds trend.

1:35: I had my final add on NUGT at 58.70 or something. Hindsight I should have covered  the $0.70 dip (say cover for 50c) and then looked to rinse and repeat it a couple of times. Would have been a nice way to protect position and cover risk.

1:45: Interesting food for thought. My TSLA calls traded down to 20c today, which at my sale of 89c for one of them just before is a 4R trade, obviously wouldn't have got it right at the bottom, but still. The important takeaway here is that on my trades on the big board stocks I usually have quite high conviction, so shouldn't let one days action scare me away. Therefore I should almost always be adding a little bit when the risk-reward gets better, and therefore always be positioned for an add at a better price.

2:07: Looks like I got stuffed on VRX and should be going back to lows. Trying to think through the trade now that it's done... Am I happy with the trade? One thing that comes to mind is that it didn't work in the morning, which could suggest range bound price action, and that stop-loss could have been trailed when it tried to make a new high and couldn't (which in the end turned out to be a lower high on a trend turn). But overall good risk-reward trade, I just think I hadn't read the parameters of the trade right.
So that's max drawdown for today, depending on how the NUGT trade goes. Very disappointing, when you consider that there were trades out there that could have easily made some money in.

2:26: Was super tempted to break rules just then and add to NUGT short. Looks really nice on the chart... But trading is about following your rules - and that's how you judge trading success.

2:38: NUGT is looking like an obvious long if it breaks high. Question is, do I want to take it? The answer is definitely no if gold doesn't confirm, but what if it does? It's almost certinaly going to squeeze above (at least temporarily).

2:41: If this NUGT move turns out to be a stuff (tonnes of volume) I will double my short position with a tight stop-loss. Just a case of knowing when to break rules, thinking about it an advance and making it as an unemotional decision. Thus far NUGT has had a lot of volume but gold hasn't confirmed. The confirmation for me to add to NUGT should would be if gold makes a new low (seeing as it's knocking on the low roughly now).

2:53: Yep stuff move confirmed so added as per plan. Tight stop-loss is in. As an aside, this is the general mistakes I've been making today is not entering when the risk is low. Here it actually looks like I'll be stopped, but the risk is well defined, and low.

3:00 Just thought I would mention I only added a half more, not a double. Still like the trade, but yeah...

3:04: Stopped on NUGT and done for day.

Trading Review: 04-04-2016

Day-Trading: +$301. 5/5 positive days in a row, time to increase max size by 10%. Very happy with that!!! So max sizes are now: And max drawdown is $660.
$1-$10: 550 shares.
$10-$20: 440 shares.
$20-$50: 330 shares.
$50-$120: 220 shares.
$120-$200: 110 shares.
$200+ 55 shares.
It's a marginal increase. However, if I have two positive days in a row from here I can increase it by 10% again, so can quickly progress if I continue to trade well.

EW - Fought this on the open. Made quite a few mistake on it overall. Didn't take a relatively obvious stop over $103 (before move to 104.50). I was only 1/2 size though, which it the reason why. Got an excellent cover when it came back into support at $102. But sort of failed to realise that if it held $102 (resistance from premarket) it would still be super strong - so I added short on a pop - then ended up taking a good stop.
Went to scalp against the high, but given the fierceness of the upmove, this probablt wasn't the play - or if it was the play then I needed to focus on getting a super good entry and covering risk quickly, which I didn't do.
Finally caught it long and made quite a bit on that which was good. Wasn't paying attention and didn't stop the remaining 1/3 on trend break, so gave back about $80 on that.

UGAZ - Shorted into the opening parabolic, got 2/5s and just hung onto it and covered into down move. Didn't add until it was below vwap, which I'm quite happy about. Wasn't working as quickly as I would have liked so ended up covering - was pretty concerned that it would reclaim vwap (but I had risk already covered so maybe should have just held). It ended up having a monster unwind!

TSLA- Frustration of the day. The retest, and subsequent short term break below threw me off long bias. Which I believe it the correct conclusion to draw (it even vwap stuffed prior to fake breakdown). But revisiting the long as it reclaimed and then got back over vwap would have been a good move.
Also if I had locked in a little on the vwap test I may have been more willing to do this.

SKYS - Really nice long on a crowded short that was pretending to breakdown. Should have come back to the idea, had plenty more to catch on the long side, but I was concered because it's day 3.

NUGT - NUGT did eventually unwind a little into the close, but I just can't get a solid trade off on it. The volatility has substantially dropped, which I think is throwing me off. Usually the drop in volatility is indicative that a big unwind is coming (over multiple days, so I might look to pickup a put spread). Got an extremely solid entry today though on a fake move that gold didn't follow (similar to the other day when I didn't stop because gold didn't follow). But only ended up realising about 1.5R on that trade.

ALK- Wrong bias, nothing you can do about that, still happy with thought process. Losses I had on it were a bit too big (should have defined risk tighter) as I got a super nice long off support on full size, so I should have made more money on net trading it.


Swing Trades: -$150. Note that the SUNE profit should be around -$365, but because of what the last traded price was at versus the SUNE close there's a misalignment.

Sold SUNE on the strength in premarket. It's a sign of my current really solid psychology that I was happy to sell based on the chart, rather than my shitty average price. Really good stuff. Was a good sale around 30c! On net lost about 10-12c on 2000 shares, which is a loss of $240, which isn't too bad all things considered.
AVXL obviously testing me at the moment - this is why I wanted to lower the size of the position to 4 options. Still not too worried. If it gets high enough I will short $7.50 call options. Will be looking for it to get quite high for me to do that though - don't want to get caught in a squeeze at max size.
MNKD trade is working, options keep going against me lol.. That's fine, highly likely to expire worthless. Happy to re-establish the trade against once they expire worthless. Seems crazy to me that the weeklies for $2 trade at 50c.
TSLA - something to learn about I still got pretty slaughtered by entering the trade around the open - despite allowing for it. For the future, I will piece in over multiple prices as the IV seems to change heavily through the day. Also definitely an edge in providing liquidity into down-moves. A really nice trade and was looking perfect until the after-hours when TSLA got crushed. Won't make the mistake I made with NFLX which was selling on first down day. It's a swing, and I used defined risk options for a reason!
GBSN -- WOW! I added 100 shares at what I thought was a chase, then realised it wasn't a chase and tried to add another 200 to max size. Unfortunately didn't get a fill and it came off into the close. Will still try and add to full size, this is all confirmation of trade thesis. Likely  takes about 2 weeks to get back to sub $1.

Trading: 04-04-2016

8:45: Found the cold shower a bit weak this morning - getting more used to it? Quite relaxed after meditation, but mind was quite active.
Focus for today is on focusing on the really solid setups. If profitable today (on day-trading) can increase size by 10% as I will have 5/5 profitable days in a row. Obviously shouldn't let that determine how I trade, but need to be mindful that I'm not getting over-confident or anything like that.

9:23: Got a tonne of ideas, but somewhat struggling to narrow them down a little - so looking for price action to confirm ideas. Don't want to get bogged down trying to trade everything.

9:44: Very happy with my decision/move/clear sight to sell SUNE in premarket on the strength. Good job not being stubborn.

10:03: Fought EW a bit on the way up, then got nice cover for half into support. Hindsight, shouldn't have added back seeing as it held support. But took the loss, and can't complain too much given the trade idea didn't work.

11:13: Bit of a rough morning, down roughly $240, but overall don't think I've done too much wrong, few minor mistakes but nothing major. Have been a little bit slow to ideas/thought process - could indicate not enough preparation perhaps if it continues to happen other days.
Need to be careful I don't revenge trade, or target trade to try and end the day positive. Let the ideas come to me, and trade them allowing for maximum flexibility.

11:18: Also remember that now in midday period want to be focused on trading around levels, not minor moves that look like they confirm trends.

11:21: Kinda weird, same thing happen with TSLA calls that I entered today as happened with NFLX, and this despite me being aware of the NFLX problem last time, and therefore adjusting. Will really need to bear this in mind next time.

11:37: Added short GBSN as a massive chase. Seems kinda weird adding down here (rather than covering) but taking the action as complete confirmation of thesis back to zero, so happy with the high risk add (especially given that borrows are still difficult). The more I think about it to more it makes sense to try and swing full size to 2s.

11:39: TSLA what a prick lol.. Just enough weakness to scale weak longs out. That being said, that's why I took some options as a swing. Maybe I should have been prepared for that type of action, given that it did similar on Friday, but not 100% sure.

11:49: Up $199 on day-trading just that. Some trades that I had on started working and had another 1 or two good ones. All executed well, without fomo - and without trying to make back losses. Really happy! Now key is to not get carried away, and to keep it!

11:54: Looking to close down some of the not quite as good positions, lock in the good day and take a break.

1:15: TSLA new highs on the day. Potentially could have revisited the idea if I hadn't taken a break. Just glad I got the options. Can't believe how low the options got throughout the day though!

Month Review: March 2016

Net Profit: +$1805. Somewhat of a mixup throughout the month in swings and not recording, so easier to look at total. Extremely tough month, and on the face of it, looks good with +$1805... But of course I had that big undisciplined day which accounts for literally all of that. Take away that, and it's a breakeven month.

That being said, I feel that I made some really solid headway this month. Implementation of multiple things has helped my trading dramatically. I am not sure what to attribute the success directly to: I think it's a mix. Things I have implemented:

(1) Daily psychological preparation/mastery. Cold shower, meditation, midday nap.

(2) Constant journalling throughout the day. I have found this useful as a self reflection method. Whenever I notice I'm doing something I just write down what I should be doing, and then therefore do it.

I will continue to do all this into the foreseeable future.

Have also changed a few things:

(1) Plan for increasing/decreasing size on good/bad days.

(2) Have started swing trading in main account. Keeping the margin tied up from it relatively small. Have had some good trades so far, and some have turned worse case scenario and it still wasn't too bad. Will keep doing this, think it will be a great builder of skill/knowledge, and a nice side income stream.

(3) A plan for opening a dedicated swing account.

The main struggle for the month was stubbornness, and therefore discipline - which was impacting my consistency. However, coming into the end of the month I seem to have overcome that - as a result of actions taken. Really nice to see progress in a problem that has been plaguing me for a few months.

Trading Review: 04-01-2016

Day-Trading: +$177.

VRX - Trade of the day, and the funny thing is that I wasn't even paying attention to it. Someone called it out on twitter, and I thought "oh yeah that looks good and took it lol"

TSLA - Had the wrong bias in general. In hindsight it's an obvious buy the rumour sell the news. I was thrown off for two reasons: (1) The chart looks quite bullish, (2) The pre-orders were bigger than expected. Hindsight the pre-prders would be taken into account with the size of the gap. Seems pretty obvious in hindsight now. Offered some decent spots to short, even if waited for morning action to be done... Was just too long biased.

TERP - Really good short into parabolic. Could have got a better entry. Solid covers, not being greedy as it was holding the upmove.

NUGT - As per the trading diary, I traded this really well. Implemented a complicated stop plan with solid discipline. Would have been a nice flip, but I'm okay with missing it. Unlike TSLA, where switching bias was the right decision, in this case it wouldn't have necessarily been the right decision (despite big move and consistency of trend).

MDVN - Got long into support and it blew right though to the next level. Didn't add (seemed too weak), caught complete reversal with my tiny starter lol

GNCA - Was big opportunity on this today. Similar to TSLA had wrong bias and didn't really flip it.

Swing Trades: +$246.

GBSN - looks like it is done and probably heading back to zero. One or two more days and this will be confirmed and I can start looking for adds.  Borrows shouldn't be a problem at that point. Unfortunately I couldn't day-trade the position at all today because I had no shorts, but there was a nice pop that I could have shorted.

RJETQ - Really solid covers near the lows. Ultimately decided not to be greedy, which paid off.

MNKD/AVXL - Both didn't move, just slight movements in the option chain.

SUNE - Did a super good job of hedging it throughout the day given it's the first time I've attempted to trade like that, and given that it was over/under the exercise price all day. I am still comfortable with my decision to close the day unhedged. Although given the price action around 3pm I could have maybe taken 1000 shares as a hedge.
So anyway with the bankruptcy announcement after hours I am going to be down about $500ish (maybe a little more) on the open Monday. I will also day-trade it on the long side, and then ultimately look to swing it on the long side later in the week.
So to sum up: I will cut my losses, but only on a rally, with a liquidity providing exit, that is an exit into a rally, an exit with an edge. I expect that in the coming weeks SUNE will reclaim 50c (if only briefly) as it becomes SUNEQ. All options and hedging taken into account I'm long from roughly 40c, which isn't too bad when you consider literally the worst case scenario has occurred.

Trading: 04-01-2016

8:00: Really good cold shower this morning. Already feeling relaxed, refreshed and pumped.

8:51: Cut the meditation 4 minutes short. Felt relaxed enough. Think I can probably lower the time of meditation to 15 minutes. Time can be somewhat valuable at this time of the morning, and at this stage that's probably my saturation point.

9:09: Got a good nail on NUGT premarket for $150. Given that I currently have 3/3 positive days this week, I don't want to force anything. Really important for me to lock in a 4th day for confidence reasons. So focus on small losses, no stubbornness, and taking quick profits.
Regardless, I will probably have to hang around all day because of the SUNE hedge that I need to have on for the end of day close.

9:57: Good morning. Slowing down now. Have managed to get 1000 shares short SUNE with 0.5050 average, and have locked in $13. Am happy enough with this as I don't mind bag-holding 1000 shares compared to 2000 - will sell calls against the 1000 if SUNE still below 0.5000 at the end of the day. They are currently going for 13c, which seems pretty good to me. Taking into account calls, even if I didn't get exercised on them, end of next week average long price would be 0.3000 - which is getting down to where I would consider getting long for the bankruptcy rally anyway.

10:10: SUNE requiring a lot of focus. That being said, you would only expect that in maybe 1/10 of these trades, so when you have to do it, it's worth it big picture. I closed my short hedge into 0.45. Now trying to cover the options I wrote around breakeven - which on net after taking into account the hedge would leave it as if the options had expired worthless.

10:12: SUNE has popped nicely off the low. The option bid not really dropping though, so may have to get short some SUNE instead if the option bid keeps refusing to drop. This type of action is exactly why I thought I had to focus on providing liquidity with the hedge - despite it being hard to do.

10:14: Chased an add on NUGT lower. As is usual recently, gold A LOT weaker. It's crazy how much weaker today, so happy to try and be there for the NUGT all day unwind. Adding allows me to get some profit locked into down-move, rather than just holding.

10:18: Should probably have just shorted SUNE there when it became obvious wouldn't get the fill on option. That being said, have all day and premium should decay throughout the day. Bid may not have dropped now, but 2 hours from now on the same action and it might. Again, whole plan should be not to panic and focus on providing liquidity.

10:38: SUNE bid still not really dropping despite a really decent pop in SUNE. Forced to re-establish short around 0.49. Seems somewhat like an SSR rally, given difficulty to get fill when I tried to do it at market. Again same plan cover into 46s.

10:48: SUNE. Almost looking like I should just hold the puts. The 4c bid just not dropping, and doesn't make sense to pay that much for it. Am scaling back in the hedge. A great cover on the hedge at the low. Covering that low, and then the resulting pop has allowed me a tonne of flexibility now on how to manage going forward.

10:50: Have mistraded GNCA this morning. Not enough taking profits, and not enough effort to get in at good prices. Long and short both would have worked if fading moves. Volume still extremely high, so despite looking bearish, if it vwap reclaims can easily go to high of day like yesterday.

10:52: NUGT - think there should be a big trade in this as an unwind at some point today. Will try to maintain as much flexibility though, so that can add into any fake upmove. Gold is consistently trending lower, while NUGT is sort of consolidating after a pop off the lows.

10:55: Pretty frustrating to still not having a fill on SUNE puts, despite it being at 50c. What are they going to announce bankruptcy midday? Yeah right... Still, will trade this hedge around a core until get fill on option cover.

10:57: Added full size NUGT with gold rolling over slightly. yes I have reduced my flexibility, but really like the trade. Clear stop as well.

10:58: TSLA made a lot @ $235 and bounced pretty hard, then came down to retest it. Should have been aggressively long on that. Very clean and obvious setup, somewhat annoyed I didn't take it.

11:07: So my stop plan is somewhat complicated on NUGT - am mentioning it because complicated stop plan can lead to stubbornness. It is gearing up, but gold isn't. If NUGT breaks out without corresponding move in gold I will not cover until gold follows and/or NUGT doesn't fail quickly. If god follows cleanly will stop immediately.

11:13: GNCA working. Would not be surprised to see this go r/g and over the high, however, unfortunately I didn't make enough money on it this morning (didn't make any!) So am forced to trade it light and lock in profits early.

11:14: Gold not following the NUGT breakout. Need to be careful, so if the NUGT still holds will stop out. However, this is exactly why you have complicated stop plans sometimes.

11:20: Gold turning lower, NUGT breakout failed. Beauty. Really nice to see a plan like that come together. Ideally I would have added into the fakeout which would have provided an incredible risk-reward entry, but oh well.

11:30: Just reviewing a few things, after today will be 4/4 profitable days in a row. If profitable on Monday will be able to increase full size by 10% which would be pretty good!

11:34: Just waiting to cover down some size on NUGT then will take a nap. Need to reset and look forward with fresh eyes. By the looks of it am still going to be battling SUNE for the afternoon. Also some good potential trades setting up for the afternoon.

11:39: Possible gold strength after a wick lower. NUGT looks super clean for move lower after fakeout, but gold breaking downtrend. Not looking to be stubborn here, as the two moving together acts as confirmation. Important to note that hitting the stop here results in a better exit than if I had hit the stop on the false breakout (despite gold being higher). Have put in a hard stop, which would be where the one that would have got faked out on would be (about 50c above current price). With all the faking action want to ensure it actually gets above a level before I stop, plus it means I can nap now.

12:20: Stopped on NUGT, and my starter on GNCA. A potential few trades setting up, but will finish day-trades on that note. Only management of SUNE hedge to go.

12:22: Quite interesting. If I wanted to draw out my position to get long SUNE at a better price, I could roll my 50c puts (close at 4c and lose 1c) to next week and received roughly 16c, net of roll would be 12c. If I wasn't so absolutely convinced that SUNE will go bankrupt very shortly that seems like a free lunch. Even then, what is it going lower than 35c? Not really, on actual bankruptcy news it probably goes to 10-25c range, so being long from 35c really isn't the end of the world. Anyway it's just interesting.
For today, there is massive open interest at 0.5c so may be reasonable to expect a peg to 50c. That may explain my difficultly in closing my puts. May be better to just let them expire. I also notice that there's a lot of shorts (SSR is on so you can tell) which is somewhat unusual given the price. It is most likely market makers getting short ready for delivery of stock tonight.

1:20: So the problem with it being pegged. Do I go home with a hedge or not? Based on the action, I do not expect it to close below 0.48, so it is not worth covering my options at 2c, given that I still can't get a fill here with the stock price at 50.5c. So building back hedge to max size. Post 2pm I will give up on trading around my core hedge and hold 1000 shares short. That seems the best way to do it.
So come Monday if closes below 50c I will be long 1000 shares, and can easily flip them into the 50c mark. I do not believe there is much risk to this, except for the actual bankruptcy filing because the flow of bad news can't get any worse.
Or I will be short 1000 shares, which there is probably some risk to... But whatever. Seems a good way to balance it.

1:35: SUNE having a bit of an attempt at r/g push. Is now at prices that make me relatively confident it doesn't close below 0.5000, so will be happy scaling short into upmove, then covering out at breakeven. It would make sense to close the hedge out now. But as mentioned multiple times; very important to be counter-trend to some degree on the hedge. Otherwise just end up chasing prices, ruining averages etc etc.

2:17: Closed up the last remaining part of the hedge at slightly worse than breakeven (0.5050). Think it has a reasonable chance to go below 0.5000, so I maybe should have saved some for there. From here pretty 50/50 where it closes but will certainly be close to 0.5000. Overall am +$48 on the hedge, so that amounts to 2.5c on 2000 shares. So if I get exercised on the puts I will be long with 0.4470 average. Will try sell as close to 0.5000 on Monday as possible.

2:22: First time I have ever had to hedge a position like that. Quite weird thing to do, but pretty happy with the end result I think. The most important moment was covering my short down at 0.45 support. The biggest mistake was not recognising the gearing pattern (thinking, oh I need to be short), and adjusting so that could use the gearing pattern to short higher.