Trading Review: 12-15-2017

Gross PnL: -$911.

Net PnL: -$977. $30 in borrows.

Some solid trades, followed by a tilted trade. Short the low, cover the top lol...

This reinforces the rule: Don't let myself hit more than 2/3 of max drawdown before 10:30 - as was plenty of opportunity after, and because I needed to clear head after hitting a few losses.

Started with a good mindset, realised I was oversized on LFIN and fixed problem ASAP, and took some solid stops.

Frustrating to have right bias on LFIN and not catch such a monster move! Again, I would have re-entered if I had followed my rule mentioned above.

Trading Review: 12-14-2017

Gross PnL: +$235.

Net PnL: +$151. $29 in borrows.

Tough day with some tough reads. That being said, I probably over adjusted to small(ish) movements - seeing as my methodology suggests I shouldn't trade around vwap until after 10:30. Took a couple of stops, which I probably could have taken faster, but overall pretty good.

Unfortunately today after the SIEB short trade was entered I had to go to bed, so I had a stop in; and I only put a cover in for 100 shares (in case it wicked me out with stop, then left me holding the bag). When I got up again it was just after I had covered the first 100 shares, and I was up roughly $900 on the position. I immediately placed an order to cover above the current best bid - then went back to bed.
Assumed it was an easy fill (eventually), and woke up to a vwap reclaim.

I was bidding to cover on a wash from about $10 upwards, eventually getting filled at breakeven of $10.71.

I am not proud at all of my add into the strength late day, as this breaks one of the more important rules... But at least I had the sense not to fight it.

Random other comment of the day is that the washout from the volatility halt on SIEB literally bounced off vwap for a massive move to high of day again. Am annoyed I wasn't more aggressive on this, and also annoyed I didn't have bids in around vwap.

Trading Review: 12-13-2017

Gross PnL: -$47.

Net PnL: -$89. $62 in borrows. A few borrows today that I didn't use.

Got creamed today on the CPAH short. After the first halt it got rejected slightly quicker than I'm used to, but I was patience and executed good entries on the short. Unfortunately because I was trying to be "loose" like the day before I didn't have a stop in, thus missed the stop. Perfect opportunity to stop and re-enter.

Of course this brings me back to original problem. Implementing stops, so I need to figure out how to use stops efficiently in the same trading style. Ironic thing of course is that it wouldn't have been too hard to have a stop on CPAH, as the level I was trading against was quite clean, and I was using scaled orders.

Trading Review: 12-12-2017

Gross PnL: +$1861.

Net PnL: +$1775. $22 in borrows.

Absolutely sick day. Massive profit, despite on really having one oversized trade (the short PTI in the morning for roughly +300).
Corrected some mistakes from yesterday, particularly on TIK where I scaled in over time.

Big change today was that I traded a bit "loosely" in an effort to simulate confidence. Obviously it seemed to work, although my ideas had quite a high win-rate today. Now I need to work out how to change that "style" of trading into a good process where I have clean hard stops in place.

For tomorrow. Don't want to breed overconfidence, just want to minimise the day but still be up on the day. Lock in these massive profits so to speak.

Trading Review: 12-11-2017

Gross PnL: +$374.

Net PnL: +~300ish. $20 in borrows.

Bit of a weird day, and had a couple of thoughts come to me throughout the day.

(1) Confidence is everything. First three ideas: 1 loser, 2 winners. Only filled on the loser.
(2) Need to dial back the emotional intensity. I believe this was the reason for my poor performance on the YTEN short.
(3) Small scalps on the long side of YTEN (didn't get over 200-300 shares) added up nicely.
(4) Gave back over $200 on ONCE short. Need to fix this sort of thing. Is too much.

Quite happy with the day overall. Just drawdowns too much. Took two full size shorts on YTEN and was stopped on them for about -450. There was no reason to be full size, and therefore it should have only been 1 stop as a scaled into the position.
Similar goes for the final short. WTF was I thinking entering there?>

Some good stops taken today though so am quite happy about that.

Trading Review: 12-04-2017 -- 12-05-2017

Net PnL: +$294.

Traded like dog shit on the Monday (let NVDA run against me) then took RIOT overnight, and had a decent trade Tuesday (with too much size) to make it back.
Wasn't happy so took rest of week off to try and consolidate. Don't feel particularly refreshed (probably as a result of trading bitcoin all week), but at least I know what I need to do.

Trading Review: 11-30-2017

Forgot to take screenshots for the day.

Net PnL: -$352. $31 in borrows.

3 losing trades, and max drawdown hit. It happens so can't complain too much.

Still feel like I'm forcing things, and not trading well because I haven't been trading well. Tomorrow off, and reset for a good Monday.

Trading Review: 11-29-2017

Net PnL: +$53.

Pretty much a nothing day. Was focusing on bitcoin all day. Took BDR short as it was a gimme. FB was an impulsive trade.

Sort of needed a day like this, as need to reset mindset. Focus on the best setups, be disciplined etc. Worth mentioning that where I shorted BDR I could have done less size and waited for the next vwap pop.

For tomorrow, will do minimal trades - and try eek out a really solid process day.

Trading Review: 11-28-2017

Net PnL: -$815. $52 in borrows.

Started the day roughly between +$700-$1000 from some good trades across MARA, RIOT, and SQ. From great trading, didn't even give the chance I wanted to add to the original RIOT short that I had.

Then got a tad sloppy, position sizes increased slightly (in reality they should have been slightly decreased because I really needed to lock in a good day).

Then got caught with pants down. Didn't have stops entered into platform on RIOT and ROKU. ROKU came out with a citron hit, so rode a fat loss, and got bailed out. Also got bailed out on the RIOT short.

Basically another fucking dog-shit day. Need to dial back the emotional intensity.

Random side note: Had a couple of moments during the day where I knew what I needed to do, and actually did it; instead of holding on for dear life. So improvement there.

Trading Review: 11-27-2017

Gross PnL: -$568.

Net PnL: -$942(?). Some fee must have shown up in account.

Sadly actually traded alright today, at least in terms of discipline etc. Had quite a good minset. Ideas just weren't quite on point.

Got some nasty slippage on SQ as well.

Random comment, had a couple of trades open when I hit max drawdown. I should have looked to reduce to minimise amount over max drawdown.

Very hard to work out what to take away from today. Biggest thing is probably that levels/price > confirmation. There were a couple of times when the trade could have been improved by a better entry. AND a couple of times when a random vwap move, wasn't really a buy signal probably.