Trading Review: 01-26-2017

Net PnL: -$411.

7/10 psych score. Notes: Pretty good overall except for impatience on GLBS (again!). Wanted to go over max size but held off - which is really nice discipline! GLBS ended up squeezing out, so really happy with this.

Another day that was actually pretty solid. Good tight risk, and reasonable trade ideas. Definitely think there's some degree of over-trading going on while I'm adjusting.
Issue of going max size straight away is definitely still present. GLBS would have been a great one to take a starter position, then add - rather then stopping and trying again (both full size).

Am still feeling okay about progress, but definitely concerning how long it is taking to turn it around. Reasonable to consider a goal going forward to try and avoid getting stopped out. Additionally I only have enough equity in account for one more trade before PDT, so will only take A+ trades tomorrow.

Trading Review: 01-25-2017

Gross PnL: -$302.

Net PnL: -$371.

6/10 psych score. Notes: Great execution on everything but GLBS, but sick of paper-cuts and rattled.

Kind of ironic that my biggest losers on the day were on stocks that are within my niche. FOMO and lack of patience not waiting for prices I wanted, this is obvious by getting stopped at high of day on GLBS.

Traded pretty well today, (apart from GLBS and DRYS). Today really illustrated why you can't have stops hard against levels.
(1) Stopped twice on UVXY before a 3R(+) move.
(2) Stopped on NUGT once, then nearly stopped again before trade worked.

Overall though I'm actually pretty happy with the day. Good discipline etc, I would just say I am struggling to adapt to the changes in style - so really good progress.

Trading Review: 01-24-2016

Net PnL: +$120.

9/10 Psych score at 10:30. Notes: Such good flow today! Only fault is that I didn't size down on GLBS to limit risk when I was uncomfortable with potential range.

Really really good day prior to experiencing some decent drawdown on ETRM, GLBS, and DRYS. Was some misplays on how I managed my winners there.
Also broke max size rule on DRYS when it had that weird squeeze. Not sure what I was thinking - think I was tilted from the mistakes.

Side note: Fully expected DRYS to go back to the lows, but due to breaking rules I decided I had to cover and end day.

So what happened today?
(1) Some great initial shorts. Really nice patience on them for entry.
(2) Right balance between covering half and holding (at least to start with). This is especially emphasised by my cover at the lows on DRYS where I thought it would trade lower all day, but covered anyway.
(3) Good job on having stops in initially.
(4) Biggest mistake early was adding from 1/4 size to 1/2 size on GLBS. The add was too early.
(5) Should have covered half GLBS into the lows. Was too focused on waiting to add to short below $9.20.
(6) I didn't set a stop on DRYS when I left the house. WTF was I thinking? "Oh I'm so far in the money it doesn't matter". Very dumb. If I had stopped above vwap I could have safely attacked it in the spot where I ended up going over max size.
(7) Shorted into DRYS pop without a hard stop, and over max size.

Side note GLBS: The personality of this stock absolutely requires covering into favourable moves because stop needs to be wide because of danger of a squeeze-out (which caught me).

Completely unexpected, but trade of the day is UVXY. I risked $15, didn't really expect it to work; and it never looked in trouble. Prior to UVXY trade I was up about $200 on the day, and then as it turns out I would have only just been positive on the day without UVXY due to other mistakes, so kinda nice.

Trading Review: 01-23-2017

Net PnL: -$273.

Pretty dumb day - I thought I had made good progress towards some of the mistakes I made last week. Today the big mistake was trying the same trade over and over again. If I had taken one or two smaller stops; then waited for it setup the trade would have been flat on net.
Other thing is that if I had been super tactical/patient on entries, there were some easy flips available OR at the very least some super low risk entries (compared to the ones I took). Zoomed in picture attached, with spots circled.

Oddly I didn't feel tilted about this trade (which is usually the case when I chew up a lot of money taking the same trade over and over). It was a case of believing in my thesis and trying the same counter-trend trade over and over again (which shouldn't be done).

Again tomorrow, just slow things down!
(1) Slightly smaller size (especially on open).
(2) Focus on the range trades until 10:30.
(3) Don't try the same trade to get stopped out over and over again.
(4) Get stops in quickly.

Weekly Review: 01-22-2017

Net PnL: +$100.

Such a rusty week back is the only way to describe it! Plenty of progress though and am feeling positive about the week going forward.

The main mistake which encompasses all of the others is that I was putting on max size on every trade - and therefore not surviving long enough to catch the good trades. Fixing this up will mean; at the very least I can spend longer trading and learning from other mistakes. It's not hard to meet a $100 goal, so there's no time pressure or anything like that.

Other Mistakes:
(1) Being impatient for trades. Therefore not surviving long enough.
(2) Going over max size and not covering immediately.
(3) Not having a stop plan.
(4) Not following methodology - range trade only prior to 10:30.
(5) Going over max drawdown (related to size issue).

In general I also had some pretty bad trade ideas that I probably wouldn't have made if I had thought them through a little more.

Playbook Review: PNAT 01-20-2017

Title: Dump after the pump on OTC

Strategy Description: Worth mentioning that unlike other pumps which pretty clean. This one hadn't even gone red on the day during the pump until today. This increased confidence of a dump significantly.

Was news after close yesterday that OTC was requesting more information. Although news isn't essentially. This actually created a gap down which made it somewhat harder to trade.

On gap down important not to get fomo. It is possible that it does a mini-squeeze out (after all the stock is manipulated). So piecing into trade over time is important. Especially since fills can be difficult. I was definitely slightly too early on my second add.
The second add should only be right before the dump - hence immediate cover when it doesn't dump.

You want to hold this type of trade as long as possible, but quite important to cover into anticipated levels. Bounces can be big and hard to execute on after the fact. Especially on illiquid issues like this.

Trading Review: 01-20-2017

Net PnL: +$945.

Really really happy with day. Very few mistakes made; and met my sub-goal of "lasting the distance". Today this meant I held off making impulsive trades on the open; which ironically would have worked today (still not right thing to do).

Something significant that happened today was the dump on PNAT. I have been eyeing this trade for multiple weeks; and it finally dumped. I "knew" today was dump day, so I spent a fair bit of time thinking about how to size it; and visualising the setup. I initially thought I would do 5k shares. Then I thought; no that's too much given my current position (if I have to stop it will be a $1k loss - which I would struggle to absorb financially at the moment). Then I thought; okay I'll do 2k shares - again I eventually reasoned that there was no reason to be greedy and settled on 1k shares. Ultimately this was a risk of around $100-$200 which I am quite happy with; given it's an A++ setup.
Something else I'm super happy about on PNAT was that it had a nasty gap down, which somewhat ruined the setup. I exercised good patience by initiating a half position and adding when it broke lower again. I could have exercised more patience though! But overall I felt that I was lacking fomo and this helped me execute.
In a year or two this will be a $7k trade. But not before!

Although PNAT is obviously trade of the day purely based on magnitude. I feel that IDXG was an amazing trade. Covered risk quickly, patient on rest. Entry was good and patient - only after I knew it was toast did I enter.

Mistakes:
(1) Still felt that my size was too high on every trade.
(2) ETRM was done poorly. I didn't really have a 100% stop plan. You can see from the size of the upmove, versus where I covered. And how much I made that I was also oversized. The correct approach would have been to be smaller with wider stop.
(3) Should have been covering PNAT into down-moves; then holding 1/4 or something. You can see that I would have been struggling emotionally on each bounce.
(4) CBDS poor idea, perhaps generated by boredom(?).

Trading Review: 01-19-2017

Net PnL: -$475.

Another short day where I was done for the day very early. Again size of loss is too big.

Today I did something really good that I'm quite proud of (amongst many mistakes). I was short GLBS; and was 99% it was going to go down (I was just early); but I ended up hitting out according to my predefined plan. Really happy with this discipline, and getting punished for a bad trade (instead of hanging on and eventually making money - reinforcing bad habits).

Sub goal for tomorrow: Want to actually last the distance. Keep being done by 10am, even 9:45. Just slow down and last the distance! The opportunity is there!

Mistakes:
(1) CBDS was a bad trade. The level was clean but not a level to try a tactical short against the open. I had even noted that I didn't really want to short until it had gone red on the day. If midday this trade would have been fine.
(2) Wasn't quick enough on the CBDS stop. The edge on support/resistance plays is being able to have a clean and tight stop. Funny thing is that I wanted to be (swing) long above $8.25.
(3) Too much size on both trades. Both were max size. I should only be max size when it's a super good setup. Otherwise nothing wrong with risking $20 to make $50.
(4) Not happy with the second GLBS trade. By this time the volume was there; so it made sense to wait - but that's more a read issue.

Playbook Review: JAZZ 01-18-2017

Trade Idea:

Bigger Picture: JAZZ had a negative hit; turn into a positive; coupled with a positive release. I thought it was too high to look on the long side (at least until more time had passed and it was holding trend). So initial idea was a squeeze out (of the early shorts) and a pull back.

Closest level is 130.10; but that seemed a little too far away. So needed to wait for intraday formation to get some levels to trade off.

Most important thing here is patience to wait for it to form; coupled with not being afraid to miss it. You can see I got stopped exactly where I should have been entering; and that should have been the only entry signal I took.

Trading Review: 01-18-2017

Net PnL: +$93.

PnL Chart:

Step in the right direction today... But I traded terribly! Not the same mistakes as yesterday, but arguably a worse trading day.
Really nice to iron out these mistakes when my size commitments are low. This really reinforces my idea that I need to do at least until the end of the month on the small size, with $100 target.

What happened today?
I had some okay ideas; nothing concrete and needed to let some things setup. Then ETRM came out with their offering price, significantly below current market price. So I shorted it on max size on the hypothesis that it should trade down to the offering price. Had no clear plan; and therefore no stop. Ended up holding it through a squeeze.
JAZZ was actually a reasonably executed idea; I simply didn't have good enough entry prices. And was slightly slow on getting on stop in. Patience needed working on for this trade. Overall one thing is obvious - I need to be more careful on stocks with big range. I can't do less than 100 shares - so in the case of JAZZ each of the two losses were too big - therefore I need to be prepared to miss those trades OR get a perfect low risk entry.
Was down quite a lot over max loss at peak.

Today after the losses and was thinking hopeful on ETRM after I left the house; was thinking about how there's plenty of opportunity. While also knowing that only need to nail a couple of trades and can miss plenty each day to hit target. It reminded me of how I seem to trade a lot better when on a consistent streak. It's kind of funny how I have been struggling to follow the basics since starting back - despite constantly talking about them to someone I know learning to trade.
On that note: After today's winning day (despite terrible trading); I expect I will find it easier to practice proper trading tomorrow.

Trading Review: 01-17-2016

Net PnL: -$460.10.

Man... What couldn't have gone wrong on first official day back. Very rusty. Opportunity was there; so big under-performance.

What went wrong?
- Accidentally went over max size on an order that went through the moment I decided to market it. Didn't reduce size and take a paper-cut (on the reduction).
- Strayed away from methodology of not trend trading until after 10:30.
- After narrowly missing entry on first wash on GEVO chased entry. Side note: Although I'm happier with the second trade on GEVO, wasn't worth throwing two large trades at it.
- Got nasty slippage on FWP (which was on the increased size); which literally ended with me getting stopped at the high. This is just one of those things though, only the sizing; and holding off on premature entry was within my control.

Other thoughts:
- Haven't quite worked out my daily routine yet because often times I will be ubering right up until 2:30 (when I need to start preparing). Will see how this week goes to think this through.