Trading Review: 03-30-2017

Gross PnL: +$323.

Net PnL: +$269. Was $19 in borrow fees.

Disciplined day count: 4.

Such a good day in terms of process. I don't think I can recall a single better day in terms of process. Think it shows when you look at the size of the winners versus losers (although there are some losing trades hidden there within the winners).

Most days I have plenty of minor mistakes. Today I only have 2 identifiable ones, and they weren't really that bad:
Over-trading creeping in, and very minor occurrences not waiting for correct entry. Not even worth delving further into...

So what made today so good and how can I replicate it?
- Not 100% sure, in a really good mindset overall. Especially keeping things tight. Yesterdays unfortunate incident certainly bolstered motivation to keep things tight.
- Focusing on my methodology was definitely a helping hand. However I actually would have performed better keeping to it even more.
- To be honest though, this is simply the expected level. No lapses in discipline, good risk-reward on trades, always taking stops, little fomo/good patience for entry.

Interesting observation about today is that I probably would have done even better if I could do partials effectively.

Trading Review: 03-29-2017

Gross PnL: -$318.

Net PnL: -$337. (Paid $4 for borrows on DFFN).

Just completely ignoring this day. Platform bugged out on open and I was long CBIO, required restart and when back on I placed stop below the low (in hope that it would squeeze back).

I share about 20-30% of the blame for this however because it was a marginal position with entry about $50-$70 worse than it should have been; and I was waiting to place stop so I could get it tighter.

Trading Review: 03-28-2017

Gross PnL: +$28

Net PnL:  -$40. (Was $13 in borrow fees).

Another disciplined day. Disciplined day count 3. Although today was very marginal. In particular the PSIX long premarket when there was no volume (and therefore impossible to set stop).
Additionally some of my stops were really really wide. The only reason I'm considering this a disciplined day is because I did hit the stops as required.

Really struggled with fomo on entry today. This caused poor entries, wide stops, and stop-outs where they wouldn't have otherwise occurred, and therefore over-trading to some extent. An observation is that starter positions (like I used to) are a result of fomo, and not getting a good enough entry. However they help reduce fomo. But put simply if you don't have the patience to wait for a good entry you shouldn't be trading.
My levels of fomo are definitely related to the amount of opportunity - which is a pain, because to capitalise on opportunity you really need no fomo.

To be clear fixing fomo is not my goal at the moment but today was bad enough that it warrants caution.

Another issue today was swinging for the fences - had I locked in CBIO I could have reshorted, day would have been a lot less stressful.

Trading Review: 03-27-2017

Gross PnL: +$227.

Net PnL: +$181 ($30 in borrow fees, HTGM was really expensive!).

Discipline day count: 2. Need 20 disciplined days in a row to consider increasing size. A disciplined day is considered to be a day where stop is always set with entry and where max size isn't exceeded.

Came across a slight issue today; which will need further consideration. Similar to how I can't set a profit target and a stop on stops that I am long and can't short; if I have a odd lot (e.g. 50 shares) I can't either. Obviously the stop takes priority; but as it gets close to target need to swap, and remember to swap back. Can create issues when the target is quite tight as well.
I think the solution will be to work out how to place OCO orders... But a quick google did not solve that, so will need to delve deeper.

Really happy with the day overall. Mistakes across the board... But again, keep trading like this and I am a consistently profitable trader.

A slept in this morning and wasn't prepared for the open. Luckily I knew exactly how I wanted to trade HTGM; so focused on that until I found time to prepare for other trades. Happy with this because I did the right thing, instead of forcing trades on a lack of preparation. It is a shame though because I probably would have caught a monster long on APOP (had spent all weekend thinking about how the climate was right to get long day 1 runners).

One other thing notable about today that I'm really happy with. I'm very clearly not in the right mind to be shorting size on my "conviction" setups, and under no circumstances am I going over max size. HTGM fell under this type of setup and I didn't take any additional size on it; so really happy there.

Minor mistakes for the day:
(1) Size of TSLA trade. In general the TSLA trade was marginal; purely because it's a stock that I shouldn't really be trading 100 shares on. I was only risking 40c (so around $60 with slippage) but it was an arbitrary stop to some extent. Risk-reward wise the trade worked out, at one point I was up $190; but then that being said that's probably too much.
(2) Was slow to stop on TSLA trade, was a clean loss of momentum prior to where I stopped out my trailer.
(3) GBR although I encountered slippage - it actually had a small bounce from where I should have been getting long. Dumb trade.
(4) Somewhat unlucky to get stopped at the high. That being said I need to allow some room on these types of trades, AND it is somewhat unexcusable not to revisit trade. Was a clear trend trade setup later.
(5) Finally on HTGM I opted not to take any profit into morning move. I am okay with this decision. Problem is: On any setup you can either trail stop quite aggressively, then be open to get back in or reduce position, maintain wide stop-loss and then be prepared to add back to position at good prices. In this case I did a weird mix - with a wide stop-loss (to try allow for fake-outs). So when I re-initated the position I was at risk of falling into that trap of entering, stopping, entering, stopping and losing a lot of money that way.

Any good day - and definitely progress forward.

YTD PnL Curve:

Trading Review: 03-22-2017

Gross PnL: +$185.

Net PnL: +$149. Borrow fees for PULM were $9.

Really really happy with the day. Never broke rules and was relatively patient for entries. Minor mistakes that will get fixed with time.

At one point in the morning I had made 5 trades; made up of 2 losses, 2 scratches, and 1 winner. On net I was quite in the green. That's pretty much exactly where I want to be. Would also add that the scratches were good scratches that I did a good job of not letting a good entry turn into a loser.

So I've finally worked out how to approach improving in trading at the moment. I do not need to worry about patience or quality of trade ideas at the moment.
No matter my monetary results - I need to string together 20 days of:
(1) Not breaking max size.
(2) Setting stop-loss immediately.
Before I even think about increasing size. All else is secondary and in most cases will follow.

Cool thing is that it only takes 2 positive days to feel confident about trading again. Even though one of them wasn't a good quality day. But don't need to worry about positive or negative days.

Another side note: Having the mental attitude of "surviving the day" i.e. not hitting max drawdown; seems to help as well.

Will likely have rest of week off. I need to pile on the Uber hours to generate some cash - running a little low. Plus need to do 16 hour day as punishment for breaking rules on Tuesday.

Trading Review: 03-21-2017

Gross PnL: +$125.

Net PnL: +$207 (borrow fees were $9.00 for VSR). Don't quite understand how this happens - will need to check through statement at some point today.

Really happy with the morning. Some minor/basic issues which will iron themselves out as I become less rusty and get my flow back. If I traded like I did this morning I would be earning a full time income as a trader.
Just to be clear it was nowhere near perfect and I wouldn't be happy to trade that way everyday. But by being disciplined and patient would have good days which would make up for mistakes. A bad trade executed with discipline is only a 1R loss.

However, it seems like VSR exhausted me in some sense. I missed a half cover by 1c, then raised it, missed by 1c; then raised it and it traded at my cover price with no fill. Then I was stopped out at the high.
At this stage I was roughly $30 and thought okay I'll try put on a cheeky trade bring it back into slight positive range. I know this is stupid so no idea why I did it. Halfway through it I was like "don't be a cunt" and started trying to ease out of it.
So I put on a slightly oversized ESPR short and a moderately oversized PULM long. Worse case scenario I would have lost about $500 which is wayyyy above max drawdown. Simply not good enough and not the habits I am trying to create.
All this being said, I am aware that I need to ease into it; and it will be difficult at the start. This is why I am keeping things on a super tight lease.

As a result of the lack of discipline I will not trade on Thursday and will do a 16 hour/$250+ day Ubering. As a nice twist I actually need the cash-flow anyway so a convenient time for me to do the punishment.

First Week/Day Back

Goals: - Really want to ensure I can trade out the entire day. Last time I got back into trading I had sometimes met my max drawdown before 10:00 and often before 10:30. This meant that I missed a lot of potential progress. If I hit max drawdown after trading the entire day it is completely different to hitting it in the first half hour.
This will be done by limiting the frequency of trades and following max size/loss rules.
- Stop-loss to be set for each trade immediately upon entry. To be honest this won't make much of a difference for this week; but it is a habit I want to build.

Max Loss for Day: $150

Max Loss for Individual Trade: $25

Max Size: 100 shares across all stocks $2+

Methodology: - Don't want to be too focused on waiting for confirmation.
- Follow methodology detailed in different/earlier post.
- Wide stop-losses to maximise probability of success (help confidence).
- Take profit quickly (to lock in winners and build confidence).
- Focus on excellent entry. This goes hand in hand with don't wait too much for confirmation.

Trading Review: 01-27-2017

Net PnL: -$3050(ish). Borrow fees were quite expensive.

Posting this about 2 months after this day. Still remember it quite vividly...

Beginning today I had one more day where I could trade before being below PDT. If I slipped below PDT I was going to have to take 2-3 weeks off to get together a deposit; and I had made so much progress... So I decided to size up into PULM and try and get it back to the price I wanted.

As can be seen it closed at the high so I eventually came back to my senses. I had wanted to bag-hold it overnight... But soo glad I didn't even though it had an offering overnight. That kind of stubbornness is blow-up material.

Psychologically this one really kicked me in the ass, even though monetarily I have had worse. Feel like I have finally had a bit of recklessness beaten out of me. Grinding away driving for Uber on big hours for 2 months to get the money back was a real lesson.