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.

Trading Review: 11-22-2017

Gross PnL: +$481.

Net PnL: +$415. $34 in borrows.

Got done what I needed to get done today. Was extremely disciplined, and on the discipline side of things I completely nailed it.
Stayed around for a little longer than I had intended to, because my first three trades were losers; but never was at risk of more than max drawdown and always completely in control.

Today really illustrated the power of good risk-reward trades. The sequence of events today was:
(1) 0/3 from first 3 trades. Somewhat unlucky on a risk cover on one. Watched one work to beyond my imagination (EKSO) after getting wicked out.
(2) 0/4 with one breakeven trade.
(3) 1/5, but the winner was only a partial fill (CRM).
(4) 2/6 with a winner on DE which literally earned back all the profits from the stops.

Along came LMFA, which was the opportunity of the day - excluding the nice EKSO short I was wicked out of. Originally I actually put a tiny long on it, just to ensure I was patient with my short entry.
Didn't really work because the distribution was heavy, and eventually a fake bid ran it all the way up to retest the high. Shorted too early, and net RR was barely better than 1:1. So kinda annoyed about this. Difficult trade to execute on.

Trading Review: 11-20-2017 - 11-21-2017

Net PnL: -$27.

Let the tilt get to me again, which is fucking bullshit. Just when I thought I was getting past it.

Need to get back to basics, make sure fully planning trades - have only been filling out half of what I want to.

Goal for tomorrow is to string together a couple of well executed, patient, stop-loss already entered into market trades. Then call it quits early and build the habit back. I can't afford to be ill disciplined again - potentially trading career ending...

Trading Review: 11-16-2017 - 11-17-2017

Net PnL: -$956.

Two days here. Complete fuck-up again.

So what happened?

I had borrowed 1000 shares of CADC as a precaution because I knew they would run out; and if I wanted to add to a winner in the afternoon I planned to use them (had planned for this to be an all day short). Instead I shorted the bounce with the full 1000 shares where I could see I could reliably place a stop. Only problem was the platform lagged while trying to place my stop, so it was a lot higher when I got it in...
Thing is, I can't blame the platform because I only planned to use a maximum of 500 shares until the trade was cleanly in the money (as I mentioned planned to add in the afternoon if possible).

Days like these are the ones that make me realise I'm still nowhere there yet, if I can't control a small impulse to diverge from my plan.

Trading Review: 11-15-2017

Gross PnL: +$1283.

Net PnL: +$1159.

Was meant to be a quiet day but then things started getting crazy and massive opportunity showed up. Because I was trading extremely disciplined for the earlier parts of the day I kept it up.
Ended up slacking a little bit on discipline towards the end of the day (starting with LMFA short), but for the most part am okay.

Was late to stop on GBR, but first time I've really had a piece of shit move like that against me; so am okay with that - can see it as a lesson.

LMFA first short definitely worst trade of the day, just slacked on the stop; and coupled with poor entry. Ended up recollecting and taking the good stop, which led to the really nice short on it later in the day.

Best trade of the day was shorting QRHC. It went down quickly than I liked (similar to CCCL yesterday), and despite having quite a bit of conviction - I set out offers and absolutely nailed the sweet entry. Complete mastery of patience, directional bias, AND timing there.

Trading Review: 11-14-2017

Gross Profit: +$247.

Net PnL: +$163. $64 in borrows. Paid a lot for borrows, but proved to be worth it.

Absolutely retarded day deserved to be down $1000, not up slightly... Have definitely fallen off from the good mindset I had for the past few weeks. Didn't make the same mistakes as yesterday, but made different ones. Missed stops across the board, tad too much size, poor patience for entry.

Tomorrow will just focus on nailing a couple of trades: patience, stops, small(ish) size, good risk-reward. And try and reverse the recent trend in my discipline - then take rest of day off to lock it in.

CCCL deserves a special mention. Based on how heavy it was I figured it retraced entire rally. Lent into my conviction a little too hard, didn't take any early profits and didn't hit a stop when it triggered.
(Stop would have been higher if I had the patience to wait for correct entry).

Also ROKU I exhausted myself before the trade played out. I made a deliberate effort to avoid the morning action, then started into it too early after the morning. Tad frustrating, but at least I hit the stops.