Trading Review: 01-30-2018

Gross PnL: +$3017.

Net PnL: +$2939. $25 in borrows.

Pretty sick day really. Trade of the day by far goes to BABA. Easiest trade in a period of high volatility I have ever made.
Was looking to buy the wash on the big momo names, and got a little NFLX near the lows; then they all bounced pretty sharply except for BABA, which lagged for long enough for me to buy a reasonable position. It was pretty weird to be completely honest.

DPS - sign of my really nice mindset today, nearly flipped it long on the first breakout; but opted not to which was probably the right decision. Either way happily changing bias like that; I am very happy about it.

IMMY - I had planned to size in quite a bit, it was obvious it was a dead piece of shit, and not particularly low float. I got a tad more aggressive than ideal. In particular the adds on vwap pop near the lows.
Was one of those ones that each new high gets sold, so if done correctly I could have actually smashed each pop; and covered risk quite nicely.
Like I say, just a tad aggressive.

Trading Review: 01-29-2018

Gross PnL: +$1486.

Net PnL: ~$1436. No borrows today, nice for a change.

Started out the morning solid; by catching the DPS downleg - in the end it was quite an obvious opening drive lower.
When I went to cover 100 shares I accidentally covered my last 100, which is frustrating given where I did cover; left quite a bit on the table there. I found the setting that was resetting my entry order size to my position size after an execution, and it has been the cause of many of my fat fingers so be nice to get rid of that - bonus of changing computers.

WYNN nice bounce trade, sold all at right time - perfect mentality for it - very happy.

In the end made a stupid trade on DPS (where the idea actually worked), so opted to call it a day - there was a fair bit of other opportunity but it was the right call.

Trading Review: 01-26-2018

Gross PnL: +$1096.

Net PnL: +$1035.

Pretty interesting day. A lot to learn from it as I have been bagged on dumps (BSPM) quite a bit recently (feels recent but am having trouble hunting out when it was - job for the weekend - it was LTBR on Monday but there were a few other ones in the last month).

Either way I need to dig deep into my play of buying washouts on big percentage gainers. At one point I had given back my $1000 (and a little more).

Interesting day, stubbornness crept in a little bit on ABBV; but overall a very well managed trade (eg being comfortable scaling into new highs, with close stop in case strong b/o). It closed the day at ~123ish; so a great change in bias (essentially a stopout for profit). Kind of funny to think did pretty well on it, despite shorting a strong uptrend. Again, similar mistake as with BSPM; was just a tad too big.

LMFA. Took a good stop on the long, was actually up a little but sized in; and took the good stop. Had shorts that I had pre-borrowed and tried to scale into pops, but only got 2/5s.

A big problem I am noticing is that I am beginning to try and anticipate things (probably as a grow in confidence). This is a problem, because a big part of my edge (particularly on todays style trades); is getting the good entry, and managing size (eg sizing down into favourable push).
LMFA long with stop at the lows probably an example (it hadn't done anything to show long). But the better example is the short add on ABBV on the new high just before 10am. The correct spot to get that entry was on the first push; then sizing down into the immediate retracement.
Seems like a very minor detail, but it was this that caused me to nearly take the stop on it; when clearly the (short term) top was close.

Trading Review: 01-25-2018

Gross PnL: +$241.

Net PnL: +$206. $16 in borrows.

Was a bit all over the place on the open, had a crypto-trade I was executing. But quite happy because I reacted right and didn't force anything.
LTBR short was a bit of a shame, people were saying it was crowded; but I wasn't convinced (and would have taken it small if it weren't for aforementioned problems). Kept waiting for clean bounce to short, but was literally straight down. Am okay with missing it, for the sake of being patience for the stress-free trade.

Absolute best thing I did was take my first stop on CAT. I didn't even want to take it, and was perhaps a fraction too slow to get it in there. But it allowed me to crush the long on the bounce (which hindsight I didn't hold long enough; was a 4-5xATR move of course it will retrace a decent portion of that).

But the point is, taking the stop (which was a chunky one) allowed me to re-attack it in the appropriate spot.

Trading Review: 01-24-2018

Gross PnL: +$609.

Net PnL: +$541. $31 in borrows.

Kinda funny was meant to take it easy today but found myself in a nice flow. Some easily avoidable mistakes though so probably not ideal.
Mainly for things where there isn't a clean stop to wait for a better entry. NUGT short and PBYI are the two cases today. Would have been a nicely profitable trade if I waited.

Overall though great discipline on taking stops and not doing too much size.

ACHV was a conviction trade - was just a chatroom pump and had a history of all day fading.

UAL, amazing trade and read. Covered a bit soon; but w/e nice to nail one like that.

Trading Review: 01-23-2018

Gross PnL: +$1525.

Net PnL: +$1267. $147 in borrows.

Coming into today I was dangerously close to the PDT as a result of yesterday. I had the right idea initially (taking high probability of success trades), but got a little carried away and ending up going big when I saw a nice setup.
This is the completely wrong mentality. I should have been going small to grind away from the key level.

Overall, I think it is worth sizing down a little for a day or two. Have had some half-ass mistakes recently; and although on the next iteration I fixed some of them some other danger signs are there. Capital preservation is most important, so just a little size down and slow down.

Trading Review: 01-22-2018

Gross PnL: -$1330.

Net PnL: -$1419. $33 in borrows.

Argh, got the mistakes I keep making right; then basically lapsed fighting a dump. What a perfect stop on my initial short on LTBR, I was sized in and everything.

Then the long was just a disaster. First off, two of the routes I went to weren't working; then when I got a good route I didn't get the entry part - hence the higher initial entry. Tough to say if it would have made a difference or not, but definitely would have helped if I hadn't messed this up.
The add, add, adds were where I went wrong. I did recognise the distribution, so quite poor execution - I guess I was a bit tilted from the order problems.
Solution is, don't break max sizes ever... Even with all the messups, a $500 loss here 10x better than what it actually was.

Trading Review: 01-19-2018

Gross PnL: +$294.

Net PnL: +$185. $11 in borrows.

Today showed me what trading around a position can do. JUNO tested the lower bounds of what I expected it could do, and scalping around for entry allowed me to capture the resulting move; where I usually would have been stopped.

However, despite doing well on that front. Today was a terrible day because I missed a clean stop on FORD. Not only did this stop result in me drawing down $600; it also meant I missed some clean scalps on the long side, AND the eventually short near the highs. STOPS are everything!

Trading Review: 01-18-2018

Gross PnL: +$305.

Net PnL: ~+$190. $86 in borrows.

Terrible trading day, I think I hit maximum cockiness, a tad too much recklessness; and the epitome of swinging for the home-runs. This obviously comes from getting some big wins recently.
JUNO was the one that showed me this, however this trait has been visible (and I should have picked it up earlier); but I guess human nature is to learn more from losses.

Essentially I need to make sure I'm taking first profit targets; trading around positions, and not trying to crush every trade. This theme occurred on LIVE, MARA, and JUNO today.

I am well aware that the key to consistency is to actually take profits and not swing for the fences. A "swing for the fences" trade doesn't come along very often.

Trading Review: 01-17-2018

Gross PnL: -$526.

Net PnL: -$584. $46 in borrows.

Despite bigger loss than it should have been I am quite happy with trades. I could have traded around positions on OSTK/KODK and probably come out net positive; but I had a fair bit of conviction in both - so what I am actually happier with is that I took the stops despite having conviction.
OSTK ended up closing just under $77 so this is a massive deal. Obviously completely wrong read, and probably could have nailed the long if I had the right read; but damage contained.

Missed a really solid trade on NURO which I paid for borrows for, and would have been a decent trade.

Trading Review: 01-16-2018

Gross PnL: +$151.

Net PnL: +~$100.

Wasn't a huge amount on to start with. Somehow missed SPI premarket, only pulled it up right before open. Was an obvious short, but was too late to hone in with any conviction.

Messed up the BA short, I missed the stop (should have had a hard stop in, what an idiot), so then couldn't reshort; and forced to cover (at a point when I would have held a runner). Poor trading, but at least didn't compound mistakes and continue trading for the day.

Trading Review: 01-12-2018

Gross PnL: +$946.

Net PnL: +$888.

Got unlucky on NVDA but that's all good. Got a little bit lucky covering all my BA on a hunch so balances out. Am quite happy with where I took NVDA off though.

SGRP was a big trade lining up. I borrowed the shares (2000) then wasn't aggressively enough filling them (probably far too scared against upside). Anyway then I was too aggressive where I did short, but I was pretty sure it was dead. Nearly got squeezed out, stop was the high (which means I shorted too early).
I later found out that the two spikes on SGRP were chatroom induced, so that definitely makes me feel better about: (a) Not running a tighter stop eg against vwap, (b) not anticipating that move for entry, although perhaps I should have.
It dropped to $2.00 by close, which also confirmed my conviction.
So overall, I am just unhappy I didn't save my bullets for the chatroom spikes.

WATT - Probably a poor cover, I thought it would downtrend all day.
XNET - A completely misplayed short, great short idea, but was too aggressive wanting to hold it all day, and didn't take the clean stop earlier for profit.