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(?).