Trading Review: 04-23-2018

Gross PnL: -$521.

Net PnL: -~$621.

Man really annoyed about this day. There were a couple of crucial mistakes towards end of day that completed destroyed a good mornings trading.

So started off the morning with some solid execution on some reasonable trade ideas. Out of the roughly 3-4 ideas, only one of them worked properly, and that was one that I only ever got a starter position on.
Then came the scalp off the halt gap down on VLRX, which was an opportunity I saw to push size a little; so did a solid job of trading that. At this point, up about $1000; for really only one really good trade idea.

Started going downhill after that. Took the short HAS trade for a fade, which initially was fine. When it failed to reject I simply didn't have the right mindset. There was plenty of opportunity to completely size down to a feeler on a dip (partial fills weren't helping on this either) - it is literally in my "anti-playbook" to aggressively fade a cleanly trending stock on news on day 1. So at peak I drewdown about $1000 on this (so I was BE on the day). At this point I knew I was trading badly, it is interesting to know that I would have been better off just canning the day here.
So CHEK popped up, and although it was clean; the volume pattern wasn't ideal - and I probably traded it a bit too aggressively. There was a seller sending it lower (and was relatively convinced he was fake) - turned out to be the case, but it tested me. Anyway way too aggressive given I needed to give it room to vwap. Good exits, realising I was in a pickle though and not holding on for breakeven of better.
So after all this (where I wasn't trading amazingly well); I was breakeven on the day. Donated another $500 to the market via a stupid NFLX trade.

Just so incredible how important it is to be in right mindset, a lot of avoidable mistakes that compounded somewhat. Not end of world, but shows how things can go.

Trading Review: 04-20-2018

Gross PnL: +$517.

Net PnL: +$503.

Not much on today, and no borrows.

Some cool stats:
- 1 negative day this month, out of 12 trading days.
- Losing day was -$547, while had two winning days over $2000, and two over $1000.

Sounds pretty good on the face of it, and some really solid work underlying that; and big progress made. But the losing day, should really have been -3k (there was some revenge trading going on); and there was a +500 day where I probably shouldn't have added to a loser on HMNY. So doesn't take long to see where I need to work.

Trading Review: 04-19-2018

Gross PnL: +$635.

Net PnL: +$514. $55 in borrows.

Really rough day, with plenty of volatility in my pnl. Up $500, down $800, grinded back to +$500. Additionally lost short INCY, then lost long INCY, then was perfectly happy to take the trade to short it - very solid psychologically. Very happy with how I maintained my solid psychology. Although there were a few losses bigger than ideal (mistakes); was very solid in terms of always having an exit plan.
I believe today's success is a result of having built up mental capital over the last few weeks. By generating solid consistency the past few days, and appropriately sizing my bigger trades (to a size I can comfortably handle) I built up huge mental capital.
Worth mentioning here, that I'm not defining success by a profitable day. Just that I traded solidly all day, in the face of extremely annoying chop.

Trading Review: 04-18-2018

Gross PnL: +$2266.

Net PnL: +$2099. $120 in borrows.


Another nice day, these gains are adding up and sent through a sizeable withdrawal today. Missed the setup to size into CANN and DCAR despite being spot on, so hammer IZEA when it came up. Made a deliberate effort to stick around a bit longer but was exhausted and still ending up going to bed. Had the right bias, so would have made a little bit more, but it's all good.

Am getting a little bit scared by my absurd win-rate recently. It's not that I'm complaining, just that it's healthy to take a few losers regularly. My win-rate has probably been bolstered by the fact that I'm being a little more picky than usual, and have finally worked out how to incorporate pump-man into my niche.

Need to make sure I am being vigilant with my stop-outs. I am not worried that I'll take an enormous loss (3k+), but certainly think there is a danger that I get stubborn and rack an unnecessary loss into the 1-3k range (aka HMNY the other day, where I should have stopped on re-entered).

Note on IZEA today: Had to spam the borrows button to get it, didn't get it at first. Is nice to get borrows on a play like this (as I haven't recently), and need to make sure I'm on the game getting them immediately.

Trading Review: 04-17-2018

Gross PnL: +$1019.

Net PnL: +$769. $186 in borrows.

Pretty solid day. Unfortunately bugger all borrows across the board. There were some sick setups that I would have crushed (10k+ potential day).

No fills on CANN short, unfortunately it didn't muck around when the open came in - usually they will pause on a big gap down for a few minutes. No such luck, but all good.

HMNY probably mistake of the day. Should have cut it off instead of fighting it further. That being said, I chose a plan and stuck to it. Best thing I did was cover down to flat where I would want to get long, to avoid fighting it further.
If I had continued trading on the day, this would have made HMNY a big winner on the day because I could re-establish my short as a new position at the correct spot.

NFLX over pm high, and subsequently onto new ATH was one of the sickest high beta trades I have seen in a while. I really should have taken it, but called it a day early.

Trading Review: 04-16-2018

Gross PnL: +$583.

Net PnL: +$471. $89 in borrows.

Grinder type day. Had some good trade ideas, but kind of opted not to execute on them once I was up enough. Trying to take it slowly and let the small wins add up, at least until I've made a dent in my upcoming tax bill.

Both trades simple trades against chat pump. KONE never got high enough obviously, and risky anyway given lack of volume (hence why I only filled 1/10th).

Trading Review: 04-11-2018

Gross PnL: +$812.

Net PnL: +$677. $106 in borrows.

Another weird day of playing cautiously. Kind of funny to see the 100% accuracy today - although I wouldn't consider that the long FAST and SPOT trades worked.
Very frustrating day. There were two high conviction trades that I wanted to short the shit out of, and each one would have netted $1500+. Unfortunately no borrows.
Other frustrating thing for today was the trades I was lining up moved too quick (cause they literally were engineered moves). CNET I borrowed 2000 shares for, and only filled 400 (200 of which was a chase). CALI same thing.