LOL Yeah and I was thinking about bailing earlier, but it is moving up again. Looking for $62.50 in the AM. Oh. Well it is already AM. Can't trade now until 0400. And hey I would never be offended or irritated with your advice.
GrowleyMonster's Sorta Journal
- Thread starter GrowleyMonster
- Start date
A nice premarket shot in the arm. I was figuring TQQQ would make $62.50 in the premarket but it was looking iffy so I bailed. It might still do it but somebody else can have it. I am gonna take a nap and if I wake up in time for the open, I might look for some pharma or energy action. It would be nice to tuck away another couple hundred for a $1k day.
Darn. Traded my $813 premarket win down to $440. Well, at least I am still in the green. That's it for today. See you all Monday I guess. Live to play another day.
Today would probably have been a great day to pick all the biggest low to medium float losers and short them all.
Hmmm TVIX is taking a dive again. I see my old friend TQQQ woulda given me another 60 cent win. Well I don't care that's enough trading for me today. I'm gonna hold a little gold over the weekend, I think. Not loading the boat, though.
Today would probably have been a great day to pick all the biggest low to medium float losers and short them all.
Hmmm TVIX is taking a dive again. I see my old friend TQQQ woulda given me another 60 cent win. Well I don't care that's enough trading for me today. I'm gonna hold a little gold over the weekend, I think. Not loading the boat, though.
Yesterday was a disaster. Don't wanna talk about it. Embarrassed by what I lost. If anybody asks after seeing my new reduced bottom line, I took out $2k for stuff for the boat. LOL! I was trying to do too much with too little, and being too aggressive with placing my stops and moving them up, and misidentifying trends when I tried backing off a bit, getting stopped out for even more. Way more. Took a big position on a $3.50 stock for a bull flag play and it went hard against me. Disaster. Utter disaster. Today, not so bad. I am up $525 and right now I am only holding some TQQQ, and whenever it stops out I am done for the day.
Started my day yesterday at the close, holding some QQQ overnight which paid off nicely. Market turned around and I tried to trade TVIX and SQQQ, made all of two bucks on SQQQ and lost $54 on TVIX. Then, back in the bullring, with the TQQQ position, which is paying off nicely. Made $107 on a BYND trade. Yay for me! It was moving nicely and the spread was as small as I have seen it. In the back of my mind was the lottery-like dream of seeing it rise to a new all time high, of course. Sorta like playing the powerball except my ticket was already paid for.
I probably should have loaded the boat with TQQQ as it is behaving nicely, but it is a bit late in the trend for that, I suspect, so I will just let my position go as it is and stop out where it will with a now $.15 trailing stop.
TQQQ is inching up again. Good ol TQQQ. If it turns around and stops out I am still up $520. Okay signing off, making lunch, I will let the TQQQ run as it will. Mr. Profit, that's me, today.
Started my day yesterday at the close, holding some QQQ overnight which paid off nicely. Market turned around and I tried to trade TVIX and SQQQ, made all of two bucks on SQQQ and lost $54 on TVIX. Then, back in the bullring, with the TQQQ position, which is paying off nicely. Made $107 on a BYND trade. Yay for me! It was moving nicely and the spread was as small as I have seen it. In the back of my mind was the lottery-like dream of seeing it rise to a new all time high, of course. Sorta like playing the powerball except my ticket was already paid for.
I probably should have loaded the boat with TQQQ as it is behaving nicely, but it is a bit late in the trend for that, I suspect, so I will just let my position go as it is and stop out where it will with a now $.15 trailing stop.
TQQQ is inching up again. Good ol TQQQ. If it turns around and stops out I am still up $520. Okay signing off, making lunch, I will let the TQQQ run as it will. Mr. Profit, that's me, today.
Come on, man; don't let that crap grab you by the short ones. Seriously: holding on to that embarrassment is giving in to the nonsense that says you're always supposed to win. No, what you're supposed to be is a trader. And we traders lose. Sometimes we lose a lot. If we don't, we never get to win.
I felt mortally embarrassed by my first losses - technical mistakes I made, not even something I could put off to the market going against me but my lack of knowledge and experience. Tried to hide from it for a couple of days, then realized what I was doing to myself, straightened up, and posted about them in a trading group that I'm in - which got them the hell off my chest. For the record:
BTC SPY 292P -$6.43 -$427.00
Brainless "Hey, I've escaped the loss!" close, based on false numbers in OptionStation Pro and a desire to escape a bad trade. Ditto ZM, below.
Humbling… BTC ZM 95P -$12.60 -$729.00
OUCH. I was really smoking hopium on this… saw "+$26" on the screen and closed it with a light heart. Holy moly, what a self-mislead. Never trust those #s after a roll.
(I know, it's not millions. But those were the first ones that got through and stung. Up until then, it was pennies here and there while learning; at this point, I thought I had learned at least a little.)
I'm not saying you're supposed to be some emotionless robot, but - and this is 100% true in my experience - unless you stop being embarrassed by losses, you're going to be subject to all that emotional pushback (revenge trading, being over-cautious without a real reason, making decisions influenced by those losses in general, etc.) I've got a journal here on ET, and I will absolutely post any losses immediately; most of the point is keeping myself honest.
See, I'd know that wasn't the real reason right away. Boats are NEVER that cheap...
And now you can put this loss in the "Tuition paid" column. Losing money and not learning from the experience - that would be a real loss. Any time I can't pull a useful lesson or conclusion from a loss of time, energy, or money... man, those are the ones that really hurt, 'cause I know life is going to do it to me again so I'll get that lesson. Only it's going to do it HARDER this time.
Well I wish I had only lost hundreds. LOL!
Boats are usually moneysuckers but I have lucked out the last 10 years or so. Recently picked up a Bruce Roberts Offshore 44 for $9500. Surveyor said worth $30k as found. When you can snag a 14 tonner for under $10k and sail it to its new home without putting anything into prep for the delivery but sweat and a few gallons of diesel, you are doing pretty good. I have put maybe $10k into it so far for windlass (and a spare), water maker, components for completely rebuilding the entire electrical system, starter rebuild and complete spare, and still to come only three big ticket items: new rigging, central air, and a genset. Oh, and chain and anchors. So I will have a very well found bluewater cruiser for less than $45k that essentially has already done all the age related depreciating that it can do. Just gotta have your ear to the ground and be lucky. My last boat (still own it, was interrupted in the process of converting to solar/electric drive) is a Cal 2-27 I picked up with a dead Atomic 4, (eventually got it running, but later repowered with electric) and 10 sails, for $2k in a transferable slip in a good, cheap marina. The trick is to stick with late 60s to late 70s production fiberglass boats and avoid one-offs and motorboats like the plague. When a new engine will cost 4x what the boat is worth, you better have mast and sails on her, unless you just want her for a floating condo.
Lots of old Morgan Out Island 41 charter barges out there for under $20k, too, and if you are lucky, REALLY lucky, you can snag one for under $15k ready to sail, in a sorta sorta way. Talking a 12 tonner with a draft of just slightly more than four feet, and very roomy below. Plenty of Catalina 30s and 27s to be had for under $5k, a surprising number ready to sail and with a running diesel, or at least a running Atomic 4.
Boats are usually moneysuckers but I have lucked out the last 10 years or so. Recently picked up a Bruce Roberts Offshore 44 for $9500. Surveyor said worth $30k as found. When you can snag a 14 tonner for under $10k and sail it to its new home without putting anything into prep for the delivery but sweat and a few gallons of diesel, you are doing pretty good. I have put maybe $10k into it so far for windlass (and a spare), water maker, components for completely rebuilding the entire electrical system, starter rebuild and complete spare, and still to come only three big ticket items: new rigging, central air, and a genset. Oh, and chain and anchors. So I will have a very well found bluewater cruiser for less than $45k that essentially has already done all the age related depreciating that it can do. Just gotta have your ear to the ground and be lucky. My last boat (still own it, was interrupted in the process of converting to solar/electric drive) is a Cal 2-27 I picked up with a dead Atomic 4, (eventually got it running, but later repowered with electric) and 10 sails, for $2k in a transferable slip in a good, cheap marina. The trick is to stick with late 60s to late 70s production fiberglass boats and avoid one-offs and motorboats like the plague. When a new engine will cost 4x what the boat is worth, you better have mast and sails on her, unless you just want her for a floating condo.
Lots of old Morgan Out Island 41 charter barges out there for under $20k, too, and if you are lucky, REALLY lucky, you can snag one for under $15k ready to sail, in a sorta sorta way. Talking a 12 tonner with a draft of just slightly more than four feet, and very roomy below. Plenty of Catalina 30s and 27s to be had for under $5k, a surprising number ready to sail and with a running diesel, or at least a running Atomic 4.
I hear ya. But... same principle applies, even though it's a bit tougher on the heart and the wallet. You can't let that shit own you.
Woo! I was going to build a BR - I'm a welder, and really like steel as long as it's properly prepped (which damn near nobody does these days...), but ended up buying a 45' Morgan instead. Damn good boats, though. I helped a guy in the USVIs rebuild a sunk one, and other than the furnishings and the electrical system, everything else stood the gaff no problem; the diesel came back just like new.
The old Cals and the like were built with hellacious glass layup in those days - those guys were trying to imitate wooden structures because they didn't know what FGRP could do yet (when did E-glass come about, anyway? 80s or so?) A little heavy, but damn are those things tough! And yeah, $2-4k... I've often thought that if everything in my life crashed somehow, I'd scrape together enough to buy one and live aboard while I rebuilt. After twenty years afloat, it wouldn't be any sort of a hardship - though I do like a bit of room and comfort now that I'm a bit older than I used to be.
Yep. Not much ever goes wrong with those things; rebuild the carb, and you're 99% of the way there. The running costs on a 41-footer will eat a sailor alive unless he can do everything aboard himself, though.
I have a feeling you'd be a good guy to swap sea stories with, Growly.
The TQQQ tore me a new one in the late premarket but a $371 snipe at BYND put me back up at +$104 and I am done for the day. I think.
Went back in. Lost a bunch of small plays and made another nice BYND score. Now standing $175 up. Okay NOW I am done for the day. Probably.
Went back in Fri and lost a couple hundred. Boooooo. Held AT&T, US Steel, and AMZN over the weekend. Woke up this morning $730 up. T started selling off about 0815 so I bailed and bought some TQQQ which began trending up at 0810. Watching ACAD for an ORB this morning.
AHHHHHH stoopid ACAD. Went the wrong way.
I am seeing a pattern in my results that calls for a major paradigm shift. I do a LOT better at picking stocks to hold overnight and over weekends than I do day
trading. And so, I am going to concentrate on swing trading for a while. I am liking what I see in the daily charts for GUSH, NE, CENX, SDRL, and a couple others. At 1545 I will take another look and maybe make a substitution or two, and portion out my cash holdings into swing trades.
AHHHHHH stoopid ACAD. Went the wrong way.
I am seeing a pattern in my results that calls for a major paradigm shift. I do a LOT better at picking stocks to hold overnight and over weekends than I do day
trading. And so, I am going to concentrate on swing trading for a while. I am liking what I see in the daily charts for GUSH, NE, CENX, SDRL, and a couple others. At 1545 I will take another look and maybe make a substitution or two, and portion out my cash holdings into swing trades.