jnbadger's bad day

destriero said:
How would you know that other than in hindsight?
Obv the expectation was there
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That's the Million dollar Question everyone wants to know -- the Future. The key, Vital, component of trading.

If someone doesn't have a high, reasonable, certain degree of Expectation...they are just basically gambling on red or black on the rOulette Wheel.
 
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SPX Options Trader said:
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A lot of major stocks essentially mirrors the S&P chart movement daily. Just trade, maybe, the S&P.
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WRONG. A lot of major stocks are what make the SP move. The SP is simply a mirror reflection of a lot of stocks.

But what do you know, you trade simple puts and calls in options.
 
SPX Options Trader said:
You are an angry, defensive, touchy man -- with everyone on this forum. Do you live on a diet of Coffee and Churros and minimal sleep,
Another day of red across the board on your holdings,
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But I have conviction in my holdings. That comes from the benefit of experience.
 
jnbadger said:
Day trader.
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Day trading is very very difficult and really not worth it IMO. You either swing trade or scalp if you have really developed a niche trading system for it. Day trading is really like being caught between a rock and a hard place. You are missing all the small pip-by-pip profits from scalping and yet the TF is not long enough for me to catch the large profit from the buy-and-hold swing trading. If you don't have a niche trading system to scalp, it's better to swing trade.

My 2 cents.
 
Re opportunity cost, when daytrading (I do most days, up to 70 RTs) I skip counter-S&P trend trades. unless there's an exceptionally volatile chart, most trades align with market trend, for 2- to 5-minute rts.

So if the market's selling off I seldom take a long breakout stock play, or if I do it's lighter size.

Similarly, on up market days I trade inverses like UVXY lightly if at all.
 
jnbadger said:
Hi all.

I haven't been this frustrated in a long time. I've been doing this shit for a long time (August was my 25th anniversary), and I've done very well. My best strategies have been automated mean reversion (haven't done this in a long time) and systematic momentum trading based on relative strength and weakness, and very simple S/R and tech analysis. (This is what I still do, and it's actually very fun and profitable.)

First of all, what did I lose today to satisfy everyone's curiosity? 130 bucks. That's it. A molecule in the bucket. But I feel like I left a gallon on the table.

I worked out yesterday, slept great, ate well, and sat down at my desk with a great and relaxed attitude at 6:00 CDT. (2 and a half hours before the open, for those of you over seas.) I thought it was going to be a great day because of the volatility pre-market.

So, what is the source of my frustration? I traded like an absolute idiot right out of the gate.

One of my rules is "If you miss the first one, don't take the second one". I missed the first bid at 210 on BA off the open for a quick huge probability scalp, and took the second one a couple of minutes later and it blew right threw me. Luckily, I only took a 40 cent hit, because I knew I was an idiot. Of course, I should've been looking at pre market support. Wasn't doing that.

The second was in ASAN. Same rule. I missed the break of 114, so I offered the short when it came back up to it. (This is actually a very good strategy IF a lot of volume has occurred at that price. It hadn't. Ironically, one of my favorite trades is a failed support break and buying when it comes back up through. Didn't do that either). Again, I took a 60 cent loss because I knew I was trading like a moron. It went up to 117 in the next 10 minutes.

I tried not to trade my P/L and scalped my way back, trading very small to manage risk, to a "reasonable psychological tolerance". (I made that up, and it's a bad thing to aim for, but it's what I was after today). I know how to do this well, but there are better opportunities out there every day. And I'm too old to do that shit all day every day. I was exhausted.

Then I brought up an old window on my scanner in the last half hour for some reason and tried and old volume spike mean reversion play. (This can also be a great strategy if you do it right). Bought GREE just above 31.50. Thank goodness I was still trading small.

I'll look back at this and laugh, but only because the losses are so small because I managed my risk based on knowing how badly I was trading. Tomorrow is another day.

New Guys: Knowing what to do and how to do it is not enough. You've probably read it in a few books, but knowing yourself is paramount to success in this business. You need to know when to push and when to pull back, regardless of how those around you are doing.

Experienced guys: This is my first "opportunity cost" related frustrating day in quite a while. How often do you have these?

Sorry for the novel, Brandon.

Thanks for any responses.
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You're a good trader, a very good trader, but you got tired.

Take a day off and reflect. It sounds to me like you're getting a little burned out. Go out hiking.
 
I feel like semi-automation on days you are felling like trading badly could delete your weakness, you could still put the trigger manually. Days like these happen once to twice a month to me. Mostly when my fiance has a bad day at work. I then do exactly that - trade semi-automated. Manually entered stoplevels, that are fixed so I can't adjust/make errors
 
Well, Tuesday wasn't as bad, but I had one small loser and called it an early day. I started to feel the same as I did on Monday.

Wednesday was good, but not great.

No trades yesterday. Had other stuff going on.

And between Wednesday and today, I feel like I got my mojo back. They're not the numbers I'm used to, but it feels good to start the week with two frustrating days (financially and emotionally), and finish with a nice day and be up a few hundred on the week while trading very very small. I'll gradually press harder on the accelerator next week.

Like I said before, it's all about risk management. Mathematically AND emotionally.

Thank you everyone for the suggestions and comments.

And kmiklas, it's pretty wet out today, but we are headed for a beautiful weekend, and I will definitely do some hiking in the field and in the woods with a 25lb weighted vest. :-)
 
One more thing to put it in perspective. My dad was a Marine, and I'm a huge fan of war movies. I'm watching youtube clips of Fury. What a fucking nightmare.

We don't have anyone shooting at us as traders. We might have friends who lose, but they find other jobs. And they don't die. And they move on.

When I have a bad day, I bitch to myself too much, and I post it online. But that's because of accountability.

I missed 2 perfect trades on Friday because I didn't think they would work. I hesitated. That's like not shooting at the enemy because you might miss. They would have been great trades. This analogy is applicable because a loss to me is like a missed shot.

I keep my losses so tight that I can look at it like hunting. If I miss a big deer, it costs me a bullet. If I get one, I get wonderful tasting venison summer sausage for a year.

That's how I trade. Some guys in the past told me I was way too tight with my risk. None of them are still in the game. I don't even want to bring up Brokercheck with these guys. Just shaking my head. Lots of infractions.

I'm still in the game with a 57 and a pro firm.

(And I just want to be clear that I am not selling anything. This is just my experience).
 
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