LL's Daily Discipline Journal

L

Larry Livingston

Hi everyone,

I am creating this journal in hopes that it will help me improve my trading by practicing better discipline, collaborating with others, and hoping that seeing my thoughts on paper on a daily basis will help provide clarity and make me more profitable.

Day 1 result: -760
Action: Long EVEP
Description: Bought on a breakout of the $3 price level, to which price immediately retreated back down to $2.70. Probably should have liquidated this position as soon as it retraced to the $2.90 area, but did not...oil & natural gas's weakness today hurt this trade as well. EVEP has been on a tear lately so in the greater context, this pull back could be healthy.
Discipline grade: C. Should have closed the position sooner also probably entered too soon.
Running P&L: -760
 
Larry Livingston said:
Hi everyone,

I am creating this journal in hopes that it will help me improve my trading by practicing better discipline, collaborating with others, and hoping that seeing my thoughts on paper on a daily basis will help provide clarity and make me more profitable.

Day 1 result: -760
Action: Long EVEP
Description: Bought on a breakout of the $3 price level, to which price immediately retreated back down to $2.70. Probably should have liquidated this position as soon as it retraced to the $2.90 area, but did not...oil & natural gas's weakness today hurt this trade as well. EVEP has been on a tear lately so in the greater context, this pull back could be healthy.
Discipline grade: C. Should have closed the position sooner also probably entered too soon.
Running P&L: -760
More...

Man, you are buying a stock that faced a MEGA bear market (-97%) and rebounded strongly (+76%). So your entry point must be chirurgical. Be a sniper.
Why do you want to buy a "wannabe" breakout rather than waiting a REAL support ? Buying should be closed to 2.45 / 2.5 dollars, which was the former top. Perhaps 2.6 dollars. Look closely at the price action, monitor, focus, be a sniper. No emotions. Only perfect control.
By the way, I think this stock could be a good idea if support @2.40 /2.45 holds for the coming days. First target USD 5.
Good luck with your trades.

CM
 
Hourly graph. 3 new highs, and nice negative divergence with RSI + MOM.
Support @2.40.
Hope it helps

evep.gif

CM
 
Day 2 result: +720
Action: Long UNXL, holding overnight
Long GV, sold at close
Description: Bought UNXL and GV. Both showed strength this morning: UNXL faded midday and rallied into the close. GV faded as soon as I bought it, stabilized below my entry price midday and just flatlined for the rest of the day. Fortunately, my position in UNXL was 2x the size of my position in GV. Interestingly, UNXL was bought after a 2-day pullback, whereas I bought GV on a multiday high, and wound up paying top-tick and it cost me money. EVEP (yesterday's trade) rallied a bit during the day, but I had exited the position already - one very frustrating element of trying to daytrade is exiting positions after one day just to see the stock rally the next day.
Discipline grade: B-. I had a strong urge to close our my UNXL position midday when I saw the Nasdaq inching down, but I sat on my hands and held - happy I did that since I wound up making more money as a result. A bit unhappy that I held GV as it passed down below $2.10 today - also upset that I wound up buying it on the high.
Running P&L: -40
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ChrisMac,

Thank you for your feeback. I really want to become a successful full-time trader, so I am open to all constructive criticism of my trading. I am going to try to replicate your charts to help me analyze potential trades.
 
Larry Livingston said:
Bought UNXL and GV. Both showed strength this morning
More...
Larry, sorry to tell you that but you will make zero money if you focus on a day to day routine.
You are talking about strength for UNXL for example. Take the bigger picture. This stock was already up +700% in less than 3 months. Of course there is strength, especially with a stock with a daily RSI at 94 !!!! This is not overbought, this is craziness. So you are playing with fire. You should have bought earlier, around 1 dollar, and sold above 2 dollars.
Anyway, be careful: UNXL could easy go to 1.50 dollars, or even 1 dollar faster than you can sell it.

CM
 
Day 3 result: +2290
Action: Exited UNXL@ $2.60, on the market open,
Long VALE, sold at $5.42
Description: You'll notice that I carried my UNXL position overnight from yesterday - I was really nervous because AAPL tanked afterhours yesterday and I figured UNXL would tank with the rest of tech stocks on the open. Well much to my surprise, UNXL opened up 17% upon announcing some recent contract wins - so in that sense, I got "lucky" on this trade, although going against my fear-based instincts and carrying overnight paid off (which on balance it usually does).

I also traded Vale today - I exited this position once Yellen started speaking - the S&P had a nice little rally, but Vale wouldn't budge, so I figured it was time to close the position and bank my $180 dollars - as soon as I exit the position, what do you think happened? Oil jumps a buck and Vale rallies an additional 7 cents. Listening to my gut hurt me here.

On a side note, remember I exited EVEP the other day at $2.67? Well it ran right up to $3.24 today. Would have had a tidy little profit if I held the position for a couple days rather than dumping it @ $2.67 yesterday.

One problem is that my trading account is non-margin, so I have to wait 3 days for my money to clear after closing a position and therefore am constantly trying to take profits quick in order to have capital available to trade more rapidly.

Discipline grade: C+. I was rewarded in a big way for not exiting my UNXL position yesterday, and am grateful for that. I'm not sure where VALE will open tomorrow morning, but early indications show that I was too early in exiting my position, despite making a profit on the trade. I made a separate bonehead move and liquidated my oil etf position after it dumped this morning on the inventory number....my motivation for doing was pure in the sense that I was planning on leaving this etf for a different oil etf, but my timing was emotionally based and that move cost me. But this was in my buy and hold account, not my active trading account.
Running active trading P&L: +2250
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ChrisMac,

Thank you for your additional feedback, please keep it coming. I realize what I am attempting to do is a bit frenetic - I want to get myself to a place where I am profitable nearly every single trading day, by being very active. I know most people consider that to be an impossible ambition, but it is the same ambition guys like Marty Schwartz had, so it is attainable. I definitely am incorporating your insights regarding buying on pullback rather than a fresh high - you'll notice my two profitable trades were bought on slight pullbacks, so thank you.
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Edit: Yep, Vale at $4.50 now, so I definitely exited too soon.
 
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Day 4 result: unfortunately I could not trade today as I was waiting for funds from my closed trades to clear - which is unfortunate because I found 3 setups, 2 of which would have been nicely profitable. Hopefully my funds will be good to go tomorrow.
 
Day 5 result: -220
Action: Bought COG on the open, took a $200 loss,
then shorted crude oil, took a $20 loss
Description: Well my money cleared, so Friday morning I got busy. Before market open I noticed Cabot oil and gas beat on revenue, and I thought to myself that any oil company in this environment that is beating on revenue must be good for a 5% pop - well I was wrong about that, and should have looked closely beyond the headline number. My stop loss was hit within 10 mins of me entering this trade. Shortly after this I noticed that crude oil had broken to the downside. I figured that oil has had a big move up recently, it's the last trading day of the month, and the S&P is taking a hit...crude should be good for a nice short trade...as soon as I put on the trade it rallied very strongly but then sold off again and made a new low - at one point I was up $800 on paper - I clearly should have cashed in there and been grateful for a nice week. Well, crude rallied strongly at 2:30pm EST, and I closed out my position at a small loss. Very frustrating.

Discipline grade: B+. Despite my impulsive entry into COG, and subsequent losing trade shorting crude, I'm actually content with my discipline on Friday - I didn't swing for the fences, revenge trade etc, which is an improvement from my old behavior over the years.

If you are reading my journal, one thing you'll notice is that I am struggling with my exits - in nearly all trades last week, my exit on close rather than exit next day or subsequent days wound up costing me money - the one day that I sat tight and waited for the next open lead to all of my profits for the week. I think this is something I am going to have to continually refine and hopefully can accept the fact that I cannot expect to take every single available tick out of a trade.

My goal for this week is to behave rationally, and to hopefully have another profitable week.

Running active trading P&L: +2050
 
Day 6 result: -80 (as of 2pm)
Action: Bought FLML on the open, currently up $117 and holding until at least tomorrow.
Also went long crude oil when I thought it was turning up but took a -$196 loss once oil tanked again.
Description: Not much to describe - except my usual findings. If I just held my oil short from Friday into Monday it would have been profitable. Same thing if I held my COG long into Monday as well (got an analyst upgrade today). Need to sit on my hands more; the longer I wait the more I will make. Need to tape it to my monitor.

Discipline grade: C+. Not going to close out my FLML long early which I'm happy about. Impulsively tried to pick bottom in crude oil which is not a sound strategy and once again I paid for it.


Running active trading P&L: +1980 (as of 2pm)
 
Day 6 results (updated): +50 (as of today)
Action: Closed my FLML today at 12.14
Description: Just updating my carryover trade from yesterday, today is day 7 and will be updated later.
Running active trading P&L: +2100 (as of today, since closing my FLML trade)


Day 7 activity (so far): Took $100 loss on a long crude oil position, currently long Sprint (S), 2244 @ $2.59
 
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