(ET site seemed to be down for a while.)
-$145 (This does not include the $1560 AIPC profit described below)
This was a very bad day, placing me in a very bad space. It was in fact my second worst day ever as a trader, psychologically. Nothing I did was right. The most frustrating thing is to have a day like today despite having very solid skills and instincts, because I seem to be unable to find steady discipline and patience, and the aggressiveness to take ALL my setups.
Although MYGN was at the top of my short list (and did nothing but drop all day from the open with hardly any retracement), I instead offered 36.70 HANS on open, filled. It moved up all day and I held the position, expecting eventual retracement off overbought. This time (unlike the last HOTT and ORLY trades), itâs extremely overbought on the 30-day and Iâve done this very often with HANS very profitably, but after today I have to wonder if this will be âOops, I did it again.â
My husband and I had a large AIPC position averaged in over the past week. We thought about taking profits a couple times, but I had previously given him a target of 32.00, figuring it would drop through that target likely finding support at 31.00-31.50 range, and we were planning to stick with it. However, this morning we both thought it wise to take profits around the 33.40 area when it was oversold and bounced a bit after a large drop. We netted $1560 in profits with the intention of shorting more on the bounce.
Very sad cautionary tale here about why you patiently watch the price action, or at least take only half your profits at first: There was no bounce. It stalled for a bit, then simply fell off a cliff before finally finding support at 30.30. Left about $12,000 on the table had we simply watched the action when it approached the target, because it crashed right through without hesitation and we wouldâve covered on the real bounce off 30.30, likely around 30.70.
Watching FAZ, as it was very solid trading last time I gave it a go. Long FAZ @ 16.74 oversold, SPY/GS overbought, took .20 cent move in about a minute for a $100 gain.
Short ORLY @ 36.11 pull back overbought HOD, stop @ 36.31, hit for an $89 loss. After putting on the trade I saw that SPY was oversold. This was very poor trade confirmation on my part, and I was very angry with myself for letting that slip by me after being so careful lately.
Same setup long FAZ @ 17.10, stop @ 16.80. Moved stop just above b/e, hit for a $20 gain. Trailed way too close for this mover. By leaving my original stop in place and being patient, I wouldâve enjoyed a move to well above 18.00.
MFE dropping off hard and becomes highly oversold not too far from the LOD. I am just about to put on the long position @ 34.07 with a stop at 33.87, below the LOD, but I change my mind. It rises to 35.00 without me, never even glancing below my planned entry price.
Short MFE @ 34.93 overbought, SPY overbought, stop @ 35.16, covered @ 34.90, when it did not provide the move I was looking for. Of course my original stop was never hit and it dropped beautifully later in the day.
Long FAZ @ 17.54, same setup as before, stop @ 17.24. It moves up a bit then pulls back to my entry price and I have an overwhelming urge to exit and re-evaluate because I suddenly donât like the action on GS and SPY, but I remember how exiting early last time cost me $350 in profits, so I leave my stop which is hit for a $150 loss (.04 cents from the bottom no less), proving yet again that past performance is not an indicator of future results, and every trade is a brand new animal.
SBAC short called in chat and when I first watched it I thought the L2 action indicated more buying. But then it pulled back a bit and I figured Iâd short it with a tight stop, but no shares available. Since I can read L2 quite well I asked myself, "Why not go long with a tight stop?" It just seemed that a stock so high and overbought on the 30-day and the intraday was a short setup, not a not long, yet the L2 spoke to me, and I didnât listen. Sure enough it quickly moved up .30 cents from where I had this thought.
About to buy FAZ @ 17.27, same setup as before, only better, but I did not put on the trade because of something a knowledgeable FAZ trader said as I was about to buy, thereby missing a $250 scalp. Big lesson here: Focus, focus, focus.
At this point, it was very late in the day and although FAZ provided another great setup, I was done trading for the day.
I will be looking to exit my old HOTT swing trade that I mismanaged by expectation when it touches the 20-day MA on the daily chart. It left a shooting star, extremely overbought, and a stochastic cross down on the daily. This should signal a move to the 20-day MA. I had hoped this was the last time I terribly mismanaged a trade, but with my HANS expectation trade still on, and my inability to leave my stops in place so my good setups can play out, I have to wonder if Iâm capable of being a consistent trader.
