Monumental mistakes turned what should have been my first 4 digit game in a month and half into just an average game. After a sizzling open I did not short into a total bull crap squeeze and missed a huge move to the down side. The afternoon saw me cutting winners short and holding on to losers as I was not aware of the speculation on surprise rate cut. I allowed a huge opportunity to slip through my fingers today . . .
Some new rule of thumbs:
1) Take the scalps during the open, but look for swings between 10 and 11:30 . . . I still pride myself for having one of the most reliable strategies off the open, but that swing game must improve. I played the open flawlessly, but did not follow it up with the swing short when things calm down after that violent squeeze. Volume is weaker it is harder to lean on BID/ASK etc, just let it ride!
2) Never ever trade if you even have a slightest doubt about whether you should still be trading. I had a good open almost $800, I wanted to protect that, I wanted to go home but I stayed, as a result every trade that went my way became very depressing as I ask myself "why the hell did you stay for?" . . . Either you really really want to play and play your heart out, or don't play at all . . .
3) BELIEVE, I would have scored huge if I BELIEVED in my calls today, I knew all along the market will close on the low but it did not act upon it enough . . .
4) The safest time to be selling is into squeezes, the best time to be long is on pullbacks.
8900 shares on 3 of 7 shooting, +911 before commissions, +505 after, 3 bullets. +600 for the pay period with 15 games left in this month . . . Need to pick up the pace and put together a few big games . . . I know what I am capable of, gotta put up the numbers to show for it!
Pre-Market: Various upgrades and downgrades, but on a day like today, there was only one thing on my mind, bullet the weakest sectors, ask questions later. Still, I wanted to avoid CEX/RLX because there were a few upgrades in each.
9:30: Big BTK gap-down and DNA / CRA opened unchanged, bulleted both and took 50 cents out of CRA, 80 cents out of DNA . . . CRA had the weaker daily so I kept an eye on it. Bullet in BSC didn't work so well stopped out for flat.
10:04: Saw a OSX pop, long HP and took 7 cents, sold market when I realized this is a broad market sell-off and I must concentrate on the future sensitive stuff. Futures made a rediculous reversal and hit the upper band, as it faded I knew it will come back, shorted DNA for a 30 cents profit, but did not trust myself when there was this overwheming urge to short and hold . . . That was the biggest mistake of the day, not capitalizing on a day like today is a crime. Market tanked and all 3 of my bullets would have worked wonders.
11:00: OSX pop, took HP long and lost 7 cents, time to take a break. I didn't know if I wanted to trade the Friday afternoon given a great start . . .
1:36: Saw an offer on BSC, sold some market and got filled 20 cents lower, why didn't I cover immediately when I had the offer? Not to mention I should know by now the best time to short is on a squeeze, never ever chase as stocks always squeeze! Instead I allowed it to hit me for 40 cents! It was 300 shares, but it still hurts when I could have avoided it easily. Shorted some DNA at 43.42, why didn't I get out? I allowed this turn into a 80 cents loss on 400 shares! Sure there was no volume, but it doesn't need much volume to push it up . . . Chart (held intraday support twice), tape (BID stepping up) all say get the hell out after at most a quarter point loss, yet I held? The problem with those two trades is that futures already moved below the low band, and I was chasing . . .
1:56: Shorted IBM on high band bounce, put in a hard stop stopped out for 25 cents loss and it tanked 80 point from there almost immediately, this guy is brutal and I really hate him. Shorted BSC again this time for a nice 30 cents profit off a mid -band bounce. Shorted QQQ off the high band for a pullback to-midband for a 20 cents scalp, covered half held other half which stopped out for break even, no complaint there, I was looking for a full sell-off.
2:37: Oh, bad use of BB, any time something pulls back from high band and bounces off the mid band and comes back to the high band, don't short it! It will probably be a break out and I was hit for 10 cents on a QQQ short. Took BSC long at 49.25 and out half at .40, what happened to hold the other half when the XBD looked like a flawless double bottom? Shaken out at .35, missed half a point move . . . Fortunately my execution on LM was better, took a nice 30 cents move . . .
3:05: Churned my bullet in CRA a little more. Gotta hate it when I really expected a smooth sell-off and some idiot came out with speculations on a possible fed. cut between meetings . . .
Time to put together the mistakes I made this week and hit a big week . . . Play on!
