9/25 Weekly Review

 M

Didnt trade. Felt sick, was still working on other stats. Let the day go without me.

T

Awful. Crushed me. Half my fault, other half market was killing me. Up down all around, failed at every corner, then trend from pivot to pivot in a straight line. Just when you thought long, it was failing. 

Trade management was biggest issue. Did not cut losers well at all. Held on to wait and see if it would get better, Never did. 

Maybe a little less than half my losses could have been prevented, but other than that, that market flat out didnt let me get a good win going. Every trade I took was a good trade to take, looked good, at right locations. Its like as soon as Id be long, the market would drop. So hard to get something going so I had a lot of trades at +1/2R so a lot of tiny losses. Those losses though I was sized up in. Favorites,10star and with market help. Everything I wanted. Just couldnt happen for me. 

W

Another fast red day. Undisciplined. Taking anything. Market clearly weak, I kept trying to long everything. Led to me creating a checklist to check before every single possible trade. If criteria not met, I do not take the trade. Proper review of winners also led to this. Its nothing I havent known before, but now seeing all this red is making me force myself to come up with a solution. Something to have to protect me from myself. Theres no excuse now to be taking trades im unsure about. Not settling for less.

R

Had an odd morning. Vet visit led to me getting to desk 3 hours after the bell. Market didnt do anything I expected it to do, so now trades. 

F

Another day of everything I touch doesnt work. Its laughable how bad I am lately really. Entering at the top, out at the bottom, repeatedly, back to back to back trades. Followed rules today, everything I took was good and met criteria. 

Might be the worst week I ever had. Never had the feeling of quitting trading but god damn I am lost right now. 

The 1st solution was to come up with a plan on what needs to change and that was make an entry checklist. Only spent a day with it, but still seeing these trades act the way they are, while other names run right through levels in vertical moves with no pbs, really makes me question what the hell a trader is supposed to do in times like these. 

One certainty is I need to size down. I cant keep doing it to myself and my account. Half size next week. Discipline is a must and I will have to deal with it. The other side of being discipline is coming up with my rules for entry. Ill type them out again.

In order for me to get into a trade, these things must be there.

-Must not be against market conditions. No shorts when we are strong. Short only ok if market is weak, or clear weakness in stock and market range bound.

-Must be at/around HTF level/zone.

-Longs above vwap/shorts under

-Self rated 10star

-Need 6 of following 8

      -Tape cues/ volume cues/failed break/MAs (9/20/50)/RVOL/Market correlation/ At vwap/With vwap.

Seems like good rules to me. Came up with them just by looking at past wins. And there have not been a lot. Market has obviously changed and its really killing me. Size down, slow down, pay more attention to what is working best and only trade those. I should not be having more than 10 trades a day. I need to be more selective. 

Other thing to note is I have been sick this week.  

NUMBERS

2/56. Not lying. 

-$2528

66% Compliance. 

-49R

5 be, 25 full -1R, 18 more than -1R

Avg win $35, Avg loss -$48

Avg risk $50

PROBLEMS

-Being sick.

     -I havent been sick in a while. Every time I am, I never trade well. I get undisciplined, start getting carefree. Just want a win to feel better.

-Undisciplined

     -Last week I made a new process around labeling intraday and daily setups, so im more consistent with record keeping. But I didnt take the chance to make a checklist for entry. Did that and only got 1 day to apply it. But I know its something that needs to be in place. To protect me from myself. 

     -Main thing is being patient until enough time has passed for the setup to clearly tell me it wants a specific move. I was much too early, taking a lot of trades that had bullish looking price action, but into the HTF level. Not trying to catch it after the level  had already broke. 

     -Being bored and looking for something to do is another reason. Didnt take many trades I shouldnt have, but still some.

-SPY

     -I swear ive never been faked out so many times in a market. Just when you think market is strong, it fails lower, just when you think weak, it rips faces off, no pullbacks to new HOD. It was so hard so get a good follow through because the market would not allow it. 

     -Theres nothing to do here. My entries are effected by time as if I wait too long for confirmation, my RR is gone and im stuck small size and lose best entry. If SPY is making a new HOD, the market is strong. Can it fail? Yeah but if it isnt, I have no reason to think the market is going to fail and rollover, so I shouldnt take this long that is meeting all of my criteria and is a favorite on the day. It doesnt make sense to NOT trade and wait and see what SPY does just because it may or may not fakeout and affect my stock. Must remember to trade my stock, not the SPY. SPY can only help or hurt and I must manage my trade accordingly. 

     -We are in a different market. We are in ranges, we are failing breaks both directions. I shouldnt expect us to suddenly be intraday trending anymore, unless we clearly are. This means I need to be taking less trades, and only taking the best setups out there. And that is why I have my checklist. 

SOLUTIONS

I made solutions throughout the week. I made my checklist, I did my trade win reviews. I found out what I was doing wrong and the main thing is over trading. Being sick is never a good time for me to be trading. I should have been trading less and instead I was trading a lot more. 

Trading stocks with low volume/rvol are more susceptible to SPY movement. The ones with the higher RVOL will tend to act more on there own. So every time im getting into these lower rvol trades, im going to need SPY at a minimum to not be against me. I have made rules for that in my checklist. 

The main solution is to come up with rules/plans to protect me from myself. When I get over trady, I cant force it upon myself to stop. I need some guidelines for me to trade with. 

GOALS

-Get back to normal. Feeling better already. Over the sick hump, ready to go again.

-Half size trading. I dont know whats going on with me and this market but I dont need to be losing anymore $$ until I can prove to myself I can make money everyday again. Half size on everything until I make money 2 days in a row. 

-Follow my rules. Checklist before entry. Trade management rules. Profit taking rules. Re entry Rules. I have all of my bases covered, sitting on sticky notes in front of me. 

I am not smarter than the market. I am not a genius. I dont have the solution to make money on every trade. Take the wins with the losses and respect what works best, and what doesnt work at all. There is no room for what ifs and emotion. Follow the rules you know work best for your trading and let the numbers play out. When I get emotional and deviate from my plan, thats when the big losses start coming in. Make your process based on the data that has shown you your best trades. Follow the process. Its a job.