August 1st Week Review

 Back to these.

Pretty rough week for me. Wifes brother was getting married this weekend in GA, so having that in the back of my head was a bit of a distraction. I have gotten better with not letting outside things take up mental capacity so theres really no excuse to be made there. 

-Missed the huge wins, took all the losses.

    -I missed the wins because I refused to trade them. I either didnt want to get in due to large spread, or didnt want to chase and wait for pb to retest. 

    -Im reading a book called the mental game of trading by Jared Tendler. Somewhat of a new book out there thanks to Chat with Traders, I got it. It is helping me analyze the emotional mistakes we make and identifying triggers that cause them.

    -So this is helping me recognize some issues with my line of thinking.

    -BOTTOM LINE. When I make my watchlist, when they trigger, that is my cue to get in the trade.

    -I identify this on the daily chart.

    -I have taken enough trades to know that there are going to be sometimes where the stock simply has bad options and I am stuck paying some extra premium to just get in the trade

    -I have also missed enough trades now to know, that simply because it has a large spread, does not mean that I ignore the trade.

    -I MUST pay the extra premium to get involved in trade and simply deal with the risk. It is covered still and still part of my plan. I just cant add in and out as much as I would like and I have to treat it as a swing trade and that is fine. 

    -Back to the book, it has me paying more attention to things I am writing down and saying so heres 2 of them I am noticing a problem with. Here is something I wrote on Tuesday

 "Other issue is the ones that did move on my watchlist, had such stupid wide spreads, no way im paying a dollar on the spread to just get in the trade. Had to let names like BEAM and WSM go. Tried to get in, just no fill."

    -Well why not? Why do I not want to pay an extra dollar on the spread just to get in? I am concerned about paying an extra dollar, and that is costing my hundreds more in missed opportunity. 

    -Im only 1/4 done with the book but I notice 2 major things here with me saying this. Fear and Greed.

    -Its the opposite of FOMO, its fear of extra risk. Every setup on my watchlist, is a valid setup and worth taking the trade. But I ignore it because of how I have to get involved in the trade. A fear of added risk, and being greedy by wanting to save 50$ on premium.

    -These names that I skipped this week (FATE BEEM PACB) all on my watchlist, all triggered, all gave me clear time and locations to get involved, but I let them go because I didnt like the option pricing.

    -These all became thousand dollar, or very near, winners. Huge monster moves and never negative.

    -I account for them being swingable only before the day starts so I already know what my management is going to be behind it, but im letting my emotions get in the way of that split second decision.

            -"The trade triggered, I need to get in now." is as simple as it should be. But then I let other thoughts come in

            -"I dont want to pay that extra spread, the extra risk isnt worth it"

                    -Is it really not worth it? Are you sure? How do you know? How do you know that this trade isnt going to be your next thousand dollar trade that will cover your losses for the MONTH?

-You have to take all of your setups. You do not know what is going to happen next, you have to think in terms of probabilities at all times, regardless of any option pricing.

        -Majority of the time anyways these options are priced with that wide spread, the algos are simply sitting on the far edge of bid/ask. They will move as orders come in. There is a 'correct' price that they should be priced at, there simply isnt any liquidity showing there right now

        -I always 'walk' my orders. I put it in just above the bid, then hit my hotkey "replace order +1 increment. Then hit it again, and again, until I get in. And 9/10 I will get filled well below the showing ask as someone out there will hit and fill me. And thats fine. Thats part of the game I play. I need to get into all my setups that trigger.

        -Size is the other issue. I struggle with JUST having 1 contract on. I want to hit that trade and hit it hard when it works. Sometimes that just cant happen I have to deal with it. These trades really moved points on the options, there is nothing wrong with locking in a 500$ win with 1 contracts, and putting on another one with further out exp and lower prem again the let it ride. Its the game I must play.

-Now this is all just related to trades with large spread, I had other ones where they had nice tight spread with tons of liquidity, but I just let them go anyway (CRM COIN)

-CRM triggered, then failed, then reclaimed, then took off.

    -I was watching on the reclaim for a pb to vwap, but never got it, then it ran

        -This assumes im going to get a pb after reclaim. You do not know that.

              -Get in, small size, save best risk for best setups. 

                    -This way I can still catch the big move, and not be chasing with size. 

-COIN did NOT trigger, but it did give a clear bullish setup into the trigger level. 

           -If I  had done proper HTF analysis of the stock, I would have noticed it was still at an acceptable level/area to get involved in the trade. After it broke higher move, it continued on through trigger level, never pulling in for a retest. I would have at least caught the move with some size. Not full, but sometimes you dont get that chance.

        -The only thing that matters, is that you are in the trade given context on HTF basis is there and confirming. Size is secondary. 

        -Being in the trade is primary. 

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So now for the actual trades I did take, not just problems and mistakes. 

For day trades I was 1 for 7 with 1 breakeven.

Only mistakes were trading too big on GRWG and not anticipating correct risk on NFLX (same day exp)

GRWG was a short play, not a super clear setup for starters, intraday gave good cues but couldnt give me the flush. I wrote market was weak all day, but GRWG not (problem). Should not have been too sized up on this one. Start small add small

-Looking at others there is some things in common

    -Going for shorts

    -Lesser setups.

-Most of these were pullback short trades. Not the market for that for one, so if I do go for one, it must be A+ and nothing less. 

For Swing fukin 1 for 16

12 breakout, 4 pullback

-Seeing themes

    -Taking into some D R,

    -Not cutting in time (VWAP loss after Adds) 

    -Lesser short setups

    -Giving back a lot of profit after 3 adds and clear reason to sell

          -TL break, Range break, VWAP loss, close to PT

Clearly settling for less and not taking trades off on VWAP loss is biggest thing here. Looking at screenshots its obvious. 

Entry/exit/risk wise I was fine aside from a couple. Management and selection was issue.

SUMMARY

-Chose bad short trades

-Did not get in on biggest best ideas

-Did not cut winners / losers fast enough after vwap loss

Kinda sad, just really underperformed this week. Got lazy, perhaps thinking of weekend made me lazy and settled for less. Im ready to roll now though. Did good review, mainly mental mistakes. 

GOALS

-Get in all trades that trigger

-Cut trades off when vwap is lost and doesnt reclaim (within 3 minutes)

-Short setups must be A+