August Monthly Review

1ST WEEK SUMMARY

-Missing trades cant happen. 

     -Pay that spread regardless. You dont know if its the next win to cover 10 losses.

-When the trade triggers, it triggers. 

    -Get in, save best risk for best setup.

-Size is secondary to being in your idea. 

-Taking too many lesser setups

    -Into S/R

    -Shorts when mkt at ATH

-Need to do much better at exiting after vwap loss

2ND WEEK SUMMARY

-XEL exited following rules on 2nd day, but..

    -Swing trade

    -2nd day

    -Utility name 

           -I need better 2nd day rules

-Slow week, market pulled in, not much to do, good job not overtrading.

3RD WEEK SUMMMARY

-Slow vacation week. 

4TH WEEK SUMMMARY

-News shakeouts caused me to bail on a lot of good swings that deserved re entry

   -Re entry is the problem here

-Giving up too much potential by taking off too much sized at 1st PT. 

-Things are starting to run more, summers over, breakouts following up.

5TH WEEK SUMMARY

-Sized up too large into d bo level. Trade never actually triggered. COIN. Added way too much risk given poor conditions alongside it. RVOL, Market, ETF action.

Monthly Summary

-$1334, -15R 21/66 32% WR

1/3 of losses larger than -1R

70% compliance

Avg risk $111, win $106 loss $114

Avg win $125 loss $88

Bad. I went on 2 separate vacation so that being on my mind caused me to get a little sloppy at points. Trading on vacation usually doesnt work out to well for me but I cant help myself. 

I started off this month on 1st week taking way too many trades, losing $1800 and literally 3/23

Biggest issue was selection. I took way too many lesser short setups. And looking at screenshots, I bailed pretty late on a lot of those losses after vwap loss. I didnt cut fast enough. Losing week was meant to happen, but not as much as it was. 

The other issue I struggled with is not taking trades with spready low vol options. They are swing trades and they still worked very well, but I didnt take them because I didnt want to pay up to get involved. And thats a mistake. The chart shows me what I need to be in, the bid/offer/risk is part of the trade I have to deal with. I missed 3 huge wins that probably wouldve turned this week around. 

2nd week I patched up good. Took better shorts with bigger macro involvement. 

Got some real nice day trades on with good moves. 

I still struggled with taking off size on swing trades and exiting on clear reasons to get out. 

    -Failure, TL break, cant hold higher

That is something im noticing this month is my daytrades/daytradable names are performing way better than swing only trades.

3rd week 

Nothing special happening at all. Only traded 3 days, 1 bad daytrade on vacation. Still seeing my swings make decent initial moves, then give it all back and then some. 

4th Week/ Last 2 days 

Daytrades doing great again. Huge win on RBLX. 

Struggled with holding onto swing trades. Some really ran without me. Its a constant struggle for me to decide how I want to trade these and how I need to trade them. The simple fix seems to be place the stop at prev day low each and every time, sacrifice size and let it ride. Even 1 lot can still turn out to be a few hundred dollars worth of profits in some of these cases. 

Make decisions based on trigger and EOD action alone. 

Im clearly a better day trader. And that doesnt just go for this month. Im better at anticipating next 5 minutes rather than the next several hours. 

My swing only trades were awful this month. 7/38 and the cause of me being red this month. But 10 of them ended up being huge wins at a later point. I just exited too early and didnt give them the time they needed. 

This is because im trying to day trade them too much still and get size on them. I have to abandon the idea that im going to be able to put size on these trades and get those moves im looking for, without some kind of major pullback. I have to change my rules.

BIGGEST GAINS / LOSS

Gain was on RBLX long and FUTU short.

Loss was PTON Sized up on vacation. 

COIN sized way to big on a trade that never triggered. Added to it after clear failure to trigger and hold. 

LTHM as I didnt cut after vwap loss.

APP didnt account for delta and spread enough. So sized to big. 

WEEKLY PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS

Compliance dropped off, what were main problems?    

Getting sized up into trades that dont deserve it

    -Edge lies in trades that trigger D level and hold it clean and clearly. 

        -Not into the trigger level and fail to hold it.

            -No reason/edge to size into trades that fail to hold trigger

Not letting swing trades run.

    -Being to big causes me to day trade them

        -Enter 1 lot, let it ride to EOD. Decide if worth adding

            -Clear bullishness, Options, Tape, holding levels 

            -Stop at prev lod

Capturing small % of MFE

    -I do not know why this is. Im giving back a lot of potential profit from holding on through pullbacks. 

Failure to cut trades after vwap loss

        -Greed. Thinking im smarter than market and if I hold on maybe itll come back. 

            -"its trying to shake me out,' I wont let it"

                -Hopeium

                    -Edge is not when these things happen. Cut it, move on. If reclaims. Get back in.

                        -Do not take larger than necessary losses due to hope

Skipping trades due to bigger spread/risk

    -If it triggers, I need to be in the trade.

           -Greed / Fear

                -You do not know if this will be the trade that eliminates several losses. 

WHATS CHANGING

    -Swing trades

        -Have to stop giving so much mental effort into them

           -enter 1 contract on trigger.

            -Only adding in last 30 minutes of day if clear winner.

           -Stop is prev LOD or Nearby clear range low

GOALS

    -Learn more about why im capturing small % of the MFE

    -Dont be involved with my swing trades. Set it, forget it. 

    -Bring A game everyday

    -Avoid sizing trades that havent triggered