2021 YEARLY REVIEW

Where to even begin.

Lets start with last year. Quick summary what happened in 2020

-Deep research into performance of Winners

-Discovering High Probability Trading methods

-Discovered A+ Setups

-Ping Pong of trading too little, then trading too much.

-Recognizing market themes and adapting my trading to them

-Year of discovering processes and tweaking systems. 

-Life.

And that trend continued on this year. More research into best winners. ONLY trading High Probability setups. Reviewing A+ for common themes. Still missing trades and being sized down on the big wins. Paying closer attention to themes, and ignoring others. Improved process and systems even more. Simplification. 

I wrote at the end of last year it was almost the same as 2019. Its still a constant process of revision and simplification. 

But this year got a bit dramatic.

I got real deep into my best winners and A+ setups, creating a hall of fame folder where I now know where I need to be risking more on A+ setups. 

I eliminated EVERY other setup/scalp/reversal that is not along the same lines as best winners

Only just now, December 1st created a market sentiment spreadsheet, thanks to stockbee, that I now use to track when its go time, and when its slow time.

I began trading options for scalps

Aside from trading. I got married, went on Honeymoon, continued housing renovations, still. Found out wife is preggo. Had a great baseball season. Experimented with Jiu Jistu. Dislocated my Patella. Worked out really hard in the gym. Played around with job offers. All the while still trading.

But this year was quite different. In terms of journaling and recording.

I re did my stat spreadsheet several times throughout the year, trying to get comfortable with something that made sense. 

I took a few journaling breaks from trading. Days/weeks/months off in between.

And as I came back I experimented with a few different types of journaling.

I would do day by day, week by week, some monthlies, some random topic posts. Individual trades.

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It was a super odd start to the year. I broke my 2021 Profit goal, in the 1st 2 weeks of the year. Mega short squeeze theme and I caught a few of them. Ultimately those are what made me positive on the year but more on that much later. 

After that, I got married, went on honeymoon, and I didnt write another daily journal report until the middle of May. So I stopped recording my thoughts for 4 months. I did an odd post here and there when I had issues, but overall, I took a big break from my mental game work. 

And it showed. 

There are big gaps in my records now. Im not really sure I was thinking, obviously, because I didnt write it down.

My performance during those times does not help the case I am ok not recording. 

It is important to me to be able to go back through my months of trading, know what I was thinking, what mistakes I made, what went well, so that I know at the end of the year, now, I can recap and solidify what went wrong and right and keep it in mind going into next year. 

Im going to chop this up into months and Key lessons and ideas learned throughout the year.

JANUARY +19k. +111R Avg win 5x avg loss. 114 trades 37% WR with 81% Compliance

1st month experimenting with scalping and day trading options.

It went very well. Best month of my career, and also made my year. 

Best trade was WB, I made 9k on it. Other huge wins on YELP, RKT, SPCE

Swing and day trading.

Learned more about the greeks and where my lane is. 

This month I was making a blog post for each and every trade I took. It took up a lot of time. So when it was wedding time, I stopped. Completely. 

Strangely it was an experimental month, but also because of market conditions it gave me my best trading period ever. Just being there, charting day in and out and recognizing themes. I was on it.

*I was also trading so much during this time. I would be at my desk from 6am to 5pm trading and watching and reviewing. It was a lot. More on that later. 

Recording wise, I didnt do a good job with screenshots. I wasnt recording screen because back then my setup was messy, I couldnt record 3 screens at once and be able to go back and watch. 

*This month I also did 'state of the market' style posts. This was me and my way of keeping up daily with sentiment across the broad market. More on that later as well. 

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/01/january-monthly-review.html

FEBRUARY -5k -38R Avg win 2x avg loss. 151 trades 27% WR with 80% Compliance 

Totally dropped the ball. 

Came back fresh off the honeymoon. Just got married had an amazing wedding and even more amazing honeymoon. On top of the world.

1st day back, took my biggest loss ever. Lost around 3.5k on a COTY swing I held overnight through earnings. 

I didnt journal. I didnt record screenshots. I didnt save my spreadsheet of the month so I cant look back. Awful overconfident month. Started shooting at everything. 

Themes come to an end. Breakouts were hot. And then they were not. And they were trapping. And since I was swinging, I was the one getting trapped. Lots of failed breakouts that I held from winner to loser. This theme came back later in the year

I did have one little write up

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/02/what-ive-learned-about-options-is.html

There are some mental notes here.

The loss was not soul crushing.

I thought more about how much of a buffer I had from the previous month, more than I thought, I have to make this back.

Looking back, I think I just wanted to trade. I wanted that taste of big success again. I was blinded by it. I got lazy, didnt track anything, shot at everything thinking whatever I touched was gold and this market theme of breaking out would never end. 

I found, once again, best trades come right at the open.

I did a good dig into my trades again, looking at R charts and performance averages.

I actually havent done one of these in a long time on my stats.

Mainly because Its all the same thing now. I had to do it several times in the first place to understand my trading better and fix things. 

It was about understanding my high probability trading. And now that I have a good grip on it, I dont need to make those charts anymore. They will tell me the same thing. I can tell just from looking at my stats now. 

My processes used to be mediocre, I charted my trades, I adjusted process, my processes became better.

Ive made so many rules and guidelines and tweaks and adjustments, im in a spot im happy with now. I understand myself and my trading. 

And lastly in the month, I came up with my rules for taking profits and rules for cutting wins based on what +R level they reach. Where to move my stop. 

Sigh, but because I am me, I made one anyways.

This is for September through Dec 3

19 of my 41 wins saw 0 drawdown.

Just means my rules work well for me. Entries and timing are getting better. Im trading the way I should be trading. Confirmed Improvement. 

MARCH +875$ -2.4R Avg win 1.5x avg loss 218 trades 41% WR 77% Compliance

218 trades is so much compared to what I do now. Its unreal. Average of 11 trades a day compared to my now average of maybe 2 a day. 

I didnt record any screenshots, but I do have my spreadsheet saved. 

Its pretty bad to look at how some days im down 500$+ and still took several trades after that. I do remember being unable to get myself off the desk and stop trading. Thinking everything was still a good opportunity and therefore I needed to stay and trade. 

Although the month did start off well. I had my longest green day streak of my career at 11 days straight through 111 trades that added up to +4k$ so clearly I was onto something there.

Then it just fell apart. A slow bleed all the way back to breakeven with a -2$k day in there

Looking at big picture, during that time that market entered a range. Choppy territory. Not my ideal context. And I did not adapt. I traded the same amount, didnt stop when down a bunch of money. And only 2 trading days that month, I kept trading past being down an average win day, or around 300$/400$

If I stopped myself and shut it down, that wouldve been 2.5k$ saved. 

Even across winning days, I had a lot of more than -1R trades, meaning my management wasnt that great either. Risk planning was off and unable to cut losses fast. 

A third of my losses, were more than -1R

*The main mistake this month seemed to be trying to force myself to make money. Unable to detach and walk. Back then I was still swing and day trading so I know in my head there was probably too much going on. Trying to force a solution rather than taking a step back, being ok not trading and letting the market come to me first. Just those 2 red days smacked me good.

1st QUARTER REVIEW

I did pretty good overall. A+ Jan, C- Feb, B Mar. Had a good routine. But a very full routine.

I wrote about spending 14 hours a day trading. And that will lead to burnout. And it did, but not til a bit later.

I wrote about how Im not going to be able to keep that up, because clearly I focused on quantity over quality. I wrote about different ways I can save time throughout my day, and not get burned out all day doing it.

My watchlist was about 1000 stocks I would go through everyday. Now its down to about 250, I had reduced it several times throughout the year. 

I talked about my stats, and still mentioned that majority of my profits come right from the bell.

And I talked about my spreadsheet and what I recorded. I reduced what wasnt necessary.

I talked about how obvious it was I was overtrading and focusing on too much. I wanted to take A B and C setups all day everyday, and did a bad job at risk management on each. It simply isnt worth the time and effort focusing your time on B and C setups. 

I wrote my biggest problem is risk. 1/5 of all my 513 trades, so basically 100 of them, I took a larger loss than intended. The math played out to be about 2.5k$ I unintentionally gave away.

*I look at this review now and I STRUGGLED SO HARD, trying to separate my day trading and swing trading that it spun wheels in my head til they gave out throughout the next 3 to 4 months. Trying to make 'that perfect' plan that will allow me to do both. More on that later in key takeaway. 

*I did talk a lot about making a rank system and how to risk and trade them, but still getting it down between daytrading and swinging and knowing when to do what and where to not do it go so confusing and hard I just could not settle myself down on a simple process. I didnt know it at the time but I was trying to master 2 processes at once. Spreading myself thin. 

I talked about how I struggled with taking losses at -1R.

I also talked about how its only -1R, because I label it -1R. I have my expected price I think the option will be at if price gets to my stop level. I did not account for myself being a part of my risk. I like to let it explore the stop level and see if its a fake out. It happens sometimes.

I have since abandoned this way of thinking. Looking back, I know it was hard for me because swing trading, you have to give stocks a bit of time and space to play out.

That is not my best trading.

Daytrading is how I make most of my money. Not swing.

Therefore I needed to follow daytrading rules. In that sense, timing is everything. Timing allows for smaller risk with more size. Less, if any drawdown. 

My final thoughts for the 1st qtr I wrote my 6 biggest mistakes. 

-Did not anticipate correct risk $ (risk)

-Too big on lesser setup (risk)

-Didnt Keep win (management)

-Didnt stop out correctly (management)

-Settled for less (selection)

-Let L stay too long (management)

A problem with a lot of these compliance errors at the time, were they were separated between daytrades and swing trades. 

But this is all in the past. I dont swing anymore. More on that later. 

APRIL -2k$ -13R Avg win 1.5x Avg loss 159 trades 33% WR 79% Compliance.

Didnt learn my lesson. Took screenshots, but didnt record stats until I started losing money quickly. 

I didnt journal anything until about halfway through and I wrote a note to myself. 

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/04/note-to-myself.html

I read this stuff now 7 months later and its sad I couldnt see it at the time. Spreading myself too thin. Thinking I can trade everything and still make money day in and out through any market theme. Trying it all out not focused on my bread and butter and what performs best for me. 

I mean I sit here feeling bad about myself through this year now because I put so much time and effort into this way of thinking, just for me to give up on it and tell myself I cant do it all at once and need to focus only on what is best for me. 

It isnt a total waste, I still have my watchlists from back then to check on when the times comes that I do want to go back to swinging, but only when it makes sense to. When I have time and more freedom to spread myself out, after I have my bread and butter and can make money everyday focusing on what is my best setups. 

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/04/what-am-i-doing.html

This post is where the burnout started getting bad. Unable to let myself work on less and focus on quality. Spinning circles in my head. At the time I couldnt see it, couldnt feel it. Just kept trying to squeeze water out of a rock. 

As for the month and the trades, I had some decent wins, but looking at screenshots, I am cutting my daytrades so late. Holding far too long and taking losses much later than I should. Day trading with a swing trade stop.

MAY -1k$ -4.5R Avg win 2x Avg loss 27 Trades 22% WR 64% Compliance

This is where the downhill burnout started. Took 1st week off. Lost money 4 days straight. Took another week off. Made a bit of money. 

This month I got a bit desperate. Lost. I joined Smashthebids group. Overall wasnt worth it. Just not my kind of trading. Doesnt make sense to me. Makes sense to them fine. Not my thing. I believe you can learn something from anyone and I did. I learned what kinds of style other traders are looking. How dramatically a traders watchlist can shrink and how small it can be. 

Didnt record stats, but did screenshots. It is disgusting how I am settling for such garbage setups. Intraday mainly. Im taking trades all over the place. Not letting anything come to me, taking longs well under vwap, same with shorts above. 

This looks like the month I started paying more attention to what the market conditions actually are. If there are themes. 

I had a lot more back and forth on swinging and daytrading. Slow sectors vs fast ones. Stop placement. Expiration selection. Management. Still trying to do too much at once. Way too complicated and confusing. 

Took a lot of time off this month. For no reason other than burnout. Only traded 8 days, just let the rest go. Needed brain to cool off.

Upon deeper review and version history searching, I did find my stats on these trades this month. 

It looks like I was mainly swinging. And swinging very low volume slow moving names. 

Not my expertise, not what makes me money. Kept throwing money at it trying to force myself to get good at it. 

JUNE +2.1k$ +.3R Avg win 8x avg loss 28 trades 18% WR 86% Compliance

Didnt record any stats or journals. Screenshots only. 

If I remember correctly though, I did record stats, I just didnt save them when I started a new month. Version history does not go back far enough for me to recover.

Also took a big break to start this month. I think this was the month I had to drive to Georgia and back twice in one month. Moving, and wedding. 

Looking at screenshots, selection was a bit better. Intraday and on daily. Still trading some random names I have no business looking at.

BYND was my big winner of the month. +2.8k$ Huge rip after failed breakdown. 

Nothing else to say on the month. I have no reference. 

Personal life wise things started heating up. Had a great birthday party. Went to Georgia twice to help FiL move and go to a wedding. Fixed up more things around the house, built a patio in my backyard. 

Found out my wife was pregnant. I sit here typing and we are 2 months away from due date. 

JULY -1.1k$ -5.5R Avg Win .8x avg loss 84 trades 36% WR 85% Compliance

Didnt journal, but did record screenshots and stats

Looking at screenshots I still was taking a lot of lesser name trades. Lots of longs under vwap. Lots of daily setups into more R. Saw same results as usual. Chop and losses. 

This month started off pretty good. Looking at numbers and stats I was taking trades on mostly good names. Catching big moves. I also took some decently big hits. A few more than -2R losses. 

But overall not bad the first half. Lots of 50% WR days with several trades. 

Then towards the end absolutely collapsed on myself. 

Selection an obvious problem. No business trying to daytrade, even swing for a day or 2 CHGG or QDEL. In fact, selection really seems to be the only problem. Just a bunch of slow moving no namers im trying to trade. 

Even on the daily charts of fast names, just bad setups. Not clean enough. Settling for less. 

Giving myself 85% compliance for a month like that, looking back its a joke. I would not setlle for these same setups and names again. 

AUGUST -1.3k$ -15R Avg win 1.5x avg loss66 Trades 32% WR 70% Compliance

Started journaling again.

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/08/july-review-catchup.html

Did a big recap of where I had been the past few months. I had taken 2 months off of journaling. 

I still talked about how I am struggling how I want to trade separate ideas from swing and daytrades and just could not get it down. 

I made a bit of progress looking at winners and seeing more commonalities, but I think my thoughts behind it were incorrect. I was looking at my daytrades trying to determine how they can be better swings. Which there is some validity there, but it should not have been my focus. I should have looked at it as reason to eliminate majority of stocks im watching, and strictly focus on seeing those same winning setups, and day trading them. Because thats what Im good at. Thats what got me those big wins to look at in the first place. Not swinging them. 

As always, doing these kinds of reviews gives me confidence back and ready to get back to trading well again. It was overall a good review that reminded me of what tags my best wins have, and to only try to trade those. 

But, I went on swinging things anyways. 

I started a new way of journaling. Going week to week not day to day. Was a good way for me to have everything in one spot at the end of the week when it was time to review. 

This month I also got a great book called 'The Mental Game of Trading' by Jared Tendler. Was a great book that I now finished. Was very helpful in giving me new ideas and ways to tag MY trading performance for every trade. Not just the stocks performance itself. 

What were my emotions, how did I manage myself etc. More on this later.

My monthly review consisted of more of the exact same swing mistakes. Not taking the trade and paying the huge spread on certain names just to get in. Choosing low vol garbage names to trade instead of focusing on the higher vol names. 

I would still see that my swing trades could make large moves, rarely but still happened, and that made me want to keep on trying it. 

They were my setups, just on lower volume names. They didnt have momentum. 

SEPTEMBER +674$ +7R Avg Win 1.75x Avg loss 37 trades 43% WR 66% Compliance

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/10/september-monthly.html

Aside from ditching the garbage portion of my trading career, this was actually a big turning point month for me. Probably the biggest in a couple years. 

*I spent a lot of time running through my head about stock selection and separating between swings and daytrades. Very slowly I kept eliminating trade ideas and setups and stocks that either continually hurt me, or were not worth trading options on.

This was the month I finally called it quits on trying to swing.

It took me looking at my stats to finally stop. I couldnt do it to myself anymore. 

I have the swing only stats for August and September, about halfway through Sep I looked and saw I was 10 for 63 and down 4k$ I said thats it, im done. 

It took 6 months of absolute BS for me to finally kick my ego to the side, stop trying to master 2 things at once, focus on my strengths and abandon trying to get good at something, I clearly was not performing well at. 

My daytrading stats were always positive, It was through swinging I was giving everything back.

Im just not good at holding overnight. I like what I can control. I can control 5-30 minute trades. I cannot control my urges to scalp my swing trades and take them off early, or cut the loss on a breakdown against me. My brain cant adapt to that style of trading and I tried to force it for so long.

No more. 

If I could go back, id just ask myself

'What are you actually good at here?'

'Is it worth doing anything other than that?'

'Why not focus on quality and mastering 1 process?'

-Renaming setups to be more specific. 

-Revamping my stat sheet to focus on what is most important

-Revamping my stat sheet to clean it up to focus on quality over quanitity

-Tagging trades in order to rank them based on most important variables, based on largers/best wins

I took a big look at my best wins, again, looking at more commonalities and trying to determine what my most important variables that made sense to me in those setups.

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/09/renaming-setups.html

I changed the way I traded these too.

*I started treating momentum adds, as only keeping them on if there is momentum. If there is no momentum after I add, I exit the adds. I expect there to be a flood of buyers or sellers ASAP, and if there isnt, I am very exposed to risk. 

*I also started taking my mental game more serious. I started recording separate emotions on how I was feeling at the time. Greed, Fear, Anger, Discipline and Confidence. Ranking them in terms of A game B or C. 

That part has been a bit challenging to get consistent with. Greed can range from not taking profits, to sizing up too big, to not taking a loss when I need to. So there are multiple aspects that can go wrong in terms of emotions. Being specific with that has been a big help to me though

Ultimately it turns out that Fear is my biggest problem. And specifically, taking profits too soon because a fear of giving it back.

Im still struggling with this now and cant seem to shake it some trades. More later

*Ended with a good monthly recap of things I had been doing

Became more selective

Ditched what was losing me money. 

Took action to improve mental game

On the flip side, discovered what my bigger more prominent problems were

Not cutting momentum adds when no momentum

Distractions

Not being 100% prepared at open.

Taking wins off too fast

*Not cutting momentum adds, and cutting my winners short instead of waiting to take profit at proper cues were the biggest cause of me not making more money. 

Peronal life wise, a lot had happened this month too.

I had finished digitizing my familys photo album/slides ranging dates from 1890 to 1980

My short lived Brazillian Jiu Jutsu career came to an end after I dislocated my patella during class

Baseball season was coming to a close.

Had a gender reveal party. 

Did more house work

All in all, this is the month I got super serious agian. Dropping swing trading, reliving myself of that mental space allowed me to get focused on quality. Very productive month. Turned a corner

OCTOBER +$133 -.5R Avg win 1.5x avg loss 38 Trades 42% WR 66% Compliance

https://justadaytrader.blogspot.com/2021/10/october-monthly.html

The first thing I want to note, is my compliance.

Because I was taking a deeper look at my emotions affecting perfomance, I was able to spot a lot more problems with my trading. An emotional reaction turning into an action is what we want to avoid. We as traders cannot 100% eliminate emotions, we can only manage them and recognize they are there.

While I recognized it, I still did not do the best job at managing it. 

*This month was the one I recongized quality was coming into my trading over quantity. I find most things in my trading career are given to me, rather than me reaching out to take it. It falls into my lap as long as I am available and ready to recieve something. Its all about respecting the market and listening to what it has to say.

I only had 1 day this month I took a trade past 10am. Because I had done the work to know where and when my best trades occur, If I wasnt getting something within that time frame, then I didnt need to be stepping on the gas outside of my edge.  

If I know I trade X best under Y conditions, why spend any time at all trading Z under A conditions. 

Part of me leaving trading desk early was becuase of no edge, but also because I wanted to do things around the house more. Preparing for baby Henry. There was still much to be done and I needed to make plenty more trips clearing things out making space. My trading life started taking up less and less time.

A big plus this month was recording my A game in other areas. Daily setup, Risk, cutting adds, Entries, Profit taking and exit. I would give myself a grade on each of those for every trade. And its been super helpful becuase now I have this. 

This is over the past 4 months of day trading.

Im really excited for next year because now I know what to look out for better, but as my first trial and error recording these types of things, it becomes obvious where your strengths and weakness are. More on this later

I did a quick review at the end of this month, and found I had done decent in most areas, other than Daily Selection. 

*This led to a couple things. Another Stock list trim. If it wasnt daytradable meaning options had tight spread, and decent volume, then I would not look at it any longer.

*It led to me also ranking my watchlist every morning. I would have however many names, and priotize it. Based on volume, industry/sector theme, breakout or pullback etc. I still do this now and it is very helpful. Risk comes into it as well. Size up on priority 1. Dont size up on any others. 

I did a deeper dig into winners (for the 80th time this year) To know what Hall of fame trades had in common. Now I had a better way to describe my setups and rank them for priotizing. Now I could go back and compare once again. Some setups I can take right at bell, some setups looked like they needed more time to build. Perhaps too over ext on LTF, needed a pull in for big moves again. More on this later. 

Overall on the month I still had same issues, but I was more aware of them and had more specifics on why it was occuring. 

*Biggest problems were taking profits on winners too fast

NOVEMBER -127$ -2R 18 Trades 45% WR Avg win 1.1x Avg loss 61% Compliance

My trading has dropped off dramatically. Preparing to trade everyday, but some days not taking a trade. Market got a bit choppy and I was more clear with my edge and eliminating possible trades so it makes sense that not every day im going to have something to do.

Things were just slowing down. I believe big earnings seasons was around here so there were a lot of moves to digest. 

I did a great job with selection, it came down to management. I caught great winners, some trade I didnt have any momentum adds on, some smaller OG starter size. 

My Trade MFE on the month was 22.3 and R$ at +27R meaning if I was using consistent 100$ risk, the highest $ amount id be up was 2700$

I lost money on the month so I didnt capture any of that. It kind of shows in that my avg win was only slightly larger than my avg loss this month. I had only 1 big win on SQ for +500$, but that was erased from several trades that I took for an L past my intended stop. 4 trades went past it totaling -5TradeR and -4.78R$. So 1 win made up for my 4 worst losses on the month, the rest was just breakeven. 

That one win though, I made another profit taking mistake. Didnt wait and follow my rules and cut my win in half because of it. 

More or less a repeat of the same usual problems. Still did more elimination of lesser names and improvement on quaility. It is starting to become apparent in my win rate that my selection is improving. 

Im staring at my numbers this month trying to make sense of it. This was one of the strange months where my risk on losers was on avg bigger than my risk on winners. Sometimes its by error, from me sizing up on bad setups, adding momo lots when there isnt, bad selection, poor risk management from the beginning. Other times, it just happens. 

So im doing a bit of digging. Im going back through the months and adding more R stats to my monthly sheet. TradeR MFE,MAE on W and L. R$ MFE and MAE on W and L. There is inconsistency in my risk and ive seen it before, maybe I can find something digging into this. 

And what I found.......

I will talk about in the end of December section

I also started a market breadth watch. I pretty much copied Stockbees market monitor, but added my own things and filters that make sense to me and what I watch. So far its been great keeping up with what the market broad performance is like. Gives me good clues when buying is coming from a bottom or if it isnt. 

It was just a slow month. Started working on this yearly review, getting my numbers together. 

Compliance was lowest it has been in a while. Only taking 18 trades, just 2 mistakes already puts me in 80% range. Doesnt matter though. Needed to be on top of it and I wasnt. Only 2 times I made profit taking errors. Other new ones popped up. Unplanned risk usually too small on the ones I want to be big, and then too big on the ones id rather be small. Just inconsistent. And a couple of settling for less, too early intraday trades. Not being patient enough. 

Pretty unventful month. I believe I spent more time on stats and review here than I had the previous months. Getting myself ready to type out this review and plan it out.  

DECEMBER

So I went back through last 4 months of trading and made 18 new columns. TradeR and R$ on W, L and all trades. As well as MFE and MAE on each. 

This I believe is for consistency purposes. If my trades are on avg going 3 TradeR in my favor, but im only capturing 1 R$, that is a problem and will lead to breakeven trading as my winners size is not large enough to eliminate losses. 

Overall the month was pretty slow. Didnt have too much to do and we are having a couple parties coming up as well as the obvious family friends get togethers. Didnt do much other than work on this review trading wise. 

Trading itself went pretty well. Good selection and management. Only 2 losses slightly more than -1R$ and a few more than -1TradeR losses, but all without momo adds so very small losers.

Compartmentalizing everything this review has been big for me. Putting it all together has put my mind to ease in so many ways while opening new doors for me to keep exploring through this trading journey. Im really happy with where this year has led me and I think this month is a great final bullet point that shows me what my trading can really be. Plenty of restrictions but maximizing what I do best. Great risk management while being laser focused to add to my winners. 

I believe I am at my most confident ive ever been in my trading. Ended the month very strong

Numbers great on the month. Losses much smaller from cutting momentum adds fast.

NUMBERS

PL Curve

Trade
R Curve

Monthly

Everything perking up right at the end. Excited to see where I can go from here. 

The rest are screenshots of September - December. 

Seeing a lot of consistency here. Trades that have very small MFE do not have large avg risk taken. Which means im not adding to trades that dont go in my favor. 

Cents at risk is a notable one. Anytime im risking more than 30cents, my numbers turn red. Im usually only betting the spread + a few ticks. So seeing a 30cent spread would be pretty wide and something to avoid. That can be my line in the sand. There are of course exceptions in some names. AMZN and SHOP are worth trading still. 

Pretty much all trades I take are under 3$ premium. Once it hits 3 you get the nickle effect in action. 

Best performers were Topside of trend near ATH. Strong stocks. Worst performers were breakout trades at the breakout level. Nothing super clear here to make me want to change anything. All still worth taking. 

Level raitng is noteworthy. 1-5 4s clearly performed the best. So the more the level has been traded around the better. 

There is another clear theme im seeing in the numbers. Theres some kind of 'half' rule. Vol rating 1-5, half would be 3, andything less than 3 has red. Same with # of variables. My main 10, less than 5 is no good. The rest less than 16 is no good. 

Overall im happy seeing these numbers, These are pretty good and I know im only getting more consistent so they should keep improving as well. 

And now some random topics I have thought about throughout the year. Either totally new ideas, or old ones that needed some work. Some things totally gone, some the same as always.

I had some trouble this year with being 100% ready at the open. I missed a lot of trades because I was not completely ready to trade.

Dont let swing, get in the way of swang

    -Eliminating swing trading was like dropping off a parasite. Just kept losing money. Now that I dont swing. Im not losing money!

Sentiment tracker

This was a lot of fun and continues to be one of my favorite day to day activities. Straight up stole this from Stockbee thanks. But made it my own and record things I believe are more relevant to me. Some may be useful to me, some I may get rid of if I find they arent that helpful.

Clearly though I have noticed so far it is an excellent gauge at when market is ready to get strong and make strong trending moves, or range bound, or ready to reverse. 

Mental Map

    -Discovering what emotion leads to worst mistakes has given me better focus on what needs fixing now. 

Knowledge around options

    -Really wasnt that hard. Just needed time to sort out what I dont need to be spending any time and effort on.

    -I like options priced above a dollar, under 3$. Delta under 50, some smaller ATR names, ill go higher. 

    -The biggest one was eliminating stocks on my watchlist that were not scalpable. If it doesnt have a tight spread, I have no business looking at it. 

# of times I changed how I record stats

    -Always changing still, but with more focus on the more important parts of my trading. My 10 most impoartnat variables listed 1st and trade stats based on those alone. More in depth stats on risk TradeR and R$. More detail on what kind of setup it is im taking. 

Burnout and trading through it

    -Burnout was real this year. No one has fun in this game repeatedly losing over and over, and still triyng to do the same things. You flat out need breaks. Moreso you need to eliminate things that you dont enjoy, arent working, or dont give you energy. 

    -I am finding out around every 3 months I need some kind of break. 

Ranking system. 

    -I needed to make a daily ranking system somewhere around early fall becuase I was still looking at too many potential setups. I ended up missing a lot at the open becuase I was looking at 4 stocks at one moment that I may or may not get in.

    -Towards the end of the year, now I dont need to do this as much. Its easy to rank your watchlist when theres only 4 on it. 

    -Went back to my 10 most important variables. Whichever had the most and was a breakout took priority. 

Creating new way to label setups

    -Pullbacks, breakouts, strongest stocks? Weaker names for a pop? Middle of range? Top, Bottom?

    -Still not 100% here, will be a goal for next year to be more specific. 

It is clear quality is coming into my trading.

Spent a lot of time on 'maybe I can be good at this too'

    -Was choosing quantity over quality

VWAP, longs only above, shorts only under

    -Necessary. Only at open, within 10 minutes will I take a quick dip long or pop short. 

Selection 

    -Clearly used to be terrible. Low vol, no namers. Swing or not, not worth the effort or BP.

Journaling my thoughts more important than recording stats?

    -Why not both and then I dont have to worry about this question

    -Both obviously help in different ways. Journal for mental stability and question searching. Stat for performance review and process implementation. 

Discovered I am a Mid+ Cap, momentum scalper trading strong stocks out of tight consolidation, with tight moving averages and nearby significant Anchored Vwaps.

    -Discovered I am a mid+cap momentum scalper with main focus at the open. Trading breakout or pullbacks with significant Anchored Vwaps and Tight Daily moving averages. 

1Hr chart 20ma close?

    -Towards the end of the year here I noticed majority of my trades at the open would be trending with the 9/20MA on 1hr very tight or at price. If they werent, the stock would not make strong pushes until it interacted with them. More on this next year. 

TIME

I remember the past couple years now there was something about time I couldnt really understand with my trading. I have made a lot of progress this year. 

The issue early on was I was not sure what it was I was missing, but I knew something was there. Time spent in a trade? Time spent for stop loss? For profit? Time of day? Volume at a given time? 

This year I found out my most profitable trades happen at the open. Specifically in the 1st 10 minutes of the day. So all that time I spent doing X Y and Z trying to figure out how I should trade the afternoon differently, was pretty much a waste. I was not building my strengths, I was trying to fix the leaks in my weaknesses.

Trade selection wise, the open is where I needed the most focus and buying power. Buying power coincidentally is what led me to this conclusion this year as well as several reviews of winners.

QUALITY / SELECTION

Kind of an odd path that led me here. When I started trading, I had 30k to use at my disposal. I treaded water for the next 5 years. Didnt lose much, didnt make much. Good times and bad. Then I got married. I spent a huge chunk of that money to pay for the wedding. As well as house renovations. Thats another story in itself too. But bottom line, I am now at the point I only have a 3k account. I have been FORCED to focus on quality. There is no more money for me to trade as much as I want, whenever I want.

Its been a blessing and a curse. Theres always 2 sides to the coin.

Before when I had enough money for a margin account, I took that as 'ok, I can do a whole lot here. I can scalp, swing, options. I can do it all.' And throughout the years I definitely did do it all.

The huge problem here is that I was unaware I was spreading myself so thin across what I could do, I didnt spend anytime trying to get really really good at 1 thing. I always knew I liked scalping, but I also liked to swing, and had good experiences doing that. So I have the money for it, why not do both?

Mike Bellafiore has a saying to pick 1 goal and spend all your efforts to reach that goal. And I told myself that saying forever since ive heard it. But I never followed through. My reasoning was always I have the money and the time do to it, so lets do it. I would spend a month on setups, then the next on management, then the next on risk, or swings. And it would be this back and forth for years of trying to get good, reach goals, on several subjects, rather than 1. 

And so what was the result. 

A whole lot of spinning my wheels. Treading water. Feeling like mentally im getting somewhere, but physically, financially, not actually getting anywhere.

I obviously learned a ton. My knowledge gap from now and a year ago is huge just like the year before that and the one before that. 

But at some point I had to stop trying to fix 10 problems at once.

I had to stop treating them as problems that needed fixing. I had to stop calling them problems. When you dont have money to swing trade. You dont have swing trading problems. Because youre not swing trading. So that was 1 big section in my trading just gone. Out the window and out of mind. 

And that is the blessing. I dont know the word or words for it, but I know I should be grateful for the things this trading journey takes me through. Its up to us as traders to turn losses into a lesson. To do the uncomfortable digging into our trading, ourselves, and our situations to recognize 'its not actually that bad. There is a lesson here.'

So anyways, after all that. I am all about the quality trading now. Ive done the work to know where my best setups are, what they look like, what conditions. My A grade setups. No longer any B setups allowed. Ever. For the rest of my career. I remember at some point last year I had a day with 30 freaking stocks on my watchlist. Not a chance anymore. 

Results have been nothing but positive. You are only as good as the stocks you trade. Majority of my problems now are on not holding winners long enough, not following my process. 

-PERFORMANCE

Earlier I talked about how I record A B and C game performance metrics. I record that on Daily setup, Intraday entry criteria, risk, profit taking, cutting adds, exiting position.

My strongest area is intraday criteria. Rarely would I enter a trade that did not meet my criteria. 

My weakest point is profit taking. Followed by cutting adds.

Basically im taking this as im good at selecting good stocks with good charts, waiting for them to trigger correctly. Applying the correct size to adjust my risk. But when it comes to taking profits, I take off size too early. I dont let them run. It follows my compliance mistake list where majority of my errors are from exiting trades at incorrect times

Its good my selection and quality has improved, but still means nothing without performing according to my rules. If I cant let my winners run, and take profits according to my rules, which has been without a doubt my number 1 issue for bigger wins and bigger months. Progress will be much slower. Winners will only erase 1 or 2 losses rather than 3 or 4. 

This is mainly because of emotions. 

-EMOTIONS

I also kept track of my emotions and if they did or did not get in the way of my trades. Greed, Fear, Anger, Discipline, Confidence. 

Overall discipline is my biggest weakness. Any mistake I make, automatically drops discipline to B game. Regardless of the mistake.

Specifically the emotion attatched to the mistake that is the most troublesome for me, is fear. 

Fear of giving back gains. Fear of win turning into a loss. 

I cant seem to trust myself my process and my trades. I cant let the probabilities work themselves out. Emotion takes over when I see a nice move in my favor start to pull back. Or when I get a super quick move I want to take it off asap. 

Several things come to mind, I have a plan as to when I am supposed to take size off. The plan has come from researching winners and knowing probabilities on how they perform. It makes sense to me, I like it, I know it works well for me.

I also know that in some cases my size is big enough, I can take off my trade little by little instead of in chunks like 3rds or 4ths.

My issue with fear is for the most part it has caused me to take off a large chunk, sometimes half of my position on noise, or just a simple short term micro pullback, because I have seen frequently in this market, my stocks make a strong move, then fail and give it back. 

I have rules to protect myself and cut my win short if it does revert to breakeven. Best trades I dont ever have to worry about this, so when it does come back, thats a problem, I want to make sure I leave with more money. 

I also trade options, premium matters. Time decay matters. Time matters period, down to the second in most cases. Ive had plenty of trades come back to breakeven just on a simple pullback, despite the stock being a dollar more or less above my original entry price. 

I ALSO keep track of my % of the move captured. If im in at 1$, max favorable excurision was 2$, and my out price is 1.50$, I captured 50% of the move. 50% is what my average was with stocks, with options it hovers more around 40%. 

I let the stock pull in and retest in some cases because I take trades that I expect to run potentiall all day, and at same time I have rules that let me exit the trade if there are problems or it is running into a loser.

Allowing stocks to pullback, at all, means there is going to be premium and time decay in the option I am in. Im going to be giving up potentially a lot of premium waiting on that pullback to see if it holds or not. And worse, if I have size on thats going to seriously cut into the total % of the move captured. 

We cannot eliminate our weaknesses, we can only manage them.

I think a good fix for me is to let myself take those profits on the micro pullbacks. NOT with size. If I have 10lots on, just take 1 off. And another 1. And wait for my bigger cue of the 1min low break to take off my larger partial.

This will manage my fear and relax me by not worrying if ill give it all back, or if that pullback is going to revert me to breakeven. I can take profits as the stock moves in my favor and makes profits available to me. Waiting to take profits usually results in giving back a lot of premium regardless.

If the stock gets too far too fast, take 1 off. If that 1 minute candle low is very far away, waiting for that 1min low break can sometimes be a 50% gain wiped away.

I know my 1min rule is good for me based on my past research of winners, but there are sometimes it does not make sense to follow it.

If the stock triggers, I get in, and it is making a nice steady move higher, then I can wait for either that 1min low break to take, or wait and see if it starts getting too far too fast, and take off into that move. 

Fear is the emotion that hurts my gains the most. But it is not necessarily the most common emotion I get in my trading. 

Greed and Confidence (over and under) also show similar numbers. 

Greed comes into my trading through size. Usually too large given the circumstances. Eager to catch a huge win when the trade isnt actually worth the risk. Laziness. That ties in with overconfidence. Also with entering trades too early. 

It also shows with smaller size. Maybe I wasnt paying enough attention and missed my chance to get sized up. Or just didnt take the momentum adds. Underconfidence. I didnt feel like it, so I didnt go for it. Then I end up with a +5R trade but only +1R$

Overall im doing decent. When I make a trade, chances are more than likely that I will do all the steps in my process correctly. But the market lets you know you aint shit. Its those ones that you dont follow your rules that kill your end p/l. 

And lastly talking about losers. Spent all the above talking about wins, I still have losses.

On the losing side of my game and emotions, sometimes you just have a loser. Nothing to do about it, but you double down on your losses when you let emotion get in the way.

This is where greed and overconfidence come in for me in the opposite way.

Holding my momentum adds too long after there was no momentum. Not taking profits at all. Not cutting trade short to keep at least a small win. Not cutting trade after clear warning signs. Entering a trade too early. Too late. 

My win rate has gone up dramatically towards these last months. A whole 10% on average. Less trades higher quality. 

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Pretty excited to start next year. Ever since I have been tracking these new stats my trading performance has only gotten better and more detailed. December has been a good month for me in that in my live trading, I dont actively think about much anymore, it has become ingrained in me to do X when Y happens. Of course the mistakes and emotions still slip in from time to time and I do what I can to catch myself, but overall I think my numbers 1st quarter next year should be much better than they are now. 

The new profit taking rule will help me a lot I think. Smaller partials. Take as it is working. 

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 ABC possibilities are specific to me. 

Other trades may have a couple or several diffferent C game possibilities and they all need adjustments.

But for myself, I can only identify 1 thing that affects my performance negatively the most and that is fear. And specifically my C game in fear is taking profits not according to plan. Fear of giving back profits. 

Having 5 different C game scenarios means theres a higher chance to get a C game rating. Identifying the mistake is the most important part. Emotions are what we have to recognize in real time to contorl our impulse to do the wrong thing. 

I am mainly thinking about my problem with fear of giving back profits. If I made that mistake, I would give myself a C in the profit taking rating spot and a 1 in the emotion fear spot. 

What then is my B game?

A game is at least, not making the mistake at all. But what about almost making the mistake. Having the emotional impulse to do it at all, yet controlling it.

I am reading a book called Relentless and it is awesome. One of the main points is that there are 3 kinds of people. Coolers, Closers, and Cleaners. In several areas he states things like

Coolers feel the emotion and are affected by the problem

Closers feel the emotion, but have the awareness to control the problem.

Cleaners feel nothing.

The A game is being at an emotional level that you dont even have the impulse. 

RISK

   

I made this chart when I made the R chart above in February. This is by $$$. Hi Lo Close Open.

Clearly the avg loss is around 100$ which I consider 1R. But there is still some sloppiness here. Its like bleeding a few dollars every trade I take. 

Ultimately, On an average setup, I trade 100$ of risk, to see what I can turn it into. 

Its not always smooth. Sometimes risk is larger than I think, sometimes smaller. Sometimes I get crushed on slippage or miss a good add. Sometimes im late to exit the trade and get double crushed.

When I put a trade on, I have my entry price. And I have my expected exit price. That is my 1R. Nothing to do with $$$ on the line, no size involved. 

For a long time now, I have shot myself in the foot in a lot of trades where I risk my 1R, but the size makes my $$$ at risk super low. Countless trades Ive made double digit R returns, but only a couple hundred dollars in actual profits.

My R game is good. My dollar $$$ R game, is inconsistent and hurts my final P/L.

It is a matter of consistency. Taking the same predetermined risk every single trade based on setup and ranking. Size. 

It really is just a simple math problem for every entry. 50cent risk? 2 contracts. 30 cent risk? 3 contracts. Adding? Double the OG size. 

Entry and exit points give me my R. My size gives me my dollars. 

For my entire career. I have not thought about the money. I have thought about the R. I have made it a game to myself. A math game. A statistics game. The concept of money and dollars was secondary. I would not allow myself to get greedy. I didnt want to get greedy.

Perhaps ive literally been doing it wrong for my entire career. I spent an hour or so looking at other R articles, and they all say R is based on $ not the distance for your stop location.

So what exactly have I been doing all this time?

If im in at 2$ risking 1.50$ then I have a stop of .50cents. I considered that 50cents my 1R. So If I exited at 3$, I made 2R on the trade. I skipped size and $ at risk. 

I did this because It gave me data on how well I would stop out where I intended to stop out, see how far on average it would move in my favor and against me. Still nothing with $ yet. 

I tracked my TradeR to judge performance of trades. I now track R$ to judge consistency. 

R$ can still give me performance, but based off of MY wants of $$$ and $ at risk. It could not give me an accurate look at average performance of my trades like TradeR can. 

So there is a significant point here. It is useful to use both. 

The chart gives me my 1 unit of risk. my TradeR or Trade Risk.

I am ok losing 1R$ or 2R$ or 3R$ if it is planned. But it is NEVER ok to lose more than -1R or -1TradeR

I think the conclusion I am coming to is that it is necessary to track both. TradeR for performance, and $R for actual money making consistency. 

When it comes to trade selection, there are clearly going to be trades worth risking more than 1R and some worth only risking 1R. My discipline is paramount in not sizing up in trades that are not A+, and being ok only risking 1R in trades that look great. 

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There are still gaps I am needing to fill. Knowledge is not enough yet as im only recently getting into doing this. There are also stat records to change in how I label risk on OG entries and momentum adds. 

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This section was one of the first ones I worked on first when I started this review. Now that im nearing finished it has finally come to me what the difference and significance of TradeR and R$ is. Or measured moves from my stop and dollars at risk or profits/loss from a set number.

The R$ is another way to look at my dollars. 

Before

And After

It is a way to reduce 0's. Just another way to look at dollars

So instead of saying "I made 214$ on the trade and made +2.4R$", its just," I made +2.4R$"

Not really a variable to track, just another way to view or think about results. 

And it saves a lot more space and is easier on the eyes. Unfortunately it breaks my stats spreadsheet, but ill have to clean it up. 

MANAGEMENT

The biggest thing around my trade management that has changed, is how little room I give my trades. From entry to adds I expect it to work asap. As a momentum trader how could you expect anything else. 

I think this is the part im most excited about. I have found a much better way to play to my strengths and keep losses very small when wrong. Adding to trades as soon as they work and stepping on the gas expecting them to go here and now. And when they dont go, I dont add, therefore losses end up super small. 

Setting ego aside was major. I kept trying to find ways remain in a stock when I should have been focused on getting out instead. It goes back to A and B setups. Abandoning your B setups and in-trade performance and only holding trades that are doing exactly what you want them to do. I was trying to squeeze profits out of trades because I had a fear that I would be right later on. 

It took me to long to get to the point of

-add to winners

-take off adds if they dont work right away.

I think the key word for me was momentum. I was adding on momentum but keeping those adds on when there wasnt any momentum. That turned a lot of -.5R$ trades into more than -1R$ trades. By cutting my momentum adds when there is no momentum, it helps keep losses much smaller, while keeping on the potential for huge gains when I am right and the stock is acting right.

I kept thinking in terms of right and wrong, and its just so much more than that. You can be right in a trade, but when, now? 5minutes from now? Tomorrow?

It goes back to you and your strengths. What your best wins have in common and treating each and every trade like a loss that needs to be cut, not a potential win that needs to be held. If that trade isnt acting like your best winners do, defense needs to come to mind 1st. Protect, do not get aggressive. 

Thats just me though of course. 

LIFE

A ton happened this year. 

-Wedding

-Baby

-Parties

-House

-Baseball

-Fitness

So much to be happy and grateful for. Starting a family is already one of the most exciting things ive done in my life. 2021 was not a bad year for me. 

LAST YEAR GOALS

-Find Option Swing process, create rules, risk rules, add, trade management, early exits, early entries, profit taking.

    -Man did I spend a lot of time on that just to scrap it. Just isnt me, bottom line. 

-Capitalize on as much as I can. Make good money.

    -Well, I certainly did make good money sometimes. I also lost some good money. 

-Make 12k from trading. $1000 a month. 

    -Check. But also no check. 1st month clearly the best, but rest just a grind. Not enough. 

-Read 10 more books.

    -I believe I did. I didnt write down what I did finish but lets see. Discipline equals Freedom. Cant Hurt Me. Extreme Ownership. VP, MP & Orderflow. The Mental Game of Trading. Think Again. The Man who Solved the Markets. The Master Swing Trader. Trading with Market Profile. Thats 9 there, there are a couple im looking at I cant remember if I read them this year or 2019. Maybe a re read of Reminiscences Of a A Stock Operator. Re skimmed through Markets in Profile. Either way Ill call it 10. 

-Selection, Risk, Management are the big 3. Get better in all

    -Selection by finding what setups I need to still eliminate, or add in. 

    -Risk consistent in every scenario. Not inverted, but near the same for W and L

    -Management by following my management rules. (finding out what they should be for option swing)

        -I CERTAINLY got better in all of these 3 in so many ways. Big Check

-85% compliance whole year

    -Hell nah. Still garbage. Around 75% Being more speicifc on mistakes though, has allowed me to recognized im making mistakes when I used to think I wasnt. So there is progress still here. 

-Miss less trades

    -Still do, but towards end of year did much better job of not. Buying power is main limitation at missing others at the moment. 

-Find out if I can entirely switch from shares to options, or if I should only do shares and abandon options    

    -I like options. For one, I can only trade options at the moment becuase of buying power. I am not sure I have found a side I lean on. I do not know if I would benefit more from options or shares. I think that If I traded shares, I would have smaller losses and a lot more near breakeven trades. But at same time, Im not sure liquidity is going to make a difference there when it comes to getting in and adding. Thinking about AMZN. Or profitability wise of shares are higher and faster in options. I will say I miss the consistency of shares. Shares would also make my hotkey situation easier and I would be a faster trader. 

-Trade less when market doesnt make sense. Trade more when things are hot. Dont fight the market in range bound contexts. 

    -I got better at this. I got much better at recognzing themes and context across broad market. 

-Change approach in trading to quicker takes when market is range bound/not making sense. 

    -Mmmmm not quite what I settled on. I still take same setups with same expectations regardless of overall market. Intraday is what makes the difference most of the time. For the most part, this market was trending higher all year. Bulls win. Nothing wrong with sticking to that theme everyday. I still took trades to the short side though. And nothing wrong with that. Depends on stock and intraday action of both overall market and stock itself.

    -Now when it comes to stepping on the gas, that is what I need to get better at. 

-Take a break when performing bad or feeling burned out. 

    -Did not do a good job here. Kept spinning wheels. 

-Focus on 1 main monthly goal every month. 

    -nah I still didnt do it. I couldnt. There was too much I gave myself to work on. Too many questions too many problems. I couldnt just do 1 a month. 

    -I just wont do it. Its not in my willpower to lower myself to work on 1 thing at a time. I identify my problems, come up with solutions, and implement them. When they appear in trading, I do what I plan to do. Then new problems come. And I repeat with those.

    -Trading is a constantly evolving thing. Your not the same trader you were last year. There are things you thought were great that arent anymore. Problems that dont exist any longer, that came back again in a different way. Its always changing. As I have learned this year, not all my problems are worth solving. 

    -In my case, im not usually the same trader I was last quarter either. My stats that I recorded in February dont reflect who I am now as I trader and my processes. Those problems arent quite relatable the same way any longer. 

LIFE GOALS

-Get Married. Hell Yeah. 

    -Hell Yeah. 

-Play some good baseball again. Dont lead team in strikeouts. Back to swing that felt right.

    -Yeah buddy, .389AVG up from .326. OBP .488 up from .436. Did not lead team in strikeouts. Hit a bomb at GCS Stadium. On my wishlist for 14 years crossed off. Over the green monster. Was a real solid season and great group of dudes. Stats and numbers better all around. Swing is what is comfortable and what makes sense to me. 

-Continue house work. Update doors/ moldings. 

    -Never ending. Doors and windows done but F me it is absurdly expensive to get a new damn door for this house. None of the doors are the same size and they are all custom sized. Which means every single door has to be built from scratch. New windows, new patio. Basement is waterproofed and mold removed. 

-Bike ride once a week at least

    -I rode a lot but not every week. I considered bike riding/walking an accessory workout to the lifting I do in the gym. Baseball was an accessory. House work borderline accessory. Bike riding was an accessory but I replaced it with other things from time to time. Getting up and out of the house is key. Now with a kid on the way, there were house projects that needed priority and I didnt always get that 2nd workout in. 

-Figure out where we want to move next. 

    -Nah. Yeah, but nah. Baby Henry has gotta come first and then we will go from there. 

-Go over biggest problems in 2020 at end of 2021 and relate. 

WELL,

- 2020 problems were Inverted Risk. Small on best trades. Trying to do too much too fast. Treating scalps same as big picture. Choking off wins too fast. Not believing in myself. Not taking longer breaks. Trading too much in range bound markets. Missing best ideas. Not looking at news. 

-Well not much of a coincidence. I had the exact same problems this year too. Selection. Risk. Managment. 

-Improvements are always made, but its still always changing. 1 solution opens the door to a new problem. Then a new solution. Then a new problem.

-Inverted risk still happens. Now I track TradeR and R$ and will be focused on size next year.

-Too small on best trades. Happens still, but because of focus on less names on any given day, happens less. Im able to get size on as long as im focused.

-Trying to do too much too fast. Right, stop trying to do so many things at once. Swing trading is done. B setups are gone.

-Taking profits too fast is still a struggle, but I have a better understanding of where it comes from. Taking profits too early on a swing doesnt happen anymore because I dont swing. 

-Not taking longer breaks. I dont like the word quit, but its a come and go thing. Sometimes youre just sick of it and in need of a break. I dont have a good system for this. I dont know If I need a good system for it yet. I abandonded the thing that was making me burnout and lose money, and so far im not burning out at all. So does that mean I dont need a system for when to take time off? I dunno. Something for another time I suppose.

-Trading too much in rangebound markets. Again, not swinging so not much of an issue. 

-Missing best ideas. Still happens but much less often now. I believe with more time and data ill be able to better rank my setups for more focus. 

-Not looking at news. I do after the trade. If theres news, Ill know just by premarket activity or RVOL. Does not make much difference to me if no other traders care about it. 

-Not believing in myself. This is the big one. This ties in with choking off profits. And is the most important thing to work on at the moment. I just talked all about how I cant focus on 1 main issue, well this is the one that would take priority as it is the biggest P/L hurt. 

    -Theres a lot to get into about it, but I dont think I will. Because I have arrived at this point as a trader that I am happy I am here. With regards to selection, risk and management. But ive only just got here. If I am happy and confident as a trader now, then all I need to do is trade. And trust. And whatever happens happens. I have a plan to cover my ass in every aspect. All there is to do, is to follow the plan. There is no need for belief. Or faith. Or trust. Its in my process. It is part of the plan. Just follow the plan that I have built over the course of 5 years of trial and error. 

2022 GOALS

Create separate R$ chart to track money consistency next to tradeR performance

    -in Daily, in Monthly

Process for profit taking

    -overext? Too far too fast?

    -How much size cut where and when

Create R$ process for trade setups. A, A+, Strong names, Bottom poppers etc. 

Dig deeper into TradeR and R$. What stands out, is there any notable difference to help improve process?

Find better way to record stats on momentum adds and risk levels. Separate OG stop level, risk, and Momo stop level, risk. 

Charts on Sentiment Tracker 

1Hr chart significance with 9/20 at open or later in day.

More detail on type of trade I am taking. Top bottom 2nd day pre breakout etc. 

Learn when to step on the gas and go for it.

Trade BIGGER on BIG A+ Setups. 

Just like Setups, Have a ranking order for goals for each month.

When detail on setups is known, find how far in favor they go on average.

    -%ATR?

    -3x R?

    -BO level?

Learn more about emotions and trading. Fear and Greed. How it affects me and gets in my way. Control or manage. 

Have a strong understanding of my ABC Game process of recording performance and emotions.

Ensure profit taking rule on +2R moves

Re-read Key points (risk, emotions etc..) and update with thoughts on old beliefs

I just wanna trade. Day by day. Week by week. Month by month. I really like where I am right now. When the problems come they will come. When I have solutions they will be implemented. When I get new ideas Ill check it out. Most of the things come to me. I dont force it anymore. 

I have given myself a pretty good to do list to get started on going into 2022. There is nothing new to do here that I havent done every year now. 1st trading day of the year will come. I will still trade on it. I will have my plans in mind and ready to execute. I will work on my to do list day by day when I can. And I will tweak them when they need tweaking. I will discover whether or not something is worth tracking, or just a waste of my time. The market gives me everything I need, and I will be there day in and out to keep working at becoming better.