November 17, 2022 (3 Trades) ($66.00)
Overall Grade: B+
Day Summary: I feel like I write this everyday, but another day filled with choppy price action, specifically in the morning, my prime time trading hours. I did a great job at being patient and waiting for a setup as I took my first trade of the day at 11:03am. I also held my winners quite well today, something that I'm happy I'm getting better at but also limiting me during this choppy market because the continuation just isn't happening. It would have been good to recognize that, and I could have had a much bigger green day if I had scalped all 3 of my trades today, but i know this is a good habit to get into because I know that when a trending market comes back, that will produce some really nice winners that eat up more of my losses. However, that does show the importance of knowing current market sentiment.
1YR:1D - SPY
1D:5M - 1D:1M - SPY
Trades
Trade #1 - Long 4 Calls at Lower High near Support (Trend Reversal)
Grade: B-
- This wouldn't be considered a perfect entry because I did not wait until this broke the downtrend to look for a retest but I was confident this was going to work out
- I scaled out 3 of 4 contracts on the way up to limit risk and at one point I was up ~$45 unrealized in this trade, but holding the 1 contract I had left to new lows reduced the profit I had on this trade to 12$ - definitely disappointing
- I was ok with holding the 1 remaining contract through a pullback to support (dashed red line) but i did not cut it once it broke that level and that was a mistake
- I thought this move would move through VWAP and potentially retest 10am highs, but marker makers decided they wanted to fake people out a couple times first
- Good job scaling up to 4 contracts, as the ATR at this time of the day was very low, and also a good job holding
FIX: Hold partials to maximize winners, but stop them breakeven, and don't allow them to eat into any of the profits you've already made
Trade #2 - Long 3 Calls at Fake Breakdown, Downtrend Reclaim Pullback (Trend Reversal)
Grade: B
- I took this trade because my confidence grew for a strong VWAP break once I saw this reclaim the downtrend it had just broke. Usually when everyone thinks the market will sell off, it is a good spot to get long when you see a fake breakdown
- This was also a triple bottom at the Opening Price
- I again held for the continuation move through VWAP with 2 of my 3 contracts and ended up cutting them after they broke below my entry. Thankfully I got 1 contract off at the top of the push and made another 4$ on this trade, but very frustrating because I was again up ~40$ on this trade, and it would been much more if I had gotten the move through VWAP (also the case on Trade 1)
FIX: Recognize from Trade 1 that this was choppy and I should have taken my profit as soon as I saw this starting to fail
Trade #3 - Long 3 Calls from Support after 2nd Fake Breakdown (Trend Reversal)
Grade: B+
- Was quite pissed when this shit pulled up for a 3rd time right after I marketed out of the previous trade, but the fact that it had faked a breakdown of that low twice and recovered gave me even more confidence that this time it was going to go
- I also added a demand zone from the LOD zone and realized that the pull back i had just marketed out on bounced right at that level
- This was at the same level I was looking at for Trade 1 so I was willing to take this trade again and look for a move through VWAP, and I held nicely through, although I should've held my last contract longer because it ended up popping huge about 10 minutes after I closed the trade
FIX: Hold partial longer because it just made a difficult move up and was likely to continue to move higher considering we gapped down last night and kept failing at a low all morning
Takeaways: Market makers are a bunch of bitches that made me rack up unneccesary fees trying to catch this move, but I still caught it bitches!! Also, continue holding your winners because that will start to seriously help my trading stats once we get back into a trending market. Lastly, chop is a bitch, I know, but stay patient and selective, and capitalize on the trades that make sense. Good shiit mann! You're getting so much better!
Easy Money: Tough day overall but it was probably the big pop after my 3rd trade, so I could have been apart of that if i held my partial (See FIX for Trade 3)
