Like the title state "this is why I am a break even trader" and not making a good amount of money. I am going to review my biggest mistakes this week. A lot of people are going to say "this is nothing more than a
wouldda,
couldda,
shouldda piece of crap". If you believe it, you believe it. I write this journal more for myself than anybody else.
-
Yes - there was many trades I tried taking or took that would have lost money instead of making money. I am not blind. Net Net - if I took all the trades I had orders setup ready to enter in the market - this week would have been a great and I mean great week. I need to learn to push the
bottom and hold on a little longer. Taking loses have never been my problem.
-
Monday - my big mistake there was X. I watch trades too closely too often. I was too quick to move my stop loss down and then after making that mistake - I did not re-enter. I should have not stopped myself and then added on the break of 54.
Tuesday - you can look at the Tuesday Big Mouth entry. I was trading somewhere where I had to use a web version of
IB instead of the Java platform. I am very proud of holding
NKE thru the initials moments of pain but once
NKE paused and the market was falling - I should have been shorting more shares left and right. Instead the first attempt -
IB said a
partial fill but it showed no new shares. I
refreshed the screen to see if I did get more shares and I was logged out. Really pissed me off and I never tried again that morning. I did keep my stop a hair too close. I could have easily got 20 more cents a share on the trade.
-
Wednesday- I screwed up
DPZ. (see big mouth chart
for Wednesday) I chickened out again a moment too soon. I should
have had my stop 5 cents lower and another order to continue to load up on the
long side. The stock ran 50 cents before rolling over.
-
Thursday - X was a pain in the ass again along with the world. After the big crash, I saw the bounce and thought this is a damn good time to buy. I could not get an order in on either platform. That killed me and it would have been a great trade.
Friday - the pain is added on this day. After watching and waiting for about 45 minutes, finally I felt the market was rolling hard, I saw a setup I really liked - short VALE, and I wanted to go big time on it - sometime like 5 to 10k in shares. I typed in a 2k order than changed it to 4k then just could not pushed the button. Instead I played around with VALE late in the day and only made my broker happy.
---------------------------------------
This what I hate. I had enough big chances to make big money and cover any loses on my other dumb trades I would have done. Also I know if I had traded one of them correctly, I know mentally I had a much greater chance of entering the next. I could have gotten the ball roiling and had a big week.
---------------------------------------
The way I look at it - should have made $500 on Monday - $700 to $1000 on Tuesday - $800 on Wednesday - $1200 on Thursday and $4000 on Friday. $8200 in total adjusting for other stupid trades. I could have made a lot more.
---------------------------------------
It would not have been that hard to do. I have done these types of trades over and over before. If I do not get the guts to push the button and allow for a little bigger loss - say 0.5% on a trade instead of 0.2% - I will always be a BREAK EVEN TRADER.
This was not a good day to be overly aggressive in shorting the Big Mouth Stocks. I thought I had the chance at a big day with the market down in the morning. I was short CLNE (in size), HLF and DECK. All four charts above are Big Mouth Stocks.
