8/30/22

Grade: A

Goals: Be more selective and raise winning %

Reminders/Aphorisms: 

  • Don't fight the trend;
  • Be patient, take good set-ups
  • Respect at least 2:1 R/R

Overview: At the beginning of the day the SPY/QQQ had gapped up in the morning session but had begun moving down towards previous day close before open. I was expecting a pop early and then drop which is what it did.

Trade Analysis:

  • I was not sure if we were going to bounce today so I took reduced size on my trades as it was not A+ setups. Looking bad the 2nd short could have been full size.
  • The first trade That I took was a short at the 2nd rejection of previous day close. My risk was previous day close (158) but I got nervous of a fast move up and closed scratched. If I had held it would have continued down for close to a $1 a share. This was a mistake.
  • My second trade was a consolidation trade waiting for the bigger move down. The SPY was consolidating right around the key $400 level on low follow, looking like it was going to crash down through $400 hard. This was the 2nd test of $400 in the past 2 days. My risk on the trade was$157 and I was looking for $1 move on my partial and then another 50c on the rest (risk: 2:1). Best trade I took today - held without fear as I had set my risk and was looking for my target. The only thing I could have improved on is that on my last 5 shares, I got taken out on a stop hunt at $156 (50c loss from my goal). I should have given it a little room as it was on a key whole dollar lever. It proceeded to go down another $1.5 afterwards which I could have profited from.

Lesson moving forward: Be careful of whole dollar levels as stops.