We as humans are emotional. We aren’t robots. But I am striving to become a little more like a robot when it comes to trading; kind of the opposite of that guy Data from Star Trek who wanted to become more human. I have specific parameters and rules to follow and I repeatedly don’t follow them. Why; because emotions get in the way and because I start thinking. I should think less and act appropriately more. It doesn’t matter what I think, what cnbc is saying, what some blog is saying about the markets. What matters is what’s happening at that specific time and place, and volume and price is the most important.
Three out of five trades I placed today broke major rules of entry and should never have been placed. One got stopped out with a max loss and the two ended up being gains but so little they didn’t make up for the one trade. Could have been worse. The other two trades I was really happy with but they just didn’t transpire except for a short on AMZN…not bad…and I made little gains after being down in both. Not a bad day, right? Minimal losses, but I was in the game to play. If you’re not in the game you can’t play.
The bad part for me wasn’t how I lost but how I didn’t recognize what was going on once the market had a recovery and I didn’t continue to find the same moves that I’ve found successful in the past.
Attached are charts for TNA and TZA. Both were played by many people from the chat room today. I was long TZA for a short time and recognized that the market wasn’t really doing much so I got out for a small gain. TNA then shot up with the market and broke through the original high of the day. This was the moment. This was the moment that I should have taken advantage of. This one trade was primed. The market momentum was huge and obvious. But I was so disappointed about my minimal losses from the other trades that instead I did nothing. Data from Star Trek would have gone long on TNA on the breakout, a very conservative play that makes total sense on paper. If it doesn’t work, keep a tight stop, if it does…skies the limit. Live and learn I guess. Time to put more batteries in my robot.
We as humans are emotional. We aren’t robots. But I am striving to become a little more like a robot when it comes to trading; kind of the opposite of that guy Data from Star Trek who wanted to become more human. I have specific parameters and rules to follow and I repeatedly don’t follow them. Why; because emotions get in the way and because I start thinking. I should think less and act appropriately more. It doesn’t matter what I think, what cnbc is saying, what some blog is saying about the markets. What matters is what’s happening at that specific time and place, and volume and price is the most important.
Three out of five trades I placed today broke major rules of entry and should never have been placed. One got stopped out with a max loss and the two ended up being gains but so little they didn’t make up for the one trade. Could have been worse. The other two trades I was really happy with but they just didn’t transpire except for a short on AMZN…not bad…and I made little gains after being down in both. Not a bad day, right? Minimal losses, but I was in the game to play. If you’re not in the game you can’t play.
The bad part for me wasn’t how I lost but how I didn’t recognize what was going on once the market had a recovery and I didn’t continue to find the same moves that I’ve found successful in the past.
Attached are charts for TNA and TZA. Both were played by many people from the chat room today. I was long TZA for a short time and recognized that the market wasn’t really doing much so I got out for a small gain. TNA then shot up with the market and broke through the original high of the day. This was the moment. This was the moment that I should have taken advantage of. This one trade was primed. The market momentum was huge and obvious. But I was so disappointed about my minimal losses from the other trades that instead I did nothing. Data from Star Trek would have gone long on TNA on the breakout, a very conservative play that makes total sense on paper. If it doesn’t work, keep a tight stop, if it does…skies the limit. Live and learn I guess. Time to put more batteries in my robot.
