Well I have had better trading days. I traded RIG on a breakout to the longside. Drop out, stopped out, ripper. I got
short AKAM on the breakdown. Buy the new low program, squeeze, stops triggered, ripper. RIG broke to the upside again, I got real long, reversal, ripper. I got long AKAM after a reversal, very long, reversal, then ripper. Into the close I got short SPG with the real estate weakness. Nice, good, in the money, and then reversal in the last 15 minutes, ripper. Did I mention I have had better trading days?
Should it be a bottle of red, a pizza, and a rental movie tonight to forget the wreck that was today? Nah but it felt that way watching my scoreboard, getting stopped out, getting reversed not once, not twice, not three times, not four times, but five times. Ok so what was going on here?
I have been trading best after the Open. I have been struggling on the open. Stocks In Play are not really trending until after the open, so I have been caught in numerous reversals pre end of the open. Into the close you have to respect the cover into the close move with a sector down so much.
So on the open it will be don’t trust the trend until the end of the open. It will be save your bullets for the time period most profitable of late. It will be no stupid nonsense in the last 15 minutes of the close.
The point here is that I made mistakes. My losses are a result of controllable adjustments by me. Stupid. I know better. But now what? Look in the mirror. Make adjustments. Find solutions. Move forward. Great thing about today was the weakness in the real estate sector across the board. Maybe tomorrow or later in the week will offer some more opportunities here.
Mike Bellafiore
Author, One Good Trade
17 Comments on “I Have Had Better Trading Days”
Have had a bad week myself, rip after rip after rip, and all this after a super killer week two weeks ago. This puts it in perspective since you are a succesful trader. The way I see it, I need to submerse myself in trading more. I really want “revenge” on the markets, however maybe this mindset will only cause me more pain.
better make it a bottle of jack
thank you for this great post. always love hearing professional traders reflect.
what I take most from this is your point at the end. “look in the mirror, make adjustments, find solutions”. As you’ve mentioned many times before, what worked today or this whole year might not work tomorrow and as traders we must adjust.
For us learning out here in blog-land…I think emotional control and risk management on days like this are extremely important, we need to be able to survive the turning points. As I read in One Good Trade, I believe it is Gman who says he doesn’t mind losing a bit initially if that means he will understand the stock better. I believe what Mike is brought up is a similar situation. Maybe the edge in the market is shifting, if so we need to keep our eyes open to identify it. Of course the best way to do this is to review all of our trades and reflect.
Good Trading
I like to hit the gym after a day like that. Makes for a good aggressive work out. Or, put on the head phones and rock out to Metallica. Nice picture.
I appreciate you sharing the facts..some guys would keep this kind of day to themselves. In a strange way, I find this accounting of a 5 whipsaw day inspirational. Thanks and for all of us, tomorrow is another day. Back at it in the morning ..
Better get used to things not doing what you want them to do…you’ll be married soon! HAHAHAHAH!!!!!! Good luck to you! When’s the big day? You couldn’t possibly be distracted by your life being over as you know it any day now, COULD IT???
I’m curious if you have video of these reversals and could post whether there were things on the tape that you missed or whether there are circumstances where the tape doesn’t help you- hopefully you can put up a follow up post.
Not a great day for me, but I shut off at a much smaller loss limit. I did trade AKAM, RIG; they had pretty big spreads at times, especially AKAM, more like arca books disappearing than pure reversals, in my observations at least. It seems like you got hit disappearances of levels, especially on AKAM, which would widen to 15 cents or more with no warning, IMHO.
Very well written post. You got talent, maybe one day you will write the script for ‘One Good Trade- The Movie’ in a ‘Good Fellas’ type of script and directing :).
I think your post has to do with the market changing and experiencing a high degree of volatility. Is it time to have another approach for the market? As to move from trade2hold on the long side to ‘short into pops’ or scalps on momentum? Are you guys on the floor starting to prepare another strategy for the incoming market?
I am very curious to know if those guys that said they have problems with taking profits too early (of course, myself included) and are working on their trade plan to improve this, had problems in the last couple of days? Because the pattern was to get long at a proper level and hold – but I think the market changed and we know that is hard to adapt right away to it. And..I believe the next questions on your inbox will be ‘how can I trade better in order not to let a lot of money on the table’?
I haven’t looked at the charts on these stocks, but are you saying that some, or many of the moves you got stopped out of were from positions taken during the open? The narative sounded like it happened all day, but the conclusion sounded like it was mostly during the open.
I did hit the gym. That is always a good play. And then topped it off with a morning run. Ready to get back at it.
That is more GMan style 🙂
agreed!
I made it to 40 w/out getting married. You have been married for year friend. And you are taking shots at me? 🙂
too many rips in the first twenty minutes. two more after the open but I can live with those. one rip into the close that was not well thought out.
yeah let me think some more about this and post a response. i do have some thoughts on what i saw yesterday. thought about it quite a bit yesterday. but not sure it wasn’t just a yesterday thing and not a new pattern deal.
remember we don’t believe much in talent. i have been blogging for years, wrote a book, before that had some mad writing skills from law school. been developing my writing skills for many years. but thxs for the compliment. are you saying after days like yesterday i always have that to fall back on? 🙂
Touché….. In all seriousness…Best of Luck to you and your lucky Bride…Kepp up the great work here after the honeymoon.