Some mentees require/deserve more attention from me on a daily basis. One exercise we do together is an end of the day review. They send me a review via email. I respond with an email or a closed-door one-on-one session. Take a look at the review below because it is very helpful for the developing trader to recognize how this trader breaks down his day so he can fast track his improvement.
Review 9/14
-$85
Was down again today. I ended up making back the majority of what I was down but I still couldn’t get anything going. I’m starting every morning down money recently.
SOA – That’s where the money was at. I caught the opening down move on a few hundred shares. But then 14.25 bought too much and I covered all of it or almost all of it. That was an easy trade that was good to be in.
Obviously the trade of the day was on the long side. When the buyer bought at 25c after being tested that second time it was definitely early enough in the day to flip. But then there was the consolidation at 14.75 and the consolidating above 15 that offered awesome entries too. I really got in my own way because my mindset was 100% short. I wasn’t flexible enough with my thinking.
ESRX – Liked this trade. I was short against the half a few times throughout the midday and into the close. I made trades off that level a bunch of times but took a decent size loss when the seller finally lifted and it held higher. Previously, the pattern had been that the seller would lift and the stock wouldn’t go up as much as you would expect given the volume. I was actually doubling my size when I saw that weakness thinking it could be the catalyst for the down move.
I liked the idea all afternoon but what really made it a good trade in the afternoon was that we were at a major resistance level in the SPY. I only had 400 shares on the trade because I had reduced my tier size.
Notice anything meaningful about how AG breaks down his day? I did and I sent him an email encouraging this continued chunking. Chunking is the ability to group very small bits of seemingly separate information into one unit. Experienced traders see market data in chunks while new traders see a sea of independent and unconnected information bits. Above AG sees the day as specific trading opportunities. He sees plays from this playbook and he replays his day on how he executed on these opportunities.
Will all the gazillion bits of information that came into the market yesterday AG chunked the data to a few meaningful trading setups. This makes his ability to improve so much easier. He can now think about how he could have attacked very specific setups: the opening drive play, the uptrending play, the intraday technical resistance trade.
Yes this trader was negative for the trading session. Yep he was not happy with his performance. But there is a lot of good as well. He is spot on understanding where his opportunities were. He is spot on in understanding which plays to review and get better at. He can now spend the rest of the night being most efficient thinking how to trade those set ups better. This sets up a fast track for his trader improvement.
Bella
One Good Trade
