Yesterday I got hammered. For those unfamiliar with my trading I have been negative one month in 5 years. At one point I attempted to reshort DE at around 42. Our trading platform rejected my orders. I called up Trade Desk to figure out why. And they explained that I had hit my loss limit. Loss limit? I am such a consistent trader that I did not even know that I had a loss limit. And I certainly had never come even close to hitting it.

I have been trading for a long time. But I have to admit after the Close I sat staring at my screen wondering what the hell just happened. I got creamed in POT. I got squeezed in DE. I got chopped up in GE. GE? I played NKE on the long side in front of 64, an important support level and got smoked. I traded NKE on the short side below 64 and did not profit. What the heck was going on? I felt like I was trapped in some trading nightmare and couldn’t wake up.

1) I traded POT incorrectly. POT is more of a stock to swing trade. 2) GE was a good trade it just didn’t hold its support level. 3) DE just had no real orders in it. And for my style of trading without order flow I will struggle. It was down a ton but it just wasn’t really in play. 4) NKE did not hold its 64 support level. And again it just wasn’t in play. NKE like DE had very light volume.

There are always reasons for your losses. And after a day like yesterday you must search for those reasons. Please do not conclude that you are not a good trader or that you can’t do this job. Do not spend much time beating yourself up over your decisions. I have spent some nights feeling sick to my stomach after miserable trading days. I remember sitting on my couch, inattentively watching TV, uninterested in eating, and cussing myself for my poor decisions. What will that accomplish? Understand that if you trade long enough the market will provide trading data that will allow you to lose confidence. But negative feedback from the markets is a part of trading. Yesterday was yesterday. And my mistakes from yesterday will stay there.

Today I will trade lightly on the Open. As I make a few good trades I will slowly increase my tier size. I will make sure I am in the stocks in play. I will wait until I find setups that are comfortable for me. At no time will I allow my mind to remind me of my losses yesterday (last night I prepared my mind to overcome this danger).

I am not going to make back what I lost yesterday in one day. But its a long month. And there are going to be many excellent trading opportunities. And many of them will result in chops for me. Boy was I a jackass yesterday. But that was yesterday. And yesterday has no bearing on my trading today.

Good luck with your trading. Should be interesting to see if the rescue plan gets passed soon.