I am ending today with a $239.99 profit and I couldn’t be more disappointed with myself.
Fear, indecision, and FOMO all got the best of me today on the fast moving GLYC play. GLYC was going para in the AM after a great washout opportunity to 11.25. I sat there wanting to buy the dip but let fear stop me from entering, missing out on a killer long. Then once it started to para I let FOMO get me in the short position too soon, probably due to the huge long miss. The one thing I did right here though was how I slowly scaled into the short. I didn’t try to add quickly or on any fake breakdowns. I was able to control FOMO on the adds. But even with that control on the adds, it went way farther than I expected so I had an unrealized loss of more than I should have allowed. This created more fear and indecision which caused me to cover way too soon once it broke trend on the $14 break. I was afraid it would pop against me again.
I also struggled with my new Sterling Trader Pro platform. First, I accidentally covered a chunk of my position for a loss on the front side when trying to place a buy to cover order. Then on the back side of the move, I accidentally covered the rest of my position at the wrong price. This resulted in an almost break even cover. The little newonces of how different platforms work really can bite you on a fast moving play like this and today was proof of that. I have changed some of my settings to hopefully help with some of those issues I discovered. It’s not so much issues though as it is differences in how it works compared to DAS which I am super used to. For example, there is no way to change an open order in Sterling where in DAS it is super easy to change your last order quickly. Also, the quantities and order price change with your position on Sterling which caused the exit issues on the back side. I am still not sure where they come up with the pre-filled price they populate. That one is what caused the exit issue on the back side today. The price I had typed in there changed without me realizing it when an order I had siting open executed. On DAS the quantity stays constant to my default settings for quantity, not my position and the price stays with why I type in. Hopefully, I have adjusted the settings correctly to fix some of this.
In a nut shell, I really messed up on this play today. It is very frustrating and because of that frustration, I am done for the day. I can recognize that my mental game is off due to this frustration I am feeling. It would be like revenge trading on a big loss. Even though I am green today I will want to try and make back my gains I missed out on. 90% of this game is mental/emotional. It’s important to recognize when your head is not in the right place.
Great site and a lot of good information for traders.
I have a question regarding hotkeys. how do you program the close position hotkey?
1-sell at ask price
2-sell at bid price
3 sell at market
what price you use to short pops? is it limit price hot keys to sell at bid.
please explain this 2 me.
Thanks
houggar
Thanks Houggar. I do not use hot keys. I would ask your broker. Hotkeys are something I would like to give a try though. However, I would probably have a 1 and 2 set up for closing a short. I don’t use market orders, only limit orders on all entries and exits. So if I want out of a short position right now, I hit the ask.
Man, in a more humble way, I’d say that you deserve to stay on the positive sjide for the fact that you closed green. I may sound like a broken record however the intention here is to live trading another day. Don’t we all day traders want that? In the meantime you’re doing one hell of a job in comparison to others. But don’t compare to others, rather to your own self from a year, 6 months or a month ago. I bet there are improvements to cherish and toast a glass of wine to. Good trading to you.
Thanks for the kind words! You have a good point.