Stopping Out with a Big Loss...

What's up, everyone? All right, well,
I'm going to do the recap and get it
done because I'm not too happy today.
[music] It's a red day recap. I'm
finishing
down about 2x the cold market daily
goal. I mean, grand scheme of things,
it's nothing.
But, the context is that this week has
been a struggle. The whole week has been
a struggle. And it feels like every day
this week I've gone green and then gone
red and then struggled to get back to
green. I don't think that's been true
every single day, but it feels that way.
And today, I got green on the first
trade. And on the second trade, I was at
2x the daily goal.
I took a third trade. And on that third
trade,
I gave back 3x my daily goal and went
from green to red, which is where I sit
right now. And it's a tough way to
finish the week, you know? And there's
nothing I can do about it. It is what it
is. You know, I could I could keep
trading. Is that a good idea? No,
because now I'm emotionally triggered.
I'm emotionally compromised cuz I'm
frustrated. I'm annoyed. So, that's not
a good place to trade from. What that's
going to do statistically is double the
loss. And then it gets bigger and
bigger. Now, probably the best thing I
did this week
was keep my share size in check. So, the
total scope of the green days I was
never up more than 3x. The total scope
of the red days I was never down more
than 3x. So, I kept everything within a
pretty tight range of cold market daily
goals, which is good. I mean, I think
that that's improvement.
But, nonetheless,
I'm in the red and I'm discouraged about
it. Kit, this one got me.
You know, I I don't know what to say. I
I jumped on it. First trade on it was a
um was a nice winner. 1x the daily cold
market goal. Jumped in uh right here on
this micro pullback. Boom, punched that.
Ends up going up over a dollar a share.
So, I get in at 550, it goes up to 650,
I sell. Instant winner. I get back in
for the break of seven, 750. It goes up
to a high of 839 and then flushes right
here down to 561.
And I've got a 730 average. I'm down
almost $2 a share. It bounces back up
for a second. But with 10,000 shares, I
flipped from green to red on it. And it
is what it is. I lost a dollar and 80
cents a share basically. Or on 10,000
shares, I guess maybe I had more
at one point. But it it doesn't matter.
And look at this, just kind of does this
slow unwind. So, it's a it's a tough
finish to the week. Um
I never like to finish the week kind of
walking away with my tail between my
legs, but
um
that is how it is today. So, Wheeler was
the first stock I traded this morning.
Giving context big picture,
um yesterday the market was pretty cold.
We didn't have a lot going on, you know,
that was discouraging. INNLF,
um you know, this one started after
hours, continues to pre-market. And to
me it looks more like a grinder, you
know, it's moving higher, but it's
clearly got ascending resistance. It's
not super clear. And um you know, it
just it just is the way it is. So, I
said no trades for that one. MGLD, this
was a buyout at $2 a share. So, trade
sideways. AIFF, this one's a little
cheaper, so uh popped up, dipped down,
back up here. There's nothing really for
me on that one. Um APUS, continuation,
but remember how difficult it was
yesterday? It kept having these um
topping tails. And it did it again
today. So, I wasn't interested in that.
And when Wheeler popped up, I thought,
"I don't know about this. It's a Isn't
this just a bounce off the low on the
daily chart?" Switch back to the daily
here. Um had the big move on uh
Wednesday, but that was also in sympathy
to JagX.
But nonetheless, Wheeler popped up. And
so, I broke the ice on Wheeler. I took
my first trade on it. And I got in let's
see, where was this?
Um
So, I got in right here at six. That was
my entry. Boom, right there. Pops up to
seven. I'm in and out. That was my
profit. Done. That was it. Got in, got
out. Wheeler pulled back, curled back up
a little bit. I did try one second trade
down here at about 580 for a dip and a
curl. Didn't work, got back out
basically flat. And so, that was
Wheeler. JAGX then starts to pop up, and
I said, "You know, I don't think JAGX is
going to work so well, because look at
Wheeler. It popped and then gave it all
back."
Uh and then, so I had no other trades.
And then when KITT popped up at 9:00
a.m., I thought, "Okay, boom. This is
squeezing at nine."
To be honest, I think this was a little
bit of a trap, because in fact there was
no news at 9:00 a.m., but it started
popping right at 9:00 a.m. So, it starts
popping up.
All of a sudden, it's up 70% on the day,
which makes it our second leading
gainer. I jump in right there for the
break through 550 for a squeeze to six.
We get the the big squeeze. I jump in
and add back. Adding back, that was the
mistake.
But how do you know? You know, when your
first trade's a good winner, I typically
will add back. That's usually the right
move.
It wasn't the right move today.
And
I I lacked the presence of mind to hold
myself back from adding back. But you
know, fortunately when I did add back,
um you know, I I didn't go heavier than
I did, and I was able to, you know, I
mean look at again, like grand scheme of
things, and I think this is always
important, is take a step back, look at
the big picture. So, you know, this is
where I'm at for this week. Um
you know, this is or this is like the
last week and a half, whatever. So, you
know, those are some big red days.
Really big. Um in fact, I feel
I feel the same level of frustration I
felt on those days. Perhaps even more. I
don't know why. Um Maybe because the
last seven days or eight days have been
such a grind.
Um
This week has been such a grind that
it's like you know, struggling kind of
just to get some decent trades and not
go red on the day. You know, so many of
these days I've
you know, you could see green to red and
then the recovery. It's like, "Ugh, come
on." This here, green to red then the
recovery.
Um I think that was the same with maybe
this day here as well. No, that was just
decent day. Well, at least there was one
decent day this week. Uh well, it's it
doesn't matter anyways. I was going to
check Monday, but I went back too far.
So, yeah, this week um well, why don't
we why don't we go ahead and just look
at the last 7 days. Um
So, last 7 days accuracy is pretty
decent, but the profit loss ratio is
terrible, right? So, the average losers
are much bigger and that's kind of
what's happening is that I'm
occasionally catching these big losses.
Um and that happened today. You know,
small winners and then one loss wipes it
out. So, even though I only took like
four trades today, I'm red. And that's a
little bit um
and even though I had decent accuracy
today, green on three out of the four
trades,
I'm red because of the one outlier loss.
And that's been a big challenge in this
market where we've been seeing such big
swings that it's really easy to get
caught on the wrong side and suddenly be
down one or two dollars a share.
And you know, that's the reason that I
scaled back share size um
you know, towards the end of last week.
I was like, "You know what? I got to
just tighten it up for next week." And
uh to be honest, I should I tighten it
up even more for for the week ahead?
Um
I don't see any reason I should increase
my share size based on this week. I
really don't. Uh I don't see any reason
at all. So, I I kind of think I probably
should tighten it up. Um bring it down a
little bit more. I just don't I don't
see right now
the justification
uh to trade with bigger size right now.
I It's just not there. Uh, there are
times when absolutely, I got to size up.
Now, the one issue this week was that we
had uh, was it PMAX? We had the cheaper
stock that No, it wasn't PMAX. This is
the one that was halted yesterday. It
doesn't matter though. We had the
cheaper stock this week and on that one
I was trading 50, 60,000 share positions
cuz it was so cheap. And I was making
like three and four cents a share, 1,500
bucks, 2,000 bucks. Ended up being up 22
on that on the day on that. Now, that
offset the 22 loss on IMCC.
So, they cancel each other out. Finished
the day only small green, but
um, yeah, we're not in a market that
justifies uh, trading with big size. So,
to be totally honest, I should probably
take a bunch of money out of my account.
That's typically what I would do after a
month like September. I would just say,
"You know what? I'm going to draw the
balance down because the extra cash
sitting there isn't doing me any favors.
It's not helping me. I don't need that
buying power. It's allowing me to be
more aggressive than I probably should.
Um,
you know, in a moment of emotional
compromise. Not that that happened
today, but just in general. Uh, so, you
know, take the money out. You know, put
it somewhere else. And so, maybe um,
although Lightspeed's not going to like
it and I'm going to transfer out a ton
of money. Um, you know, maybe I'll maybe
I'll just do that and drop the balance
back down and uh, sometimes what I'll do
when things are really
uh, kind of tricky like this is I'll do
a small account challenge. You know,
I'll just bring the account away back
down and and I kind of say, "Look, I'm
just going to sort of press the reset
button here and go back to basics." Um,
you know, I just finished the small
account challenge last week, the 2K to
100K. So, I'm not really thinking that
I'm going to reset for like Monday or
anything like that, but um, but I I
think right now we're in the trenches
and I'm grateful that this year has been
um, you know, overall year-to-date as
good as it's been.
Um, We've got a lot to be grateful for.
You know, but obviously the last
the last couple weeks,
you know, end of August, whatever
September has been a little bit of a
grind.
Let's see.
So, you know what? I've been noticing
this. So, this is showing 23.
So, it's not actually I got to refresh
this. I don't know what they did. They
did something where it's just like
sometimes it doesn't refresh.
So, yeah, that's been the year as of
right now.
All things considered I'd say it's
pretty solid year.
2.1, 2.2.
You know, take away eight from today.
So, yeah, it's not really worth getting
too bent out of shape, but I think it's
it's clearly not the dollar amount
that's getting me frustrated. There's
something more, right? Is it the feeling
of losing? The feeling of being wrong?
The disappointment?
The feeling of spinning my wheels, just
sort of not making any progress? Maybe
those are bigger emotional contributors
than the dollar amount in total. I know
some of you guys trade with very small,
you know, position sizes. So, your up
and ups and downs aren't really
financially significant, but they can be
still very emotional. So, there's always
opportunity to kind of look a little
below the surface and try to figure out
what's really driving this feeling of
anger, frustration, or disappointment
and
you know,
is there something I can do there to
help myself cope with it better?
Um,
you know, it's Look, everyone gets
frustrated, you know, and it doesn't
matter what what your job is. You know,
you have a job
I don't know. Let's say you're building
a stone wall or whatever and you've been
building it all week, but
I don't know. [clears throat] The
weather's not great, you know, you've
got a limited window in the summer to
get work done and now you've got a week
of bad weather, you're doing the best
you can, it's miserable, and then, you
know, on Friday, you
maybe you're being a little sloppy,
whatever, whatever, you break a piece of
equipment, and that's going to cost you
five grand, you know, you break I don't
know, whatever it is, the blade on a saw
or something like that. And now you're
like, well, gosh darn it, I just made a
bad situation worse. You come home,
you're thinking it was just a rough
week, it was a bad day. And so we all
have those feelings. Um
now,
I usually try to muscle through it, you
know, I mean, I show up every day, I
just, you know, you just keep you just
keep working, you just keep showing up,
you get through it, and you know, you
get to the other side, and when it's
tough, it doesn't last forever, and when
it's hot, it doesn't last forever,
either, right? So, you won't always
lose, but you won't always win, and so,
you know, days like today, um
in the grand scheme I won't remember
this day
in in terms of the gains or losses,
probably even a month from now.
So,
you know, this is just part of the ups
and downs of being a trader, and you got
to be able,
you know, to let it go. And so, this
these recaps are helpful for me,
uh personally, journaling, it's a way of
journaling, essentially, where I, you
know, kind of
talk through what I did, and um
you know, upload it, and then it I put
it behind me, and I let it be water
under the bridge, whether I'm green on
the day or I'm red on the day, now, it's
water under the bridge, and I move on.
So, the last thing that I want to do
is finish this recap, and then pull back
up my level two, and get back into
trying to trade something that's moving,
because then what I'm going to do is I'm
going to put myself right back in the
emotional state I was in when I began
this recap, where I was feeling
frustrated, right? And I'm going to go
back to trying to recoup what I lost,
and, you know, you anchor yourself to
the number and now you're focusing on
your P&L not on trading the market
that's in front of you. The market in
front of us today is is uh is a
challenge and it's been a challenge this
week, but August and September are
typically my worst months of the year.
And so, this is not really a shock that
it's you know, this year is proving to
be challenging during this time.
Um if I do my overview and my year and
month, um
let's see. You know, this is where we're
at right now. So, not of course
including today's gains or losses. So,
April was the worst uh before September
and we only have 3 days left in the
month of September. So, you know, look,
who knows? Maybe Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday next week are great. We get a
nice rally beginning of the week
typically is better than the end of the
week. So, it might end up being tied
more or less with April, but
compared to June, it's a real fall from
uh those gains. But, this is the way
it's always been. You know, I look at
any other year, um let's see. We'll go
to
um I'll I'll just I was going to go to a
different year. So,
we go to like 2024.
I don't know. 2024, let's look at this.
So, 2024,
um you know, it was March that was the
worst and then things got kind of better
and better going into the end of the
year. It was impressive. 2023,
the 2023, it was March also. You know,
September and August were a little
slower. Um
So, you know, you you just never know.
There's always going to be a tough month
there. It was April.
Um here it was the beginning of the
year, January and February, November. Um
March and October.
What was this one? February and August
and September, which was more typical.
August and September, April, September.
February, May. So, you know, look, it's
just the way it goes. Anyways,
um
I hope you guys had a better week than I
did, but um even if it was a little bit
of a challenge for you as well, keep
your head up, do your journaling, and
then reset, and let's be back at it
bright and early on Monday morning. I'll
remind you guys as always that trading
is risky, my results aren't typical,
and I'll see you guys streaming at 7:00
a.m. on Monday. Please take it slow and
always practice in a simulator before
putting real money on the line.