SoFarOTM's Trading Journal

[SoFarOTM]

So I’m starting this because one, I want to track myself a little better and two, maybe I’ll learn from my mistakes.

I changed my rules alot and basically it’s been a hard line of taking profits and cutting losses quickly. I will elaborate more on what I’m doing but it’s basically averaging into supports and cutting profits quick. I opened a new account to specifically focus on this.

I hope to learn how to accumulate capital slowly instead of searching for big returns. Also eventually I want to let my winners run a little to try and maximize returns. But, what I’ve been doing has been working ok so far.

I’ve been playing the news, post earnings, and sentiment.

I have to thank Valhalla for most of this, the education and also peeking on TF to see what everyone is chatting about. The value that you all bring is more than what I can describe with words.

Below is my last 30 days roughly. I know most of this is credited to the recent stretch of green we’ve had but I plan on continuing it through the ups and the downs.

I don’t always get time to update on the callout but I want to go over each day here to give an honest view of what’s working and what’s not.

Lastly, am I the only retard that bought MARA calls today… Fucker was down 8% while everything else ripped. Got out with only a $65 loss but still hurts lol (I choose MARA over TSLA at the open, still mad about it)

I hope to grow with you all and maybe help along the way. There’s money to be made and I’m dedicated to figuring out how.

[SoFarOTM]

1/30/2023

Started the day with some LMT Calls. Ive been playing the spread in the morning on this for about a week or so. its usually a pretty wide spread, couple hundred bucks. i use active trader on TOS so i try to get a fill right above where everyone is bidding at and i have been getting really good fills. Got one at 10.30 then another at 9.60

I was able to sell both of these about 40 minutes later, one for 10.90 and one for 10.79

Last week i had a couple poor reentries into LMT so new rule is to stay away after the initial morning volatility and i stuck by that rule today. So started off the day good with $179.00 in the green.

Next was, i made the decision to buy some LCID. this was a bad idea as you’ll find out but i did think the market was going to find some support and once SPY, AAPL, MSFT, and specifically TSLA found its initial their support around 10::30, i wait for things to trend up a little and i started to avg in. Kinda thought LCID would follow, i expected some volatility to follow from yesterday.

LCID stayed dead flat so i held on.

Around 11:50 SPY had a pretty solid double bottom, so i was paying attention. At 12:25 it looked like it had a pretty solid candle on the 5 min so i decided to buy some calls.

6 at an avg cost of .62. By 1:00 SPY broke the 402 support so i got scared and sold 3 at .45. 5 minutes later i averaged back in for 3 at .38

SPY popped and i got out with $50 in profit, so still doing good, just a little chaotic.

By 1:25 LCID broke it support of $12 dollars and i waited way too long to get out. $183.00 loss

At around 1:40 SPY was coming down to touch 402 for the 4th time on the day and the market over all was looking week so i decided to buy some puts. I had to average down alot but thats what i get for buying at the bottom and not waiting for it to come back up to the top of the downward channel.

Lucky SPY pulled up and continued to drop and i got out with a total of $257.00 profit on SPY for the day.

There is that one CVNA call in there. Looked like it was going to pull up so i decided to buy 1 call. It did pull up and i had some profit in it but instead of taking that money i decided to set a stop and let it ride, this was a bad idea and part of my old gambler mindset that im trying to get rid of. i should have taken the f’ing profit. Im kinda mad at TD because i did set a stop $5 in the green but it got closed out -$2

Overall it was an ok day, $251.00 in the green and the account is at $4,354.97. Could have made some better decisions but still moving forward. Honestly i had a busy day and didn’t read the market well enough. Didn’t look at earnings, read the news, or browse through TF. Kinda just went in blindly.

My goal currently is $400/d and hopefully i learned a few things and get back to that tomorrow.

[SoFarOTM]

1/31/2023

So i started off the day better. Got a good view of the market, earnings, economic data and had my eye on DXY, VIX, SPY, AAPL, TSLA and MSFT. Also the top ten most active on NYSE and Nasdaq. Felt like a good morning. Then work got busy… Got into a few SPY calls from my phone, first entry was too early and averaged down with just a couple more. Luckily by the time i checked again i was green and cut right then. $207.00 to start off the day and that felt great.

By about 1:30 i was able to sit down for a few and check the charts. SPY green, sitting just below 404, DXY in the red and VIX in the red. Felt like we were going to have a nice steady climb. SPY was holding a nice trend line, same with AAPL and MSFT. i was watching TSLA to see if it held a higher low. I went for SPY again and did a pretty good job. Averaged into 6 403’s and came out with $159.00 in profit

SPY kept moving up so i went for the 404’s. Couple quick scalps and then averaged in. I was out at a good point and ended that with $81 in profit. Probably used too much capital for that amount of profit but im still focused on getting out quick and taking my money.

Total profit on the day $447, hit my goal. $4,774.26 on the account.

Looking back on this day i had those thoughts of, if i just would have held some of those calls i would have been up alot more, but i’m trying to get away from this type of thought and just move onto the next day. Feel like i’m doing ok but that voice is still there. Goal is to make money and i’m going to continue to try and take it.

[SoFarOTM]

2/1/2023

Old habits die hard. i traded terrible today and im glad i got out alive. Got greedy and scared all in the same day. Hopefully i never do this again, i figure im going to get hammered averaging down at some point but i had my flip flops on all day. So here we go.

Started off the day with a couple SPY calls. In and out in 10 min. Quick $60

Decided to move up to the 406’s, had some bad entries. Got scared and sold most, decided to get back in and i had a chance to take profit but got greedy and held on. Then i was stuck going into FOMC. Once i saw some green i started cutting. This mess ended in $42 in profit but was fucking chaos and i hope i never do that again. Also took one AAPL and ended up cutting for a $17 loss. All of this mess would have ended super green but either way i got lucky.

By the end of the day i had some better entries and was a lot calmer. Took one SPY and one CVNA at support and got out with some green. $173 on SPY and $60 on CVNA.

i hope to listen to Valhalla next time and just wait. Still ended the day up $318 and the account cracked 5k to $5064.46. Its a real bad but a tiny good feeling today and i hope i never go through that again.

[SoFarOTM]

2/2/2023

i think i’ve officially become a scalper, probably for the best because not sure that i have learned enough yet to make proper decisions.

Great day today. Started off the day with META and CVNA, 1 call each. $55 on META and $79 on CVNA both within less then 10 minutes.

Got into SPY $45 in 15 minutes.

Back into META for another $65.

Got back into CVNA and scalped a couple SPY puts to test myself a little. $250 on CVNA and $38 on SPY.

Last was a few SPY calls to end my day. Stopped trading before the drop happened. $80 on SPY.

$612 on the day and $5,645.02 on the account.

Take away from the day is it felt way less stressful i was reading supports well and VIX led the way. Looking forward to the potential downside coming, even if briefly, to play the other side. i could have let my early SPY and META calls run today and made a killing but honestly i dont give a fuck anymore. im getting consistent with being profitable and that’s all that matters. Enjoyed being able to make some callouts on TF and hope everyone had a great day today. i look forward to what we have in store tomorrow.

[SoFarOTM]

2/3/2023

This is gonna be a long one so i apologize in advance. i was so ready to be a bear today, figured id average in to the pump in the morning and that did not go well. Ended up getting out up $1 but just barely.

AAPL feeling so bullish i felt the market was going to say, fuck that morning data. Looked for something lagging and chose META and SPY. Got scared out of SPY and killed it on META. $6 on SPY and around $600 on META. I really thought i was going to be done for the day, and i should have been.

This is where it gets kinda dark. Around 1 everything pulled back, it was still early in the day and i thought of this as an overreaction. In hindsight the pump was the overreaction. i started to take some META calls again and way more than i should have. Bad entry and way too much averaging down. i lost literally everything i gained that day plus some.

I was so mad a myself, so mad. i wanted that money back. I started revenge trading. i was angry, emotional and out of control. Took a SPY, lost. Decided to take it out on META, took 5 went to average down with another 5 and sold for a loss by accident. OTM, end of day, it was bad. I started to load in hard. Should have blown up 50% of my account today but i got lucky, super lucky.

Got away with $771 in the green and $6,315.16 on the account but it feels bad man. if you’re reading this and there’s something to take away, if you hit your goal for the day just walk away and if you do decide to get back in take the loss. Dont go to the place that i went. i made every wrong move you could make and broke all the rules. I’ve blown up accounts before and this is how it happens every time, trying to get that money back. This is why i started this journal, this is why im taking small gains because ive been there too many times and its not a fun place to be.

[SoFarOTM]

2/6/2023

Started off the day pretty good. Had a couple good plays on SPY and META. $208 on SPY and $83 on META

Got back into META a little too early and started to get back into SPY. i was watching AAPL closely, was kinda feeling the market would follow it. It came back up to high of day around noon and i thought it was going to pull through, instead it pulled back. i should have dropped my META calls the second that happened, i didn’t. Started closing out a few at a loss. SPY had some volume coming in to prop it up so i stayed in it, as it started moving up on that good push to 411 i started to cut some but i didn’t cut them all. Went against my rules of taking profit and was trying to let them run a little. Bad idea.

Ended up taking a $450 loss on META. When SPY ran to $411 i was still up over $400 on the account but i didn’t cut, again bad idea. Sold the rest a decent loss. Still ended the day up $40 on SPY but total loss for the day was $410. Account is back down to $5,862.97.

Honestly i’m not too upset about today. i was due for a hit after the shenanigans i pulled on friday but it’s a good lesson learned on a little return to old behavior. Big reminder to cut when you see the green and not hold out. Can always reposition if you want too.

[SoFarOTM]

2/7/2023

Going to get to update this a little early today. Started off the day ok today, got some SPY calls, a RCL call and started buying into the dip on TSLA. $227 on SPY, $37 on RCL. TSLA’s dumb.

SPY moved up a little so i started to buy the 411’s and i was holding on to TSLA not will to commit any more capital to it. I had myself convinced that the Powell interview wasn’t going to say anything new and most likely take some uncertainty off the table. Did awesome on the 411’s $467 in the green and cut TSLA for a $10 loss. TSLA’s stupid, ill be staying away from that until i have more capital to avg down, like alot more.

Up over $700 on the account i should have walked away, but i had to learn another lesson. Scalped a 414 for profit and loaded into 415’s way too early and way too much. Lost all my gains for the day. SPY pulled back up and i was able to get out for a $465 loss. Could have been worse, never should have went back in. Scalped a couple puts at the end of the day to try my best at getting over $300 on the day.

Total gain on the day $301 and $6122.99 on the account. Dumb, over traded, over leveraged just dumb. I did think the trend was going to continue but i shouldn’t have went as deep. Also should have cut a lot earlier. Glad to be out green on the day and look forward to tomorrow. Probably should relax a little with how confused the market is rite now but we’ll see how it goes.

[SoFarOTM]

2/8/2023

Updating this on my phone tonight so no pictures of fills. Rough day today, tried to but the dip on UBER, had some SPY 414’s, tried to buy the dip on META and loaded into CVNA. META went ok, took it easy and got out in the green. Held onto UBER, I traded RCL on my main account yesterday and the same shit happened but I cut at a loss and watched it go green later so I stayed with UBER and got out green. I had to average the fuck out of my 414’s on SPY and got out with a dollar profit. Held onto CVNA after everything started dropping and I got fucking hammered, ended up cutting when it broke down later in the day. Scalped an absolute shit ton of SPY puts and calls later in day to try and recoup some dollars.

Total loss on the day $416 and the account is at $5,585.53. Still trying to force some trades and not cutting early enough. Market is tough rite now, I saw that push back up yesterday as some strength and chose to ignore AMZN and GOOG hammering down. When everything is green it’s great to buy supports but gotta be cautious when they’re some outliers. CVNA won’t make that second push if the markets not rite and I know that. Also I’ve been using AAPL as a strong market gauge and that looked weak as well. Fighting the trend and forcing trades is going to burn me every time and I just have to be more aware.

[SoFarOTM]

2/9/2023.

Didn’t take any trades today. I was going over my trades from the last 4 days and all I saw was no patience, bad entries, and too large of position sizes. I’ve just been digging myself out of holes instead of any sort of thought out decision. So I want to step back a little and take at minimum the rest of the week off. I’m also going to drop my goal to $200 a day when I get back to to put less pressure on my trading. I hope to update some P/L soon!

[LexuSensei]

I feel you heavily on this, the goal that I have set for myself that I found helpful was to simply be green. Even if it’s a little bit. Hang in there man it shall get better