Purpose: Trading journal to look back and reflect upon each trade
Background: Doing this on excel, but moving it here to hopefully add some pressure and truly make me reflect. If it doesn’t help I’ll just stop.
Simple Format
Trade:
Why I took this trade:
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.
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Successful/Bad Day
sell BBIG 4p 1.26
Sold on the morning dip, up quite a bit, satisfied with the percentage, had this before posting
buy F 20p 1.14
Noticed a flat MACD on the 5 min, on 1min crossed the signal, RSI not oversold
sell F 20p 1.47
MACD flattening out again, RSI oversold
buy T 26p .5
RSI overbought, but I can see no other reasons as to why I bought, attributing it to FOMO
sell T 26p .6
MACD was flattening, and the price was rising
buy TSLA 580p 1.55
Looking back, I see no reason to buy here, guessing I wanted to dip my hands into a fast moving stock using a tight stop. FOMO
sell TSLA 580p 1.98
MACD flattening, RSI quite oversold, and up quite a bit. Calling it luck.
buy TSLA 710p 5.7
Saw push up, but MACD says otherwise, decided to do a quick scalp.
sell TSLA 710p 7.25
MACD crossed back up
Successful day
only failure is FOMO
luckily turned out well, but luck isn’t always on my side.
The white line shows approximately when I entered and when I exited
bought F put for 1
MACD signaled
sold F put for 1.02
complete mess up, held way too long
looking back, I see about 3 different opportunities to exit
bought TSLA put for 4.75
MACD signal on 1 minute, line showed no sign of reversing
sold TSLA for put 4.7
complete mess up on my part, was 10% up and set a stop-loss at 5%, and left to eat, going to assume that the spread was wide, else it shouldn’t have sold below the price I bought in
bought SPY call for 7.2
RSI on the 5 min was oversold, decided to buy monthlies, with intentions to hold for a while
sold SPY call for 7.49
Realization that FOMC on Wed (I think), uncertainty of market and didn’t want to hold overnight, already up 10%, market order = at 4%, sold as it was dropping, essentially wasn’t thinking straight
Overall a green day, but I’m calling it a failure
ignoring the TSLA stop, entries were ok, but exits were sub-optimal
Wild day, just added to long term positions
bought a long term MSFT call while it was consolidating around 300
thought the meeting wouldn’t have that big of an impact on MSFT, going to hold this for a while
bought a long SPY call while it was at 440
after the meeting, averaged down when it hit 429
going to hold this for a while as well
ok-ish day
didn’t sell any, went for long term trades, however, could have waited to buy at a better price rather than buying at any price
as everything was rising, sold both the SPY and MSFT calls
SPY when it hit 440
MSFT when it hit 305
was going to hold it long, but read that the market is struggling to cross the 200 MA, I had uncertainty that it would hold up that high
big loss on TSLA call
big f**** wuky, have no idea what I was thinking, there were no signs that it was going to rise, the market was declining and I bought in
cut losses too late
bad day
buys from yesterday did well, but the trades from today caused a big setback
erased most of my gains from this week
note to self: cut losses quickly, and follow the general market trend
another big loss on SPY put
from 429 → 434
bought in because it looked like it was in a downtrend, there was a “pullback”
another bad day
only 1 trade
even though I was completely wrong, I am fine with my reason to buy in, as long as there is a reason, I wouldn’t be emotionally trading
however, I constantly hoped that it would reverse
couldn’t follow what I said yesterday, which is to cut losses quickly
another note to self:
Remember to Cut Losses When it doesn’t Go the Way I want
Cutting it at a loss is better than waiting for a reversal that could never happen
Even if it does reverse, think of it as a different trade rather than “potential gains”
WEBR puts in anticipation for gamble
CCL calls for 20%
Waited a bit after the callout, rose back to the price before it initially dropped, MACD signal on the 1, 3, and 5 min.
AMC puts for 5%
There was a 16 rejection, and approaching it again, thought it might reject again, and MACD signalled
TSLA calls for 2%
Weak MACD signal, but decided to go for it anyways, everything was in an uptrend
SPY calls for -7%
Bought in because of MACD signal + uptrend, however, since I bought an FD, very much emotion, couldn’t handle drastic changes in price, when it rose back up, sold it immediately
MSFT calls for 8%
sudden drop, then MACD crossed, so I thought it would rebound, more confirmation bias because at the time SPY climbed back to 445
successful day
essentially every trade went well
taking the previous trading day into account, I decided to set solid sell stops:limits, using a 1:1.5 ratio
looking back, SPY actually never hit the stop limit, but since it was an FD with rapid change, I panic sold when it climbed back up
sold WEBR puts -60%
even though there was a lot of time left, didn’t really want to hold that long for a chance for it to pay off, would have needed it to hit around 9 dollars to break even, so I just cutted it
SPY calls for 7%
back to bullish market (I think?), so when the initial dip on SPY happened, immediately thought of calls, extra seasoning on top because of the MACD
QQQ puts for 7%
dropped below the 100 and 200 EMA on the 1 and 5 minute, looked like it was stepping down, waited for a pullback before entering
another good day
the strict stops and sells is working out well
even though I could have held longer for QQQ to get the most out of the puts, looking at SPY changed my mind
SPY reversed and only rose up again at the end of the day
Would it have been profitable if I held? Yes, very much so
Would I have the emotional capacity to see a huge red? No
SPY calls for 10%
double bottom + signals
holding AMD calls unrealized -50%
1 minute MACD signal
not so good trades
SPY calls did well, sold them when it hit my sell limit, AMD did that too, however, for some reason I didn’t sell
If I see don’t see a recovery on AMD, going to cut it.
Need to stay strict with my trading rules
Sold AMD for a big loss while it climbed back up a bit
Spy calls and puts broke even
Eh day
Followed my plan strictly so that’s a plus
Gonna try to trade with the trend, puts did well, calls didn’t
After a successive streak of wins there is just that one big loss that brings me back to the beginning, which is why I decided to be very strict with my rules
Would have been much higher if I just cut the losses quicker
SPY call 15%
morning dip, resting on the 100 MA on the 1 minute, MACD confirmed movement, saw that it had trouble breaking 448, so I sold
good day
only trade for the day
spy calls from 7.15 to 7.5
Saw it drop to 448 and climbing to 449
RSI broke out of oversold, Macd says buy
It bounced off of 450 so I sold it when it was approaching it again
I guess it was a good day
Only trade again
Personally one of the more riskier trades
Trying not to over trade and avert my diligence
PTON calls 3.1 → 3.6, then 3.25 → 3.1
HMA upper, price crossed above HMA, MACD yes
sold when price crossed below HMA
SENS calls .57 → .64
similar to PTON, but this just recently was oversold RSI
Decided to add the Hull Moving Average (HMA) to my repertoire.
Not too sure how good it is but it is supposed to help me find better entries and exits.
Kinda sad that I sold PTON too early but trying to stay strict to my rules and at the time it said it sell (HMA down, MACD down - which is true, it went down briefly only to climb up again)
good ig
DKNG calls 1.76 and 1.63 → 1.93 ~ 13% adj. gain
VC brought this to my attention, HMA confirmed by MACD
AAPL calls 3.1 → 3.26 ~ 4.7% adj. gain
HMA + MACD
I feel like I am repeating myself
Was planning on holding DKNG longer, but personal experiences with holding anything overnight + anxiety of red = bad
another gooder
DKNG calls 1.84 → 1.89 ~ 2%
SPY calls
2.27 → 2.47 ~ 8%
2.39 → 2.43 ~ 1%
1.9 → 2.19 ~ 14.5%
same reason for each trade which is HMA + MACD confirmation
some seasoning on DKNG because 23 support
DKNG could have held longer, but I guess this is what happens if you have a strict selling plan
stopping early so that I don’t look at charts for the rest of the day
good-io
AMD call ~ -13.8%
1.03 → .9
AMD put ~ 16.8%
1.1 → 1.3
AAPL call ~ 5%
1.28 → 1.36
SPY puts ~ 13.7% and -8%
2.45 → 2.8
1.15 → 1.07
2 CLF calls ~ 4.7%
.98 → 1.04
HMA + MACD
Very volatile day
Out while I’m still ahead
Today is a prime example of staying strict to the trading plan is beneficial.
As of now that AMD call is -50%, so while there was a small loss, overall still up.
Wilfred Goodrum
SPY
put 1.27 → 1.16 ~ -9.6%
call 1.16 - 1.07 ~ -8.8%
put 1.19 -1.21 ~ +0.5%
AAPL puts
1.14 → 1.06 ~ -8%
1.41 - 1.25 ~ -12.2%
Many small losses for today, but not that big of a loss
1/5, but that win is so negligible that it is basically 0/4
Stopped myself so that I don’t revenge trade.
What I see is a range morning, only for a move to happen later.
I think I handled it pretty well, sticking to my rules, however, I am going to need to do some research on how to notice these ranging days quicker.
This sets my winning streak since starting this journal to 6.
Mixed Feelings about today
SPY
call
1.98 → 2.01 ~ +0.8%
2.08 + 1.67 → 1.93 ~ +2%
put
2.03 → 2.07 ~ +1.3%
Could have done better
Though it was just ranging, I took a risk, ignored my signals. Turns out, I was right mostly.
However, if I had just followed my signals, could have been up big.
For example, bought the put at the 445.5 area and sold it at 445 (which I assumed to be support because it kept bouncing around that area), but, the signals show a clear downtrend, it hit 444 and eventually 443.5
okish day
XOM calls
1.14 + 1.07 → 1.23 ~ 10%
1.2 + 1.16 +1.1 +1.05 → 1.18 ~ 3.5%
The initial calls followed my rules. Added another call when it pulled back a bit to lower my average cost since my signals still pointed up. It didn’t break downwards.
The last few calls didn’t follow my rules.
Every call was bought at around 79 - 79.1, but since it was consolidating, the option price was slowly bleeding. Before it bounced off 79 a few times, so I felt that it would bounce again. And it did 5 more times (in 1 min).
Finally, after averaging down a few times and a stronger bounce, I exited green.
Having extra cash to average down is a really good tip, but it is also very risky if everything turns against you.
Realistically, could work on my entries, but I did do well with averaging down.
slightly good but leaning towards ok
XOM calls
1.7 + 1.6 + 1.5 → 1.67 ~ +3.5%
BKKT puts
1.25 + 1.2 → 1.3 ~ +5%
LMT call
1.65
Not much to say other than rules good
and
Averaging down, once again, is a very cool thing
