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I had a losing day today, and removed the first penny from the pig since I started my new savings account. I was not as quick to do it as I would be to put one in; returned some emails, got a drink, filed some paperwork...
I held it in my hand for awhile and thought about it. I lost today, and not by any real loser, but a small string of them.
What went wrong was not my trading setups or my skills as a trader. What I did wrong was a very subtle form of revenge trading.
Here's what happened;
I am back in Orlando since late Friday night, and may get a chance to be here all week. I was looking forward to a good week, studied charts for several hours last night, and again very early this morning.
Then around 7:30am, my internet went down. I checked my connections, saw that the modem lights were flashing, and did a reboot of the modem. Nothing. I called my service provider and they did some tests, and they said they would send someone out by the end of the day.
Around 10 am the internet came back up. I just figured they had worked out the issue.
I saw that I had a chart pattern on a 6-range that I most likely would have taken at around 8am, based on the final chart analysis and entry zones I had fine-tuned early this morning. A missed opportunity was staring me down, right there in full color 4' from my chair.
I shook it off, got ready to make a trade, watched patiently, entered...small loss of 15 ticks.
I re-grouped, re-entered. "Connection Lost", the words I fear most when in a trade. I called my broker in seconds, stated my name and account number and requested to be flattened immediately. I was confirmed to have a loss of 7 ticks on the trade. I thanked them, hung up, and decided to give up the idea for the day. I got lucky, I thought.
My internet provider's technician showed up in the afternoon, ran some tests, and found that my modem required replacing. New modem, strong signal, all computers humming on the internet. It was 1:45pm.
I looked at the red balance staring at me, down 22 ticks.
I thought I should just let it go for the day, but I would watch, and as I did I tried to decide what the market would do. Price action had been near lifeless, after what would have been my one good trade, of course.
I thought I saw a wedge that might create a short covering burst. But, there was really no movement, my MAs were flat and intertwined, it was not a "good" trade. 15 minutes passed. No real signs of anything.
I entered anyway.
The market turned against me slightly. I thought to myself, "you are not trading correctly, get out". I always obey that order, and dropped it at negative 8. Now I was down 30 ticks on the day. I would think, with my experience, that would have been enough.
But for some reason, and I would say it was just because I had my hand on the mouse at that point, I entered one more time. I closed 3 seconds later, with no movement in price whatsoever to confirm I was right or wrong. That took another 2 ticks because I went "market" on the exit order.
"Stop it" I said out loud, with no one here but me.
I had to shake myself out of very deceptive version of revenge. Not revenge where I double up, not revenge where my losses are astronomical, but revenge nonetheless. Losing trades are an unavoidable part of trading, and had I lost on a "good" trade, that would have been more acceptable. But I slipped into "I'm bored", "maybe this will work", "I just want a few ticks", undisciplined trading, and that in my book is as bad as it gets.
I placed the penny beside the pig, expecting it to go back in before the week is over, but I'm leaving it there as a reminder of how I slipped today.
Summary for the day: net -32 ticks, and one painful-to-look-at penny.
On a daily, crude is really working itself into a tight little area. What will make it breakout? A missile fired? An agreement reached? Wednesday's inventory report? Like a suspense movie.
I'm learning to love that little pig. I have re-read my account of a daily loss at least 6x now, and the image of the pig, looking helpless on it's side, has made me smile every time. Poor little guy. I'll help him up tomorrow.
I wanted to short the top this morning, wanted to buy the bottom around 11am, did neither. Crude managed to blow stops on both ends of the market.
Not any notable performance overall. Mostly scalped tiny moves that had more to do with timing and volume than charts or indicators. The range did expand, but only in a broadenng fashion, which is not a pattern that tells me much other than there is possibly more confusion in the world about future price than there was yesterday.
But, I did finish up, the pig is righted, and I got that penny off my desk.