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The issue was the spreads were huge. The options I trade have one penny ticks. So on a good day, the spread might be Bid: 1.14 Ask: 1.15. However the trades I jumped into to day had spreads that were wide as ****, even when the underlying hesitated at support/resistance. I was entering spreads that were B: 1.02 A: 1.10. With my stop loss usually being 5-10 cents, I am royally screwed trying to enter these large spreads. I was literally in both of those trades for less than 5 minutes.
I know what the issue is but I do not know for certain why it happened. I cannot tell whether it is early morning volatility, Op. Ex. illiquidity or a combination of the two. I think it might be the later. I have noticed that the spreads on the weeklies are consistently wider than the spreads on the monthlies until today.
The way to counter this is to
a) Sit on the sideline
b) Decrease my size so I can increase my stops
2 cent spread on the entrance. +7 cent spread on the exit. FML. Huge slippage here. I think I am packing it in for the day. All my loses were +3% because of slippage
Mixed results so far. However, I am really enjoying the money management and the resulting lack of volatility in my overall acct value.
TBH, I haven't gotten many trades right, and when I did, the risk:reward ratio was mediocre. I will work on this.
Also, diversification has been on my mind lately. the markets look like they are slowly edging towards a sell off but until that is clear, there will still be relief rallies and gaps higher on the open. I want to go into every morning flat or not over exposed to the short side.
Avoid bucking the short term trend. Trends are innocent until proven guilty as a popular trader always states. 30 m has turned into my long term charts but I need to check the 5 min and ensure that I am not bucking a short term trend either.
No picking tops, only trend-trading. Look for higher highs/higher lows and vice versa. Price action is king
Focus on ETF equivalents intradays to illustrate how the industry/sector is moving compared to the underlying on the watchlist
Maintain great risk management
Make sure there is an opportunity for 1:3 risk:reward ratio before entering the trade. Manage your expectation beforehand. Just because the stock is guaranteed to go in an expected direction doesn't mean that it is worth entering.
That's it for now. Here is the SPY: Above one support level but another one looming overhead...