Monday After Payrolls

I felt this morning that today would lack direction and market participants, especially since it was the first day after Non-farm payrolls. In addition, it is kind of the start of the summer, and could be the start to stereotypical summer markets.

I was fairly patient in beginning, taking a few quick losers, and then I was able to make it all back and give myself a cushion to trade with. It felt good to start off with a few small losers and then have one big winner that was twice as large as all the losers combined. I had done my reading and knew my expectations for the day. I then made a few more trades, all for scratches, and thought I saw something in oil. I was dead wrong, and I ended up selling the low two times in oil and taking losers twice as big as I wanted. I waited for a decent retracement, and sold again, but took another bigger loser than I wanted. I was near my limit, and a little frustrated.

I messed up and was not able to take quick losers. I actually lost 2 x more than the max I allow myself to lose on two consecutive trades. Then on the next trade I lost 3 x more. Ugh, what was I doing. Well, I cut my size big time and just waited. By lunch time I was able to get back to almost a scratch for the day.

When I got back from lunch, I found myself clicking into the market, and as soon as I put it on, I knew I should have waited. Instead of taking a very quick small loser, I just sat there and hoped for a scratch. Instead, the market swept very far against me, and I lost more than half of what I had made back all morning. I figured this gave me good insight, and I would wait for a retracement in the move that just swept against me to get back in and join the trend. However, it was just a sweep, and my initial instinct was correct, and I ended up taking another big loser. I was almost at my limit in 2 trades on tiny size.

I waited for the Apple conference, and watched the stock sell off when Steve Jobbs wasn't there. However, I didn't look at the rest of the market, and while I thought that news on Jobbs would be bearish, I sold the ES and it went up. I took a loser and lost my limit for the day.

This was ok today. I learned a few good things. First, I had terrible entry points - selling the lows. I learned that I need to take much quicker losers, and just get out. Also, I suffered from tunnel vision today, and I didn't take a look at my ancillary markets. This was very evident when I sold ES because I was thinking about Steve Jobbs. In retrospect, it was asinine.

For tomorrow I have to look at my screens and find my reasons. I lacked a lot of thought and patience with my trading today, possibly because I was over-confident from Friday. I know if I keep doing what I am doing, things should continue to get better. Oh, one last thing, I lost my limit today, normally I make my limit and lose 2 -3 times more than I make. It sound so simple, and I hope it is, but I need to keep my losing days small like today, and ride my winners so I make about 3 times more than I lose. That is my biggest step towards success!