Day 13 Notes:
Thinking back on today's trading, I made critical mistakes that explains the huge loss. I started the day with small positions in VALE and DUST. If VALE's support broke, there would be a downside of 3+% and also the chart looked like it had a downward pressure. I went in with 25% position but after seeing the initial upward thrust, instead of pulling out waited a little more and doubled down, telling myself I will exit if the thrust continues. I exited but not following the original plan cost me about 1-1.5% in losses.
For DUST, I tried to time the bounce with 25% position but when the GDX was slowly creeping up, I ignored the signs that it could go either was and assumed it would be down because GDX has been rising so much lately, it was due for a downfall. I should have pulled out when I saw the GDX forming relative strength to further upside, at which point I was down about 3% in my position, but I waited. And after GOLD made a jump upwards, instead of exiting I went all in, assuming and half hoping this was a fake thrust. I think my decisions in DUST were due to my beginning of day assumptions that Dollar was bound to go up in shortterm and Gold was bound to go down. However, that short term could be anywhere from within a day to a week. I think my loss in DUST was due to the tendency of not trying to be wrong, and not exiting the day for a loss. There wern't any other good plays to go into, so I held onto the current bad positions, hoping 1) other opportunities would open up in which case I would switch positions and/or 2) hoping luck is on my side on such a no action day and when the action happens, it would go my way. I originally thought today's loss was due to a simple mistake, but I think there was a lot of instances I could have worked better to improve my results. I gotta pick it up real quick if I really want to live day-to-day just trading.
Thinking back on today's trading, I made critical mistakes that explains the huge loss. I started the day with small positions in VALE and DUST. If VALE's support broke, there would be a downside of 3+% and also the chart looked like it had a downward pressure. I went in with 25% position but after seeing the initial upward thrust, instead of pulling out waited a little more and doubled down, telling myself I will exit if the thrust continues. I exited but not following the original plan cost me about 1-1.5% in losses.
For DUST, I tried to time the bounce with 25% position but when the GDX was slowly creeping up, I ignored the signs that it could go either was and assumed it would be down because GDX has been rising so much lately, it was due for a downfall. I should have pulled out when I saw the GDX forming relative strength to further upside, at which point I was down about 3% in my position, but I waited. And after GOLD made a jump upwards, instead of exiting I went all in, assuming and half hoping this was a fake thrust. I think my decisions in DUST were due to my beginning of day assumptions that Dollar was bound to go up in shortterm and Gold was bound to go down. However, that short term could be anywhere from within a day to a week. I think my loss in DUST was due to the tendency of not trying to be wrong, and not exiting the day for a loss. There wern't any other good plays to go into, so I held onto the current bad positions, hoping 1) other opportunities would open up in which case I would switch positions and/or 2) hoping luck is on my side on such a no action day and when the action happens, it would go my way. I originally thought today's loss was due to a simple mistake, but I think there was a lot of instances I could have worked better to improve my results. I gotta pick it up real quick if I really want to live day-to-day just trading.
