 In this week's episode, we're going to be talking about how poorly I'm performing and I'm down pretty bad on the week, nothing compared to some big drawdown that I had, but just not good trading. And I'm going to be breaking down what's really happening. So as usual, all the best tools will be linked down in description. So don't forget to check that out. And let's get right in for me. It's, uh, it's been the first really challenging week, uh, a week that one makes make you quit. Yesterday was like the first like full on tilt day that I had in so long. And it was of course, because I got out of line with like shorting and trying to really hit those lows for like a break with like absolute oversize and it never broke down. So I took, uh, I took just like such a big loss on the most stupid setup that I should have just never, never been in, but it was just because there's nothing else. And I just trying to, you know, find the trade, find some way to make money and then just getting out of line. And yeah, I mean, I totally been there. Um, I've totally been there. Like you're down like a little bit and like you just, you just oversize hoping for that extra little scalp on that extra part, right? So, you know, it's like, all right, I just get this next 10 cents on another 10,000 shares. That's a thousand dollars I can make back. And then I can comfortably hold my 5,000 shares or whatever the number is for you, right? And you just oversize on purpose, trying to get that little quick scalp and then it doesn't come. And, you know, instead of making that quick thousand, you know, it pops 15 cents the opposite direction. And then all of a sudden you're down two grand and you're like, what, wait, that, you know, I wasn't the plan. Yeah, that wasn't the plan. Yeah, that, that's literally exactly what happened. I was down, must have been like a stupid number, like down 300 bucks, just like, just nothing, but it's been like three days that I've just been down and like, you know, it seems like I'm trying to do more. I'm journaling, I'm doing like reviews, I'm doing everything I should. And the next day, it just, you know, it started Monday with like, I guess, minus something like very small, I mean, very small, like minus 700 or 600. Then the following day was like minus 300, but just like, then you add up fees and all this and you're like, man, it's just annoying. Like what a shitty week, nothing's there. So the next day you start after like four trades, I'm down like 300 bucks. And I'm like, like just nothing, not even like a one R trade, just like, take one trade, I'm up like half an hour. I'm like, okay, I can't just take it here because it just doesn't make sense. And then I'm waiting. And then it reverses and you take like half an hour loss again. And then I'm like, oh, it compounds, it compounds, it compounds. And then I'm like, all right, so it's finally this S O U N is breaking down. I don't want to take these set up, but whatever. I just smack it with so much side size. And then I get the first leg down, but I'm like, all right, so the next leg is going to be the juicy one. And then I just drew pull even more the size. So I went from like something like down 300 bucks to up like 1000 to down like two grand and like a matter of like a minute. And I'm like, that's exactly the feeling I had. I was like, then I'm like, you know, then I closed it and I'm like, oh, it finally broke that like 15 cents range. But then I'm like, all right, I should have took it. And then two minutes later, I look and it went back like 40 cents. I'm like, even if I just held the first position, like that was the plan, I would have still been down as the same amount. I'm like, and that's why I don't like shorting anymore. Like it just, it just like a long setup when it's broken, it's broken. There's nothing to do about it. But a short setup, it feels like it could always go lower because it's a trash company, right? So there's like this thing about it versus long is just clear on small cap, it's just clear momentum, only momentum. So if the chart is broken, unless we come back to really to highs or like maybe an hour later, there's nothing to do. Like you don't even need to look at that chart anymore. You can just set a price alert and go on with your day versus a short is like it happens so fast that when it happens, you have to be so aggressive, full on right now, you can't think of it because if he unwinds is going to be the next 10 minutes and after the trend, it's after the trade is done. Like it's so different. And I was watching actually the podcast I sent you yesterday and somebody said, like people think long is like the exact opposite of shorting or shorting is the exact opposite of long. But I think it's like, they were saying it's not that which I thought it was, it was true in a sense that it's it's so not the same. Like it's so different, just a long mentality when you're trying to find a long trade versus short trade, it just seems so so so different. I think you're making there's a there's a big, there's one big point that I think that I would make that you're missing, in my opinion, right. And I think you're trying to show or what you were taught, right, or what your comfort zone is like shorting these small caps that are that run up, right. But, you know, you're looking for that, that unwind, right. For me, like, I think shorting is the same as longing, if you're shorting weak stocks, right, like, you know, if you're shorting something that the daily is broken, and you're looking to catch a move, another move lower, right. For some reason, but if you look at SOUN, like the daily charts very strong, right, and it's in a hot sector, even if you think it's garbage, right, you're, you're imposing your will and what you think is and it's not going to what it should do, right. But I know I know a lot of swing traders and we talked about this last week that were swing long the name, right. So now that it's kind of pulled back in and the daily is consolidating, you know, you're going to get those dip buyers and those, you know, people those pullback buyers or, you know, people who missed to miss the long, the first time who are looking to support and bid and buy the stock now that it's pulled back in, right. So you just, you're kind of, in my opinion, you're kind of swimming into the tide. It's not the same as like a small cap parabolic short where it's getting ahead of itself and it's really extended, right. And you're looking for that kind of snapback. You're kind of stuck in that daily chart and there's just too much congestion of where just, you know, unassuming and waiting buyers might be sitting below the market, right. And, you know, don't get me wrong, like I've gotten to the same exact patterns and habits, what exactly what you're doing, thinking that something should break down just because I'm looking at on the 15 minute chart. And for me, it was just always because I kind of lost track of the daily and what's the what's the daily and how does that look. And so, you know, maybe that's something that you can incorporate a little more into when you're looking to short, especially these small caps is the daily kind of parabolic. And this is kind of day two looking for an unwind. Is it, is it, is it kind of like come off the top. And now this is like the daily backside, right. Because that's going to be a different type of setup too, right. Everyone always talks about shorting the backside, you know, but the backside could be many things. It doesn't have to be the backside of a one minute chart. It can be the backside of the daily chart, right. Where you're waiting for that move and then consolidation for like a daily roll over, you know, where you're not just fighting it, you're waiting for that confirmation of that level to be broken and then you're getting involved, right. Yeah, I think the level on that chart was 750 and I was front running it pretty, pretty drastically. I'm just expecting that when we get to that level, maybe consolidate and then we crack an already a better average. But the only thing I did was just get, get, just get myself a big loss for, for just no reason. But, but overall, what I really think is these are the setup that I just want to avoid just altogether. I just never did that well because I'm not me. I'm not patient enough, but I just, there's something that just doesn't fit my eyes really well. And I just feel like it's too much to track this. Sometimes it's going to on one on a random day. It's very hard to predict the one it's going to be for me. I just, I just don't like it. I like the short more like when it gets like very aggressive to the parabolic on the daily, not like a day one or day two, like, you know, couple of days, like very, very extended. And then we get this strong push on the open. And you know, I can kind of, it's, it's not a scalp, but it's a good mean revision trade. These I do very well on versus trying to join a trend or trying to, to time the backside of a daily chart. I don't know if you make sense. No, that makes sense. I mean, you know, I think the other thing that, you know, something that I've been thinking about and learning from like some swing and position traders as it's top to them more, it's, right. And it's harder as in the day trade because you're looking for, you know, prices matter. Like, you know, I don't want to say perfect prices, but prices closer to the inflection point matters much more because, you know, you're still talking about percentage, percentage moves, right. But if you think a stock's going to break down from seven, you have to have a thesis that's going to go over 750. Like what's the thesis? Where is it going to go to seven? Is it going to go to 675? Is it going to go to 650? And I think too many times traders, especially myself too, maybe you know, you can speak for yourself, but I would just think I'm just looking for the momentum stop run flush. Like, I'm, you know, and I wouldn't have an idea of how far I could, I really thought I could go. Like, am I looking for 20 cents in this move? Am I looking for 50 cents? Am I looking for a dollar? But my point is, is that sometimes if you're looking for a dollar, and, and you're, and, you know, it's nothing, there's nothing wrong with waiting, like the five to 10 cents for 750 to break and maybe getting a little more confirmation if you think it's going to go to 650, you know, like, you know, your expected value university word dynamics change a little bit because your entry is seven 40 or seven 35. But the over, but the win rate should increase because you're, you're not going to get involved in those that kind of false breakdowns too early. You know, and every setup and every, every chart is, you know, and every stock is going to be a little bit different. But those dynamics should, should, you know, theoretically be the same. Sorry for the interruption, but if you enjoyed the show, don't forget to leave a comment down below. Also like and subscribe, and I did link all the best tools to day trade and invest in the description. So let's get back to the show. I think probably waiting for more confirmation or just the real level. And I should probably not have it open on my screen. I should just really have an alert. So whenever we get to that price, like, you know, or watch it once a day, I just set the alert, you know, maybe move it a bit and just want to triggers it triggers and then it's like, I have a plan already. If it gets to that level, I want to short it. Very simple plan. Like, I think, I think the company is shit or whatever reason it is. If we get to that level, I'm going to take it short. So I don't need to watch it from seven, from eight to seven, eight to, I don't know, seven, 90 to eight, 40 to eight again, like this is irrelevant to what I think about how or how I think about trading the stock. But I think whatsoever, I just want to avoid this setup because it's always been one that I just don't have an edge in. It's just not for me. It doesn't fit my eyes, doesn't fit my personality. So probably just going to throw it in the garbage and it's going to unwind without me. And I think it's just better like that. Yeah. And there's nothing wrong with that, right? Like, you know, you don't, you don't have to be that sexy pin twit trader who catches small cat parabolic shorts or backside shorts. You know, there's many different ways to skin the cat and you have to find something that fits your personality. You know, and then just be okay with that, right? Now that I dug myself a bit of a hole this week, I need to go back to the good old trustee breakout setup that just, you know, that just went, why don't I just keep to that one? Like, you know, sometimes you ask yourself, why do I need to trade all of these other setup when I know after I look at like my data, I have like three set up that make money, like the absolute parabolic short on the multi day chart. Great setup for me over the years. Fantastic. Then after that, just like momentum breakout chart, like not necessarily the small, small cap, but like mid cap team sector momentum, great money to be made on these for me. And the drawdown that I take on them is like pennies. Like it's seriously, I'm like normally getting it almost always on the first or second try. So I don't need to take heat. Like I kind of just know, like when I see like, okay, now the like, it really went parabolic. That was the long that I missed. Normally that's when the short is ready, like the next day. So I kind of, when I look at that chart, and I know like, I definitely miss the long trade because like that was the day, like example, SOUN, when we talked about that chart, and it just went like, like, man, that was a long trade. Like normally the next day is like, this is going to be the short trade. So there's like a good, there's a good kind of turning point of like, when I know it, it's time. Yeah, you have, you have a good, you have a good intuition indicator than for yourself, right? Yeah, when I'm so mad that I missed the long trade, it's not because the next day is the short. Yeah. So I think that's mostly, that's mostly it. On your side, is there anything that you feel is interesting in terms of like, maybe setup or momentum? I know today's going to be the Reddit IPO. Yeah, you know, just looking at the side of my, side of my screen, I see that it just started trading looks like it opened around 54 or I'm not sure exactly, maybe 53, 90, you know, so pricing at what 34 and opening up 20 bucks higher. You know, yesterday we had a big IPO of a semiconductor company being spun off from Intel, ALab. You know, so hopefully that IPO sector kind of picks up, you know, and you get some of those, some, some fresh money into those as they set up after a couple days. Besides that, my day trading has kind of been poof. And I bought a couple of things for swings. You know, I tested some waters and then once basically drone Pali yesterday on the Fed meeting didn't, you know, kind of blow up the market, I bought a little bit more. You know, it's a bull market and this SPY hit all-time highs and, you know, the cues today are kind of stalling all-time highs. You know, so maybe this is the kind of, you know, this is going to be like the pre-earning season run the next couple weeks. You know, we'll see. I know that end of the quarter usually brings a little volatility next week. You know, people might be taking some profits next week into before the fresh money comes in for April, but, you know, who knows, you know, I just trying to keep an open mind and trade, you know, just trade what I say. And, you know, just, I guess the key takeaway is not over trade because if I'm not seeing it well, don't, you know, no reason to force trades. Go back to those A plus setups of yours. Until I'm back to at least flattering the profit for the small drawdown that I got myself in, I can't really explore all the more speculative trade ideas that I have or that I like to play. And just like, I want to go back quickly to capital preservation mode before it gets too out of hand. And I think that's the reason why I'm not even interested in trading Reddit is I don't have enough of a great track record on IPO. I can make some money on them, but it's, it's like a 50 50. So I don't want to take the gamble and take like another, it could go quick, right? You take it once, doesn't really work, maybe it works, or you, you know, you get back again, and then maybe two losses down, and then it's going to really affect my, my mental state, I would say at this point, and I know it's very fragile at the moment. Yeah. And there's something wrong with that, right? Like, for me, like, I know that I'm just, I'm 250 50 with IPOs on day one, just because there's so many scenarios, right? People, you know, insiders dumping it, HFT is trying to like make the market in it, people trying to get involved and that didn't get subscribed to, you know, so there's a lot of dynamics. You know, my best IPO plays are usually the after like 230 p.m., like curl and go to close at high days. And then, like the setup, we had it arm, like when IPO, when I had this, like IPO. I don't remember the exact IPO day of arm, unfortunately. I'll explain it to you. It made a high and then it kind of retraced about 50% and then it went into the close and like about, like you said, about 3 p.m. and then it just squeezed and went into F2 hour. Yeah. I mean, that's the exact setup of that. Because what happened, I just don't remember the chart. You know, I don't remember that specific day, but yeah, that's exactly it. But looking for that continuation momentum after like it pulls back into VWAP, for example, or something like that. And then, you know, day two to five, if it's usually when I start really getting interested, because some levels start to form, you can kind of get a feel for how it trades day two and day three is when you can really get a feel for how liquid the name is going to be, you know, what's the spread really going to be like, you know, and then you can try to try to trade off some levels in that that way. Yeah. And I'll watch it in the next couple of days because I know just by looking at arm, which was the most recent, like big IPO with a lot of expectation behind it. And it worked, it seemed like it worked out pretty well over like, you know, let's say a month down the line or something like that. So I'll definitely have some alerts set up at some important level, but definitely an avoid for me today. I just, I mean, personally, I just can't afford it. Like it's just, if I take like another decent loss on it, I think I'll just be crushed for like a couple of days. And I don't want to be in that mode of like, I don't know. I just don't want to be negative. Well, you know, I'm reminded to like, you know, one of the things when I first started, I was taught to kind of look and watch and trade everything that's moving, right? So they want you to, you know, when you're, especially when you're learning in a proper and they want you to watch the most active names, right? But that, you know, as you get, as you get more experience, you realize that you don't have to trade something just because it's moving, right? Like everyone just thinks that you need to trade something because it's moving, but you need to trade something because you see your A plus setup in that thing that's moving, right? Like that's the, that's like the really distinguished, like thought that I've had as I've got, as I've traded longer and longer, right? Like, don't just trade right at just because it's Reddit, trade Reddit because it's made that's little five minute or 15 minute, you know, volatility contraction, like consolidation pattern that I like to see. And don't just trade it because the numbers are flashing on the screen up and down like, you know, three, four, five, five dollars, right? Like, yeah, there's money, there's one, there's definitely money to be made there for a lot of day traders, but it's not going to be for me. And I'm okay with that. I think it's not going to be for me either today. Yeah. So, except for that, the market has been pretty, pretty quiet and it's really hard to sit on the sideline at the moment. And I'm pretty sure a lot of traders are just going through the same exact thing of taking just unnecessary losses. We've got a pretty good heater recently, SMCI, NVIDIA, long short, all the semis, big breakouts and all of a sudden, you know, you open your scan and there's just nothing really there every morning, which is odd. And I mean, you wonder sometime that like, there's such like obvious time that there's a lot of action, a lot of things going on, but there's also a good amount of time during the year that there's just nothing really happening. And it's like, it's odd to just, like I closed it today at 11, 20, 11, 30. I'm like, look, I know there's nothing for me. If there's something that pops up through the day, so be it. But it's been causing me too much to just, you know, sit around for the next four or five hours during the day. And when I know, like if something would have happened, I would have seen it already in the pre-market, there would have been some like interesting stuff. But after seeing like the morning session, I'm like, there's guaranteed no set up for me for the afternoon. You think it's okay to just leave and go on with your day and come back the next day with a fresh minor? You think it's pretty important to sit down and still put in the screen time? I think that it depends. You know, I think it depends on the market, right? And I'd say in this market, it's probably okay to leave, right? It also depends on the type of trader you are, right? And where you are in your life and what you want to do. But you know, for this particular market, it's definitely a little slower. You know, March Madness is starting and I'm sure a lot of traders are all watching that, watching basketball right now. And you know, and you can usually get a good gauge for how the day's going to go in the first hour or two hours of the day, right? And you know, we gapped up after the Fed yesterday and a lot of things were sideways. A lot of things pulled back in and started to curl up. But it's not like there's a lot of like fervor or momentum or excitement in a lot of names, right? A couple of small cap names tried to break out like SLUN and NNLX, for example, this morning, but they both quickly be traced. You know, I know a lot of people were waiting for this Reddit IPO and opening up like $15 to $20. Yeah, that's a good side of demand. But does it mean that it's going to have a great trading range? You know, I don't know. You know, I'm sure a lot of people are just waiting to trade that. So I'm sure a lot of day traders are watching that right now. But I think that, you know, if you don't see anything for your style, there's no reason to sit here and wait for or try to force like a B or C plus setup in the afternoon when, you know, you can come back, you can shut it down, go for a walk, go get a workout in, do some, take care of other things, and then come back tomorrow morning with a fresh mind, knowing that there's going to be fresh news, fresh gaffers, fresh, you know, a couple of earnings tonight. And you can kind of create a game plan for tomorrow. Yeah, I think that's definitely the plan for me today. But I think overall I should do that more often. I mean, I've been seeing enough over the years to kind of know when like, there's just for me, there's nothing like there's maybe once every example, six months, or once every three months that I take an afternoon off, I'm like, oh, I would definitely catch that news or I would have definitely caught that trade. But for all the times that I'm just not there at the screen, I think the balance of payoff in term of like, you know, keeping a clear mind, more energy, just, you know, feeling good about yourself doing something productive is worthy like trade here and there that I do miss when, when there's not enough to stay around because there's data, you know, for sure, you just can't leave you can afford to leave because you know, there's opportunity or you know, there might be some set up this afternoon. But today is just, I mean, not today. I mean, I think this whole week was just so, so dry when it came to opportunity. And yeah, I mean, it all depends on the type of trader you are, right? Like for me, like, you know, I, I knew that yesterday that I was going to, you know, move the markets and I had a couple ideas for swing long, but you know, in terms of my day trading yesterday, yeah, the same thing I could have logged out of my account and then just basically put stop, you know, alerts and buy stop limits, buy stop orders above the markets at the levels that I liked, you know, if the market confirmed that we were going to kind of go higher, you know, and I would have saved myself some day trading money, I would have been able to spend, spend some more time away from the screening, get some other things done. You know, and, and, you know, it's, it's basically something that you just, you learn over time and, you know, to your point about the one trade, like that's, you're anchoring to that one trade, right? That one trade where like, yeah, could have made $5,000 or $10,000 or $1,000, right? Whatever it is. But all the other times that you sat there and you wasted time or you cost 500 or $1,000 and they're all added up, you know, you know, you can't just focus on the one, on the one instance where you know, you know, you think that you should have been there when 99% of the time, it's, you know, it's better if you didn't, if you weren't, if you weren't sitting there. So thanks for watching this episode. If you enjoyed like and subscribe, we're also available on Spotify and Apple podcasts. So thanks again. Peace.