Thursday, May 21, 2009

Thursday Notes - Rainbow Day

4:30pm Today's multi-colored scorecard pretty much summarizes today's trade at this end as I felt a step slow much of the day, including fading into a wholesale short position on the the noon climb a bit too soon which left me scrambling more than I'd like. That, coupled with another MRI that took me out of action from 2-3pm ET, resulted in only a modest take of +$2K, which is pretty poor considering the day's range and opportunities.

Yet again, I couldn't quite align with the morning crawl pace despite the patterns that provided both extremes and trend pullbacks, and "pace" remains so very important for me to "feel" the market flow. In hindsight, I was likely forcing things a bit in the morning knowing I'd be out for much of the afternoon ... thus the red score for patience.

One positive aspect of today's trade was that I ramped up the sizes a bit on the few sequences I did trade, which despite the mistimed midday sequence, may bode well for the coming weeks ... especially if volatility begins to climb.

So we'll throw today in the trash pretty quickly, and I'll look for the pot of gold under the next rainbow.

5 comments:

Unknown said...

i'm getting good cards then im scared out by opening round bets then the flop mocks me when the my folded nut shows up. ive got the general theme right on daily direction/high odds bets but my execution has been horrible lately esp this month - either chasing late fills to be bounced out in small retracements, scared to pull the trigger w/ the appropriate size, fading early and puking right before the regression, or taking winners off too soon. Help me obi-don kenobi, you're my only hope. Feeling lost- I'll take any words of wisdom or consolation. You a size down student when you not seeing the ball?

Leia(pete)

p.s. sorry post is a couple of beers deep before springsteen tonight in the dirty jerz.

TheRumpledOne said...

It's all relative. Most traders would love to have a $2k throwaway day.

Zone Trader said...

Hi Don,
I have been very much impressed by your style of trading. Your blog is a must for me each mroning. Thank you very much for sharing:)
kash

Trader Kevin said...

Pete: "i'm getting good cards then im scared out by opening round bets then the flop mocks me when the my folded nut shows up."

If you have good cards and someone raises ahead of you, it's either fold or re-raise. If you fold, the flop is irrelevant. Just watch how the hand plays out and take good notes on the play of your opponents.

Consider this: Are you wrong to fold 6-4 offsuit pre-flop if the flop comes 532 rainbow? Poker or markets, don't engage in results-oriented thinking.

"You a size down student when you not seeing the ball?"

I don't know about Don, but I'm a size down student if I'm scared by the size I'm trading. This applies to both poker and markets. Hard to trade well if you're not comfortable.

That being said, don't take it too far. That is, don't get so comfortable trading small size/playing small limits that you never move up as your account/bankroll/skill improves.

"sorry post is a couple of beers deep before springsteen tonight in the dirty jerz."

We're sending you a citation for PUI (Posting Under the Influence).

:)

How was The Boss?

Unknown said...

kevin you missed the analogy- cards = trades