Tuesday Notes - Avoiding the Stroller

5:30pm Let me start by saying that I've begun writing today's entry at least four times searching for the right words, so this one had better stick.

Today should have been a disaster for me, and here's at least six reasons why. First, with the Monday U.S. Holiday, it was arguably the first opening day of the week. And you know my record on Mondays. Second, I'll almost always readily take a wholesale fade entry on a significant emotional spike in one direction, before ultimately attempting to align with the immediate trend if market action suggests it's lasting. Such high probability back-to-back sequences have been bread and butter sequences for me over the years. Of course high % price retracements didn't come for hours after the morning moonshot.

Third, like many scalpers, I usually draw down on low-probability monster trend days. Fourth, I've been off my game lately. Fifth, after fretting much of the weekend, I was planning on swinging hard to break out of it today. And finally, the non-trading distractions keep coming as my new night guard (yes, I'm a teeth grinder in my sleep) was ordered wrong, last week's MRI results came in, I learned today I'll need a crown and likely root canal, and to top it off, Grace's engine warning light went on while returning from the dentist.

Umm, God - please remind me to ask you about today when we meet down the road. Is this another test or have I forgotten that keen sense of humor of Yours?

And so as happens from time to time (think Driver's Ed simulation where the baby stroller darts out), it seemed that everything was lined up to make me fail miserably today. Frankly, it should have been one of those days from hell that we'll throw into the fire pit on June 27.

Yet for some reason, an inner circuit breaker kept me even on the day on very light trading.

For it just didn't feel right. Oh, I definitely had a long bias at open, and there will be stories of traders buying and holding the open and making their monthly keep on a single trade which may happen twice a year. And I remained long biased throughout much of the day looking for decent retracements, yet there were few optimal wholesale long entries once the surge began. And I neither chase nor "buy and hold".

I imagine new onlookers to this diary reading only the last few posts are wondering "how the hell has this guy made millions?" Perhaps the answer is sometimes it's avoiding the potential nightmare by staying out of your own way.

So for one day, I guess I did a pretty good job not tripping over myself.

I also avoided the stroller.

A reminder of the upcoming June 27 cookout for all interested.