Friday Notes - A Forgettable Week

3:40pm Well, I expected to learn something about myself after yesterday, and I indeed learned that I don't trade well after a windfall, as I delayed making my first trade for far too long and then hesitated on almost every sequence after that ... essentially not feeling that focused fire. Actually, I had the "gimmie" pre-market short all locked up heavy in the 1260s -- positioning to ride it down 10-15 points -- until more news broke which shot ES into a locked limit rendering stops and re-entries useless. And I wasn't sharp enough to short the DAX (while ES was locked) which was still trading and topping. That left me scampering with the goal of minimizing damage after the open ... a far cry from the solid profit I'd have booked if not for the limit. Amazing how one rarely used market circuit breaker can turn +$30K into -$30K in a heartbeat.

This is a week that will not soon be forgotten by many of us who put ourselves and our capital on the line day in and day out. At this end, I could probably sell the blog rights to some movie studio. I'm also thinking about printing up some buttons that say "I survived the week of 9/15/08". Many traders were wiped out, and despite the net week plus at this end, I have a few bruises that will require healing.

On 12/31/08, this week will be a distant memory. The weekly equity curve will show a decent net chip gain of essentially Thursday's trade on the week, but it simply won't show the wild swings and bruises that are unfortunately a mandatory element of this business. There's simply no playing it safe in this business by being a bystander.

I know I trade better after pain, and today reinforced that notion. For the first time this year, I couldn't fool myself into believing the "coming back from draw" mindset that has been the cornerstone for this year's incredible journey into an unknown land. And the results showed badly as the the crispness of focus and execution simply wasn't there. Yesterday should have been energizing, but it wasn't, and two draws of > $20K in one week is simply unacceptable. Taking a vacation day today was also not option as that's what weekends are for traders, and I knew "sitting on gains" is absolutely no way to continue to grow the chip stack. Plus, the morning opportunity was there in spades.

I'm not pleased with this week. Just look to that quote on the left of this page. He knew what he was talking about.

I need to forget the week. Fully and completely.

I'll post a video with more thoughts on the week shortly.