My Trading Rules: Updated 08/18/2020 1.) Know your risk/reward level and stay discipline. Cut losses quickly when wrong and stay in for 10% profit when right. 2.) NEVER follow someone into a trade because you're eager to get into a position. Wait for YOUR setup. 3.) OTC's and positions under $.10 aren't my forte... DON'T TRADE THEM 4.) Never take a position greater than 25% of your account. 5.) Be patient but don't be stupid... Both ways 6.) Know when to walk away. (in both directions!)

0 for 3 on the Day 2 for 6 on the Week 7 for 14 on the Month All I do is lose. It is so frustrating. I feel like I am being more patient with my entry points. However, I am still always wrong. I have 4 green days and 3 red days on the month but not one of my green day profits are greater than my red day losses. When I lose, I LOSE. And when I win, I win small. I'm okay seeing my money disappear but am so quick to sell off when taking profits. I need to change my mindset somehow someway before I find myself in too big of a hole. Tomorrow is a new day and I need to take it one trade at a time. Stay Discipline with my entry points, have a mental exit strategy, sticking to it and staying patient on the + side.

Incoming... long post/rant. Today was a horrible day of trading for me and I whipped out a months worth of gains over it. I see why all the sayings are said. "This is a marathon not a sprint", "90% of traders fail", "Cut losses quickly", "Stay discipline", "Don't follow anyone into a trade". I fu*ked up the moment I got out of bed this morning. I was so tired and had the mindset of going big on one trade, taking a 5% winner and going back to bed. THAT'S NOT HOW TRADING WORKS. This isn't some get rich quick scheme. This truly is a marathon and not a sprint. Its taken me a month of trading to gain $600 profit and 1 day to loss it all. Had I followed any of my rules I should have only lost $125 MAX and had the rest of my cash available to trade with the potential of going back green or at least lessening the blow. My rules that I broke today: 1.) Know your risk level and stay discipline. 2.) Take emotions out of it. Accept your SMALL losses. Don't be greedy, small gains add up! 3.) NEVER follow someone into a trade because you're eager to get into a position. Wait for YOUR setup. 5.) Never take a position greater than 25% of your account. 6.) Give yourself the opportunity to take an afternoon trade. 7.) Be patient but don't be stupid 8.) Know when to walk away. (in both directions!) I BROKE 7/8 OF MY TRADING RULES AND LOOK HOW IT TURNED OUT (1 of them wasn't applicable so I broke all of them). All because I wanted to make a quick buck and go back to sleep. Fu*k it... don't trade for the day! Stay asleep and be smart about it. AGHHHHH.

Milestone: I hit 50 trades since joining profit.ly! It has been an interesting start to my journey. I've made a few good trades... a lot of bad trades and have learned a lot of great lessons! I created a trading "rule" list (if you will) for myself. I read over this list every morning before trading to remind myself of the mistakes I've made and how to avoid making them again. I have recently added capital to portfolio which I think will make a huge difference. Reason being, I can take more trades throughout the morning. I was having trouble cutting losses quickly knowing I only have one trade. I would hold and hope so i could walk away with a profit on the day which often lead to me taking bigger losses than I could afford. With more capital I can cut my losses quickly and not feel like I wasted away the trading day. I can collect myself, find another play and start over. Next milestone updates: $1000 profit 50 trading wins Flipping my stats

For today's lesson... BE PATIENT! Be patient overall. Be patient on morning panics and make sure the position is done panicking before entering. I've done this countless of times where I get so eager to enter a position that I enter it and it panics another 5% and I sell. Just for it to have a massive bounce and miss out. This is also super counter intuitive but be patient with your winners. I missed out on 50%, 20% and 15% today because I sold to soon. Instead of 50%, 20% and 15% profits I took +2%, -5% and +5% respectively today. Being patient will pay off just make sure its not in the wrong direction!

My first day since starting trading that the market is closed for a Holiday. Am missing the morning grind and the chatroom. Taking the time I would normally spend trading to work on my excel sheet. I know these sheets wont make me a better trader but they will reflect how I have been trading lately and show me if adjustments need to be made to my strategy.

Long Review: My first month as a day trader has come to an end! I started on 06/04/2020 with $4000 in my account. As of 06/30/2020 I have $4680.41 in my account, just over a 17% profit in my first month. I have learned so much over my first month and have so much more to learn. A few of my biggest take away are to play your setups. Unfortunately, I've followed a few too many people into a trade and didn't know what I was looking for. These ended up being my biggest losses on the month. The trades ended up being profitable for the people I followed into them because they knew how long to hold and what to expect while I got scared and sold for a loss. I also need to be more discipline when it comes to my set-ups, a few too many times I’ve let my emotions take the best of me and watched a stock fall below my risk line. Some of these ended up bouncing back and selling for a minimal gain or break even while others kept falling and really hurting my account. Key Takeaways: Play your setups, not others. Be patient on panics. Don’t get greedy. Cut losses quickly. Be discipline.

@SmallJo just became a fully transparent trader today!