I write this as a way to remain transparent to the universe in that I've found myself struggling in 2023. In 2022 I found a great rhythm, focusing only on breakouts, which allowed me to limit my trades to alert-based instances and kept me from overtrading... but there was a downside to breakouts and it was that my risk-to-reward level was always horrible, or at least not where I wanted it consistently. That lack of clear risk meant at least one horrible HODL ($MVST) which ultimately killed all my gains for the year.

Given the challenges of breakouts in '22, my goal in 2023 was to step back from breakouts and focus more on dip buys and buying near support levels. The benefits of the risk-to-reward ratio were clear as day, and I've had some great winners, but I've also found myself now in a position where I'm clearly overtrading. Everything to me looks like a dip buy, or a buy on support, and it's difficult for me to distinguish between a good or bad trade for those.

A couple things I know I'm absolutely horrible at that I need to pull back on:

1) I'm miserable at buying news plays in the moment. I'm an optimist at heart, and so every time I see a good news alert I can't help but think "oh, this is great, surely the stock will spike" and so I get impatient and buy too early with no clear risk, averaging down, and then I lose. To date I've lost $6k+ on these plays, and I need to just stay away from them, let them develop and I can play them next day if they run.

2) Mid-day trading. I find myself trading between the 11-1pm EST hours all the time, like an addiction. And I justify it because I think it's a sound play, except most times it's not. Overall I have good winning data during these times, but I think it's my plays during these times (where if they don't go well) that influences my afternoon trading. If I have a bad mid-day play then I find myself trying to play the market in a way that's not advantageous, forcing things.

I need to find a way to separate the solid setups from the "eh" setups for dips and support, so that I'm not trading so much. And I need to find a way to plan those trades correctly, like I used to be able to do with my breakouts, clearly defining my entry, my target exit, and risk. Having a full-time job while married and kids, certainly doesn't help any of this, but I'm still as committed, if not more so, as I was when I first signed on for this challenge. And so I find myself writing this at midnight knowing I'll need to get up at 6am for the kids...

If you read this to the end, I'd appreciate a comment saying you hold me accountable, and continue to support me as I'll continue to support everyone else going through this process.