As a day-trader, you are your own worst enemy!

I sit here frustrated, irritated, and mystified... with my lack of self-trust as a trader!

Yesterday I wrote a post on how I was going to play SPAR today. All I needed when playing this kind of illiquid stock was patience. Well... I just learned today that I don't trust myself as a trader, I don't have patience as a trader and I don't really believe anything I write in this blog... all based on how I played SPAR would be my first point of reference.

There only a few people that you should ever take trading advice from... I'm not going to mention names, because "they" know who "they" are... and of course one of those people SHOULD always be you (in this case ME).

NOTE: I would suggest reading yesterdays post before you continue reading this post because they go together. This post will make a lot more sense to you otherwise.

What I want to do is recap how I told myself I was going to play SPAR vs. how I actually played SPAR. At the risk of completely embarrassing myself, I hope that you learn the fundamental lesson from this post, because I sure have from going through it!

It's Sunday night... I've done my DD aka my plan. I've got only 4 stocks on the short watch list for Monday morning. A couple of them I can't play because they're not available, so I play them on paper for checks and balances.

My #1 short for Monday morning is SPAR. From my plan I determine if I see a breakdown at or around $3.49, I'm shortin' this mofo. Coincidentally it shows weakness and I short 1,500 shares @ $3.49. Awesome entry noob! Moments later SPAR drops to $3.45... $3.44... $3.42... $3.40... within the first 30 minutes the market is open SPAR drops to $3.38! I'm feeling pretty good right about now. I'm watching the screen and mumbling to myself... "don't get greedy now, stick to your plan." My target exits were set between $3.15 to $3.00.

Not more than fifteen minutes later (@ 10:15 AM PST) SPAR is now sitting at $3.30. Holy shit!! I start getting excited because... I had a great entry and I'm making hay pushing a friggin mouse button! Pretty cool! But my excitement (ie: my emotions) get the better of me and I cover my short WAY too early @ $3.30 (completely abandoning my plan) for a quick $285 profit. Wait a second... what about your plan Noob?! Target exits were between $3.15 to $3.00...

Literally 5 minutes later (@ 10:20 AM PST) SPAR tanks to $3.08!!! WTF NOOB!??!?! That's smack in the middle of my target exit points!!! And to top it off SPAR had a LOD of $3.04!!! Had I only trusted myself and stuck to my plan I "woulda" had a $630 profit!!!

Now I sit here looking at my screen with this dumb look on my face, up $285, after realizing I just left $345 on the table! Needless to say I'm super irritated with myself right about now, but I don't take my eye of the screen because I hear SPAR screaming "SQUEEZE" me!!!

Here is a second chance to add more profit... in a very soft, quite voice I say to myself, "do not re-short until it hits $3.30"... this was my plan... albeit on the fly. I set my short price to $3.30... but my lack of patience forced me to chase... major no-no.

NOTE: NEVER CHASE A SQUEEZE... THAT HASN'T SQUEEZED!! Duh!

I figured the squeeze last Friday was at $.25 cents... so from 3.05 to 3.30 was $.25... seemed only logical to me. SPAR went up ~$.25... by this time though I've already re-entered, shorting 1,000 shares @ $3.13. SPAR did a fake-out and I bit on it! Noob! Over the next 15 minutes SPAR shot up to $3.33! I don't think I'm going to write what's going through my head right now...

I've left $345 dollars on the table, I've got a shitty re-entry position, and half my profit is gone! WTF NOOB!!!

None of this was in your plan dude! STICK TO THE PLAN NOOB!! This isn't rocket science!

Fast forwarding... SPAR consolidates between $3.30 and $3.25. So I added another 500 shares to average up my position to $3.186. I ended Monday in the green... still holding $145 of that $285 profit... fine.

This morning right out of the gate SPAR drops to $3.17... I keep flirting with covering but I never do... the more I flirt the more it goes up... finally when it reaches $3.30 again, I'm getting a bit paniced because I don't want to break my "cut my losses quickly" rule... my commity is having a shouting match, hold, cover, hold, cover, hold, cover...

At the end of the day... like I wrote yesterday... and like I've written several times before...all I needed to be was patient, not bite on any fake-outs or squeezes. I was in a perfect position to make back the $140 left on the table yesterday, plus add to that another $300ish dollars because my target exit was between $3.00 and $2.85... but I bit on a fake-out!

I freaked... I all I saw were flashes of my COIN loss! Yes, that was a traumatizing experience because clearly it's still in my conscious mind. I set my cover price @ $3.28, walked away to get in the shower and took a $140 loss... half my profit from yesterday. Basically I still came out ahead, because I lost $100 last week playing SPAR, but I ended today with a positive $45.

Getting to the point... I "woulda'/coulda'/shoulda' made ~ $900!! Instead I made $145. Unacceptable trading in my opinion... especially because I've gone through this before and I had a plan.

As I started off saying, there are very few people you can trust (for me I can name these people on 1-hand)... and even fewer who you can trust to get trading advice from (I can count using 3 fingers). Although I'm new to trading and I don't have a trained eye YET, I need to trust myself as a trader. I trust my instincts implicitly in day to day life... (granted I'm comparing apples and oranges now... BUT I'M STILL TALKING FRUIT!)

I leave you with these words of wisdom...

Trust yourself, you know more than you think you do.

My goal this week is to break $6k... again.

My apologies for not writing since last Tuesday. After my "Emotional Trading... again" post, I only made 1 trade the rest of the week... ticker: SPAR. I was down a total of $260 for the week, including commissions... so nothing to lose sleep over. Plus I didn't trade at all on Friday because I was quading aka as four-wheelin' aka havin' a good ol' time! YEEEE-Haawwww!!

Yeah it was fun... got super dirty... almost flew over the front end once (which could have been potentially... uh, not good!) and was sore in places I forgot existed! Note to self... get back to the gym you lazy bastard!!! (I've actually been going, but I was still sore).

Yep, since my previous city life is on hold (I'm in the country now), I'm taking up some new hobbies... one of them is quading. I like speed, so it seemed only appropriate! Anyhow, this week I set a goal for myself to crack the $6,000 level... again. Which means I need to gain $540ish dollars to do so.

I'm currently holding SPAR-tuns!!! o/n... I shorted 1,500 shares of SPAR @ $3.49 this morning... sold WAY to early @ $3.30 (because I played it wrong... will explain that in a second). I re-shorted another 1,000 shares @ $3.13, which was way to low... added 500 shares to my position @ $3.30... so my current position is 1,500 shares @ $3.186 average price.

Looking at the chart SPAR hitting $2.85 tomorrow is not out of the question... if it breaks that... who knows how far it will drop.

The reason I said I played SPAR wrong is because I played it like I played SIL... which is/was a much more volatile stock. I know to play stocks like SPAR... with greater patience. With a LOD of 3.05, I got out way to early... and then I told myself to wait for the squeeze, but I got impatient and re-entered way to soon at $3.13... oh well... when I saw it basically consolidating at $3.30, I added 500 shares to my position.

Not the end of the world... I'm still ahead as it stands now... up $145 on the day (was $285 up on my first time shorting). I'll be patient and hopefully cover around the $2.85 area. If all goes according to plan, I'll have reached my weekly goal tomorrow.

We shall see...

PS - I got SPAR from Muddy at the darkside blog. Thanks Muddy.