In spite of it being merely four days long, it was a really good trading week. The one giant blemish was how I bungled my AAPL trade, which was a tremendous success from an analytical perspective but an utter gaffe personally, since I managed to completely avoid the 200%+ gain that ensued a mere three days after my post. I mulled it over a long time, and I wrote down this short but sweet ruleset:
An ENTRY is based on a discrete rationale An EXIT is based on the violation of that rationale OR a discrete profit rationale There is NO PLACE for whimsy
The first rule I nailed perfectly. My entry was indeed based on a discrete rationale. More specifically, it was based on my superb analysis! It’s the rest of this compact little Guide to Life where I completely muffed it.
My exit wasn’t based on either a violation of that rationale (the price gap was never pierced) or a discrete profit (I took a small loss, not a profit at all, and certainly hadn’t reached any kind of sensible target). Instead, it was based on what I am gently referring to as “whimsy” (“inexcusable emotional fuck-up” didn’t have quite the same ring to it).
I’m sure a well-crafted tidbit like what I’ve drafted above won’t save me from screwing up in the future, but maybe it’ll help, and perhaps it’ll even help you, too.
