Hey Guys,
The market opened the morning down noticeably after yesterday's strong day. For anyone who has been following the market this year, this drop should come as no surprise. The market is volatile and has been bouncing all over the place. Let's see how the market responds to this morning's drop.
I haven't entered any new positions yet today. No trades have triggered. I'm always intentional about only making trades when the trading strategy conditions are met. Some days that means there are no trades.
None of my positions have closed today as of yet. That VEEV stock position has been a bit of a roller coaster. Yesterday it got so close to reaching the profit target, and since then it's turned around and dropped about halfway back to the original entry price.
That is certainly a key part of the trading journey -- having an unrealized profit shrink. Sometimes it can bring up an emotion of regret, like wishing the profit had been locked in before the price went down.
For me, that feeling is strongest when I try using discretion to make trades. The reason is that if a trading decision I make is based on discretion, then it's easy to blame myself when the wrong decision gets made.
One thing I like about my trading approach is that it's algorithmic, which means discretion is largely removed. That means there isn't a "wrong decison" if I follow the algorithm; all trading decisions are right in line with a back-tested approach that has a long history of success. So that makes it much easier for me to accept the times when the unrealized profit shrinks. I can even applaud myself for sticking to the plan in those instances.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.