Hey Guys,
The market is down some from where it was when I emailed last time, although it recovered pretty well from a dip on late Friday. The S&P 500 is hanging around 4,350 right now.
There haven't been any new trades yet today. We got 3 cents away from an entry on TAL on Friday, but it never quite made it and therefore my order didn't get filled. Then that stock took off and went straight up the next two days.
If you trade for long enough, you're going to see that happen sometimes. It's probably magnified this time because our trading pipeline has been thin and it was one of the only trades on our radar on Friday. But ultimately, you just can never be sure when a stock is going to turn around and start going up. Sometimes it gets within pennies of your buy order, then turns and takes off.
You have a choice in that moment how to respond. What I used to think when I first got into trading is that I somehow should have known or have been able to get in on the trade when the price would turn before I got into the trade. But none of us knows when exactly that's going to happen.
So now, rather than beat myself up over something I couldn't have known anyway, I am more focused on whether I follow the trading strategy rules. And in this case, I did, so I feel fine about TAL. Also, when I run a back test on TAL, it shows no trade being taken there, meaning that I am in right in line with the back test. That's my objective, and that's something that I do have control over.
If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you.