My Worst Trading Day This Month Broken Down Step-By-Step

So, the month of July is over and last week I had one of my best trading days, but I also had one of my worst. And I've been trying to change it up, especially here on YouTube. On the weekends, I like to share more about uh or talk more about best practices, big areas of opportunities. And a lot of you guys know that, okay, I can talk about the big green day that I had on Wednesday. I made 14.9K. What does that really do for you? not much direction was favorable. Um, a lot has to do with the dollar amount that I trade with. I think that if I talk about my biggest loss this week, uh, or last week and one of my biggest losses for the month of July, I think it could be more of benefit to a lot of people that are just getting started because I feel like the mistake that I made and the adjustments that I made the day after were big takeaways. So, let's go ahead and dive right into it. Again, I hope that you guys learned something new, and if you do, all I ask you to do is maybe consider dropping a thumbs up and subscribing if you feel like we earned it. With that being said, let's go ahead and jump right into it. So, again, looking at Thursday's performance, um the short that I took was Micron. So, you might be saying, "Oh man, you got in at a bad time." No, no, no. I started the day off in the green. Um, if you're part of my LPP team, for those that don't know, I trade live every morning. It's a private live stream, but it's exclusive to our LPP team. So, every morning, uh, they get to see me trade live and they saw right at market open, I actually had a long position. So every time that micron became so oversold, although it was bearish leading up to the lows of 700, we all know about the deadcap bounce and historically speaking, right, after aggressive sell-offs normally follows a very aggressive recovery. That is how irrational the markets can be. So I wasn't very surprised by the performance the following day. I think I just got ahead of myself and I added too much size too early on. And we'll talk about that in just a bit. But if you go back and rewatch our live session on Thursday, I had a small long. I had like 25 shares. It was a very small position. It began to uptick right when markets open. I closed it out, right? I was like, "Okay, it's overbought enough." I think at this point, taking the lows into consideration from 7:05 from 710, right? Um even shortly after markets opened, it was already up like 10 to 12%. And in the live stream I talked about, hey, we don't know how high Micron can go. It can be a 15% day. Little did I know it was going to be closer to 20% on the day, right? What I saw presenting itself and you know, I want to share my thoughts with you guys with the idea that my risk tolerance is not yours. And I'm going to share some things with you probably to a point where you might not agree with me. Some of you are either more aggressive traders, riskier traders, and that's fine. Some of you are much more conservative traders, and I love that. I'm just sharing with you how I justified this setup. Micron was gapping up. It was a deadcap bounce. There was no news change. I understand that the day before there was positive earnings for one company that's publicly traded. That really excited the market. Uh and then Thursday after the markets closed, Amazon and Apple were set to report earnings, right? But we also understood that on Friday the Japanese central bank was going to either announce a rate hike and or pause and the carry trade debacle that unfolded was likely to present itself. So I thought again allowed my opinions. I thought that after it got closer to like 12 to 15% on the day and NASDAQ market again I watched them side by side. I have a secondary screen here. So the screen that you're looking at is one screen. I have a secondary screen where I watch NASDAQ as well. NASDAQ plays a huge role on how aggressive or how conservative I am with my position size. So as Micron began to uptick uptick uptick, I was fine, right? Like it it rallied. I'm going to go on the one minute time frame just so we can make sure um that I'm doing it mo minute by minute cuz again it's very easy to see how it played out and be like, "Oh yeah, I should have just waited." But it wasn't that easy. I mean there there were still fake outs on the EMA. Nonetheless, there was a pullback as I initially opened a position a short on Micron for those that don't know. Shorting means that I'm trying to make money as it sells off. It was up so much. It was so overbought on the day especially taking the negative sentiment and and the descending pattern that has unfolded for these chip stocks for the past 2 weeks. Sentiment and fear was present. All of a sudden a dead cap bounce presents itself. SanDisk is up like 15 to 17% during the pre-market session. Micron's up like 10%. NASDAQ market's up like nearly 2% before markets open. And then they begin to rocket right after markets open. I'm like perfect. Like I felt like again this was a perfect setup for me if you stay patient right it started uptick uptick I had a small position I was literally in the live session adding like 10 shares at a time I didn't care right it kept pushing up pushing up pushing up as it pulled back to the EMA I trimmed my position and I would trim at a larger dollar amount so as I added more to my short as it became overbought as it pulled back I knew that again it was still a bullish setup I respected it I began to trim my short and buy to cover. It upticked, upticked, upticked, went back to retest. I added again, but it made new highs. And this is where I really began to, I would say, break rules. I'm adding at overbought levels knowing that I'm going to most likely buy to cover. So, I'm just trying to scalp it from the highs to the lows, right? Because I'm I'm shorting it. But direction and momentum was so bullish. It was uh it was not a favorable gain because it would rally even higher and then when it would pull on back now it didn't even pull back to the same price level that I originally added at. So then I was just forced to sell, right? Or forced to to cover and then began to uptick. I added added added and then it stayed stagnant. And again, this is hours. It's very easy to look at it now, but there's stress that comes with this, right? Added, added, made new highs, didn't add here, pulled on back. It's still at the level that I added at, so I'm still technically at a loss. And then again, it would consolidate, build an ascending support, and push, push, push push push. My the thing that I wanted to share with you was I don't believe that my mistake was shorting an overbought reversal. If I look at this setup and I'm going to go back to the fiveminut time frame. This is how I made sense of it. What I saw it as is a risk-to-reward. I knew that previous direction and previous sentiment could return especially at overbought levels. I knew that direction currently was bullish and that it was going to be a battle. But it was so overbought. This wasn't a 3:1 ratio trade. I was shorting this one with an average price of right around like 8 $860 857 I think was my average price and I thought that was very fair. My downside potential again I make money as it sells off based off of previous lows is 15 to 17%. What is my risk? I kept managing and mitigating my risk at about 1.5 to 2%. So, even at the 2% mark, right, as it made new highs and if I had to cut losses, you're telling me that for 17% or even 15% of potential profit, I only need to risk two. I would take that trade all day. Again, I know that direction is not in my favor. So, I could have been more conservative and waited for confirmation of a reversal, right? That would have been the first easiest step that okay it is a really ideal setup. Reward definitely outweighs the risk but but direction is so bullish and we all know that direction, sentiment and trend are the most important part when it comes down to intraday trading, right? It doesn't matter what any indicator is telling us. We could see that it's overbought. We could see that oh this is the potential and I get that. But the most important part definitely is direction and sentiment. So again, confirmation is the one area that I could have stayed more patient for. My issue was not that I that I entered this short. I don't think that in my opinion if if I weigh out the the risk-to-reward of I can make 17% and I'm going to lose 2%. With $100,000, I would take that trade all day. I can make $17,000. Okay. I can lose two to three,000. Sure. I ended up losing $7,000, right? Because there was multiple trades along the way that just kept getting stopped out, stopped out. I was actually down more at one point. I was clo down closer to $10,000, but I had a slight recovery. And then I closed it leading into the extended hours because I knew that Amazon and Apple were set to report earnings and they're two one of the most valuable companies that's publicly traded. My issue was and again the next day I I waited for confirmation and if anything I waited a little bit too long because of uh the following the previous day's experience I was super patient for confirmation kind of too patient I missed the entire gap down and again it's like that's what I get right I wanted to be aggressive the day prior I pay the price not just then but then now maybe your your confidence is a a little bit lower. It's not just you. This happens to everyone. Why was I so aggressive with the short? I think a lot of it like looking back and I shared this with my LPP team that day. I think it's very important like when I when I have a profitable day like the day before when I made nearly $15,000 um I shared some thoughts but you know it was very simple in in like what went right. um especially with the appropriate position size. What I did and shared with my LPP team on my loss was I think a lot of it had to do with how much confidence I had going into Thursday. I I really did feel I I honestly felt really good. I was up over like 32 33k on the week. It was an incredible week for me. It was just Wednesday. Now it's Thursday. I'm starting off the morning fresh. There's a huge gap up. I see it as another opportunity. I'm like, dude, I'm going to clear $50,000 this week. I love it, right? Like, I'm I'm so pumped. I was fixated on being invincible like that. I was going to make money. What do we all know? The more you make, especially after those really big days, you're only one bad trade away from giving it all back, right? You're only one bad trade away from having a significant redee. Because normally when you follow with too much confidence and too much ego, especially after a really good bull run, you might follow with too much position size. And I would say that is my biggest takeaway from all of this. My mistake in my opinion, you might be like, "No, Ricky, you should have waited for confirmation." I agree with you. But I would still re-enter that short if you were to say for for 17% potential for profit, 2 to 3% potential for loss, I would take that short all day. Again, I know it's speculative. I know it's before confirmation, but the reward is significantly greater than the risk. The mistake that I made is I went in with more than 50% of my desired position size before confirmation. It would have been so easy for me that again, we're all different. We all manage and and tolerate risk in different ways. But knowing that I'm pretty comfortable like even if it went against me and I'm losing just with $100,000 2 to 3% I can lose two to $3,000 and not feel emotional about it especially after the huge week that I've had. But when the $100,000 turns into 200 and then I start fighting the trend and then I start, you know, adding a little bit of shares. But those little bit of shares, 10 here, 10 there, 10 there, start to add up very quickly. Now I'm at 300. Wait, wait, wait. Now I'm at 350. Wait, wait. Now I'm at 400,000. Ricky, what happened? You don't enter before confirmation with more than 50%. That's a rule that I made up for myself. And you're only as disciplined as you're only as good as you hold yourself accountable to. Right? These are rules that I made up myself for moments like this. Guidelines that you create for yourself because you know the mistakes you've made in the past before. So you don't repeat them. So you don't dig yourself in deeper holes. You make these rules when you're in the right mind in a right place where you can create these guidelines, these restrictions. But these restrictions mean nothing if you don't respect them. And again, you're making them up. And I think that's the hard part about trading sometimes is it is so accessible. It is so easy. as a click of a button, I can add and double my position. You know, in this case, increase my average price per share because I'm shorting and that's what I want. And then my stock just the stock just has to sell off a little bit and I'll trim what I just added. And then now I'm fine. But then if direction continues to creep up higher, right, as it did when sentiment and momentum are in its favor, you're just adding fuel to the fire. So in my opinion, the biggest mistake that I made on Thursday, in my opinion, I know some of you guys are going to call me out. No, you should have waited for confirmation. I get that. I'm a little bit more aggressive than you when it comes down to trading. And I'm okay to acknowledge that. not as aggressive as maybe other people, but I'm more aggressive than maybe super conservative traders. I'm okay with taking that trade and I know myself enough that I should have not taken it with more than 100k every moment. I mean, every morning I should be aware of the price per share and and what that 100 shares looks like at $860. I know that that's roughly maybe 110 shares. Need to remind myself, Ricky, you're at 80 shares. Stock is still trending higher. You know, you have 30 shares left to add before you're maxed out to hit your cap before confirmation. After that, the only option is just to cut losses if direction continues to go against you. Again, it's so easy to like think of this now, but in the moment, you're just so heated. Ego gets involved, emotions get involved, and I'm like, no. Like I've had such an incredible week. I've made so much money in such a short period of time. This was supposed to like this was supposed to be a great week. How many times has that happened to you? And then you ruin it for yourself. You begin to break your rules. What do you mean? This was supposed to It could still be a great week even after a red Thursday, right? You're only as good as your most recent trade or the next trade that you choose to take. Right? More trading does not yield you more return. It opens you to risk, especially when direction and sentiment are obviously against me, against you. And it is your job to pick up on this, to acknowledge this, and to have guidelines in place to hold yourself accountable. I am not here to tell you what to do. The only person that should ever be creating these guidelines for you is yourself. So again, very simple. The day that followed Friday, what did I tell myself? I'm not going to enter this time. I was super conservative. I'm not going to enter before confirmation. And no trade that I take is going to be over $150,000. I just I didn't want to take on that kind of risk. So again, my my confidence was a little lowered, right? Like I had a reality check the day before, but it's good, right? It kind of resets you moving forward. Again, you're only as good as your next trade. So this upcoming week, you know, what does your account size look like? If you trade with $10,000, maybe you want to limit me yourself, right? If you do have the the common mistake of adding too much size too early on, again, you can only acknowledge it yourself, right? What's going to be your guideline? You only want to add up to $2500, $4,000, $5,000 for those that want to be a little bit more aggressive, but no more than that. So, that means every morning right before you're about to take a trade of whatever stock it is that you're thinking about trading, you have to do the math. How many shares could I afford before confirmation? Or maybe you're like, "No, I'm tired of of taking trades before confirmation and direction being against me. I need to be more conservative and wait for that." And that's fine, right? We all go through these stages of either being more aggressive, more conservative, especially during market conditions. And let's be honest, last week was a very volatile week. Not only did we have big tech earnings but all all the news and different catalysts that we had in the South Korean market, the Japanese market and um what was happening in the Middle East. It was a very volatile week, but that's not a scapegoat. That's not an excuse to break your rules. Guidelines still need to be put in place to hold yourself accountable. And what does that look like? If you are bad at taking profits, setting strict guidelines for that. If you're bad at cutting losses, setting strict guidelines for that. And again, I would not trade with one more dollar until you can prove to yourself that you can follow through with these guidelines you set in place. So simple, yet so hard to do in a moment of stress. It's funny, huh? But um yeah, I mean kind of a yap session, but I wanted to share that with you guys because um I I think it's really important, especially, you know, not just on a daily basis, but on a weekly basis, to kind of look back and reflect areas of opportunity, what you could have done better in in preparation for this upcoming week. We don't know if it's going to be a bullish week, a bearish week, a very choppy week. With that being said, setting up guidelines, restrictions, you should be focused on trading less and focusing on quality setups. And that does mean holding back at times and waiting for those. And that is okay. Again, I want to hear your feedback. I want to hear your thoughts on what you think with what I've shared with you today. And hopefully for even just one of you out there, it just encourages you to be more disciplined over a consistent period of time to hold yourself accountable to these guidelines. And as you write all these guidelines down, it's hard to remember all of them, especially if you're new to trading or investing altogether. So maybe even if you just focus on really nailing down even just one of them, breaking one bad habit, even a week, you have nothing but time, right, to get better. You have nothing but time to improve, and you have nothing but time to again begin to chip away at these bad habits and become a more refined trader and investor. But it starts with acknowledging your areas of opportunity and setting up strict guidelines that you acknowledge and that you respect and that you want to follow. So I hope that it earned a thumbs up. Please consider subscribing. Don't forget we are trading live every morning. Um you don't have to join. I upload free videos here on YouTube. But if you want access to these private live sessions as markets have been down, we dropped our prices and as soon as markets begin to pick back up, our prices will as well. So again, if you want to join at that discounted price over the weekend, second link down below, it's Learn Plan Profit 3.0, one-time payment, lifetime access. It's not a subscription. It's the only service I offer. I offer nothing else. Be aware of fake accounts out there. Uh there's a bunch of accounts impersonating me. Again, the only service that I offer is LPP. That's all. And if you sign up for it, that's all um that that I have to offer. So again, second link down below. I appreciate you guys' time. Like always, let's make sure that we end the year on a green up.