Stock: TLRY
Strategy: Fallen angel
Result: Loss, 0.75R
Long/Short: Long
Entry: 20.35
Risk: 15c
S/L: 20.20
Why did you take the trade, and what happened?: The price action showed signs of a reversal. I was watching for a strong move back to the long side. After an initial indecisive opening 2 minutes TLRY sold off heavily dropping a whole dollar in three minutes. It then found support, hovering at around 20.30, and I prepared to enter. I went long as it began to rise, only to then get stopped out very quickly. I had to get out, staring down the risk of being caught in a further flush if I didn't. The frustrating thing of course is that the stock did then reverse and sure enough retraced back to VWAP and beyond. This is the critical weakness of this strategy - you need to keep stops tight, and there will be times when this happens, getting you stopped out before the trade moves your way. I need to learn to deal with this, yesterday I really didn't.
How did you feel after taking the trade?: Very frustrated. This was the second losing trade of the session, the second time this set up had failed, and put me well into the red. Seeing the movement then pop up and knowing I'd have been several Rs in profit if I'd waited 10 more seconds to enter hardly helped. On reflection, I think I actually did everything right! My entry was fine, coming after support and a 1min double bottom; my exit was correct, I couldn't sit through a flush and worse behaviour would be holding onto a flushing stock in the hope it'll pop back up. The thing I did wrong here was to continue trading after a loss which clearly slammed into my psychology. I went on to double my losses by revenge trading and losing my discipline.
What did you do well?: The entry and stop loss were both correct. I've no problem with those. The set up made sense, all criteria were met (a stock strong green on the day, flushed below VWAP, finding and holding a support level). Maybe not A+, but certainly an A, and I expect given the same circumstances I'd enter this position again. It's what happened after that was the issue and is the major point to learn from, because I'm going to lose trades again in the future and I'll need to deal with those as well!
What can you improve on?: Following my rules. Recognising when my psychology has been negatively impacted and stopping trading.
Questions?: Should I have gone back in? Surely not...