I was in wait and see mode with yesterday being options expiration. I noticed TRMB gapping down at the open and then made a weak effort to gain ground after the opening range. The 5MA was closing fast and there wasn’t a options strike price nearby so I thought I’d take a stab since it seemed like a great setup.

It dropped quickly through my buy point, so I ended up getting short a little lower than I had planned. This made my planned stop too far away given my position size (I would have risked too much). Instead of covering a few shares to true-up my position size, I lowered my initial stop to the top of the current bar.

The price went down steadily for several minutes. Since it was options expiration day, I didn’t want to let a 2R winner turn into a breakeven trade, so I bailed when the price was rising hard forming a hammer right below the opening range. Naturally, this was within 2 cents of the high for the remainder of the day. Here is the chart in various timeframes. No telling how many Rs I would have made by holding through the close (plenty of Zs, too).

I used to really get frustrated about trades like this. “Look at all the money I left on the table!”, I’d think. After this month so far, I’m just happy to have a profitable trade.

You might recognize this quote from Nietzsche, “Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” My new trading mantra is going to be “Whatever trades don’t ruin my account only serve to make me a better trader.”

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