AT #24: $500 to $74,580 Challenge Week 8

Read time: 4 minutes

What a week…I mean, it all started good, right?

5, 4, 3, 2, 1…

The market is open! I’m going into the market thinking, “I’m make a killing today!“; at least that’s what I thought.

In this Email

• Stats for the week
• Operating with urgency
• Is trading for financial freedom or not

Stats of the week

• Number of trades: 4
• Profit: -$918
• PnL %: -23%
• Account value: $650
• Position size per trade: $1,000
• Cash position: $1,269
• Tickers: $SPY

These last couple weeks have not been ideal for a day trader. A lot of the move is happening during pre-market hours or the last 15 minutes of the day.

With that said, I did come out short for the week. Had a few wins here and there but my losses were a bit bigger.

I started a new swing trade on Sofi Technologies ($SOFI) for Jan 2025: $10 calls Jan 17, 2025.

Why? Because the earning reports have been superb, and yet the stock has been beaten down. In my opinion, this stock will explode in the upcoming months, just like $PLTR.

Since this is a leap contract, I have to look at the weekly timeframe level – and to my surprise we have an uptrend on it.

“But look at all the downside it went from it’s previous high, there’s no way..” – you may be thinking.

Downtrend and uptrends change if price closes above or below a previous swing high or low.

Do you see from where it’s bouncing? a demand area. In my opinion, the stock price went down to a price area to pick up more demand, before go to the next high.

So what’s my stop loss? $4.40.

Yes, the that’s a giant stop loss, but the trade remains valid until we break that swing low. That will be a signal that we’re in a downtrend.

And if it does get to that area, I’ll average down.

That’s the game plan. Plus, this is +1 year out in expiration so nothing to worry about.

Operating with urgency

I was listening to the My First Million podcast, and it was with a guest by the name of ​Andrew Wilkinson​, who took his company Tiny public ($TINY) in April of 2023 – which is currently sitting at $2.96, a penny stock.

But in the podcast they talk about operating with a sense of urgency to operate with a small amount of margin to create a sense of discipline.

For example, this small account has grow over 700% in the course of 1 month. If I wanted to adopt this framework, I’d leave only 30% of profit that was made. This week I decided to withdraw $1,269, and leave $650 to start with for the upcoming week – Still holding $SOFI leaps.

From now on the stats of the week section will have a new stat called cash position.

Podcast episode link: ​Andrew Wilkinson’s $20,000 to $260,000,000 story ​

Is this for financial freedom or not

It was sunny on Tuesday, and the weather was perfect for it being mid November.

I opened up TradingView to review my plan, and as soon as this market opens I’m thinking about that bag – at least that was the plan.

*Ding ding ding*…it’s market time!

1 hour goes by, no action in the market.

2 hours goes by, still no action. I’m saying to myself, “what gives.“

Half of the day goes by, I’m still sitting in my chair staring at the charts with no action.

Power hour hits, “Okay! Finally the setup is here to be executed. I’ve seriously been waiting all day to make this bag.“

I executed my trade only to find out 5 minutes later that I got a false breakout…

“What the f*ck!?!“

I was pissed! I felt 10 years older after sitting on my chair for 8 hours straight, with practically any food in my system, and my back was starting to feel like the hunchback of Notre Dame.

I got out of my chair, grabbed a snack, took a deep breath and went out for a walk.

Moral of the story, health is wealth.

You see, you and I, we’re trading for financial freedom. That should not come at the expense of our personal well-being.

Sometimes, it’s easy to be glued to your charts and make you feel trapped and unfulfilled.

A successful trader owns his time, they don’t let the market own it.

If the move is not made within the next 1 to 3 hours of market open, it might be best to walk away and do something else that will make you happy.