Hearing Whispers from the Dresser Drawer

Every addiction and demon that you keep inside your dresser drawer from time to time will whisper to you.  “Hey don’t forget about me, you know we’re good together” , “remember the fun” and “C’mon just a little”, are some of the whispers you may hear. Sure most times you can ignore the whisper or leave the room to avoid that drawer. We all at one time or another have given in to the whisper though and opened that damn drawer. A Beetlejuice moment for sure.

One day not too long ago I opened the drawer. Inside was a bag full of fade powder my trading demon. I pulled it out did a few quick lines and off I went..$LVS  here I come. Oh yes I was ready to party!! I found the most crack fueled runner on my board that

day, $LVS was strong. I have my own proprietary algo designed from the inner reaches of my head using my decade plus of day trading experience and $LVS was the number 1 ranked strong signal.

With a nose still covered in fade powder though nothing seems to strong to fade. Too far, too fast I told myself this baby is ready to pull back. I offered some out above the inside offer and got filled right away. I knew this meant I was probably just a bit “early”.  Yeah “early” that’s the word I prefer instead of the word “wrong”. Wrong is no fun because it doesn’t let me be right so “early” it is.  Wrong would have meant that once I got the quick fill above the offer that once a bid held above that I started to reduce risk or cover completely. Today though with fade powder residue on my face I chose to do another line. So with my “early” position against about a quarter and the fade powder kicking in I added to my fade. I thought I saw some hesitation in the tape. I know better than to hit the bid and add without the tape really doing or showing me something in the direction I want to trade it, but the funny thing about trading demons is the paranoia they produce. All jacked up on my demon fade powder the only thoughts I was having were “Oh man this baby is ready to drop, I have to hit the bid now before everyone else realizes what I know and I miss the move without being bigger”.  “You got the top, you’re right” was whispering to me from that 1/2 a bag of demon fade powder that was left. Without hesitation(we all know hesitation is bad for day traders) I hit the bid. Now I’m bigger and immediately the book is flushed if the offers above me and the bid goes into leap frog motion. Now I’m feeling it..some pain but it feels good in a way too. I’m so jacked up on my fade powder that I choose to battle. Yeah it’s on now!!  “Just early, just early” I mutter to myself, “relax,relax calm down look at things clearly”, I tell myself. Since I have been doing this a long time I rarely get nervous anymore. I have the skills to usually battle and come out okay. Besides I have run into the middle of the highway with fade powder on my nose plenty of times to pick up the quarter off the road and live to tell about it. No need for nerves..”just early”.

No matter how long you have been trading your own personal trading demons exist and most of the time you keep them in the dresser drawer and out of sight. You know that it’s in there and yet every once in awhile you open the drawer. You know its not good that it will harm your trading mental account and most likely your trading account. Even if you have lasted and acquired the trading skills to somehow come out okay after opening the drawer it’s still WRONG. Wrong , wrong wrong..yeah three times for emphasis. My demon of showcasing my fading skills and surviving danger did nothing but waste the opportunity to be long the strongest stock on my own algo and make any easy 2 bucks rather than battle for a quarter. “Early is wrong. Early is a waste of time, opportunity and capital”.

I know my demon and have named it. Have you recognized and named your demon? What do you do in your trading to keep you from opening the dresser drawer?

My next blog post will talk about why I opened the dresser drawer and what I know I need to do to keep it closed.  Fading moves can be profitable but only when done without a demon whispering to me.