November began with a slow start and for active day traders like myself, it hasn’t gotten much better. We’re just about halfway through the month and I have 3 no-trade days, 3 red days, and 7 green days. While I’m in the green on the month, I had a setback on Friday with a 5.8k loss in 1 single trade. I succumbed to FOMO. It’s a tough time to have a case of FOMO. There wasn’t anything else I could recover the loss on and I ended up finishing the week in the red.
Consistency in Day Trading
I pride myself on being consistent. I’m green about 80% of my trading days, and I have been able to go years without red months. Although they do happen occasionally. Red days happen, and unfortunately, red weeks happen as well. Last week being a red week was disappointing, but I’m grateful that these types of weeks are rare.
Where Things Went Horribly Wrong
Generally, last week was slow. There were a few stocks moving up, but I found the price action to feel more like slow trends and less parabolic, except for Thursday. Thursday afternoon, we had several parabolic moves on relatively light volume, but of course, I missed them. Cue the FOMO. Friday morning, I came in swinging hard and looking for redemption from the missed opportunities on Thursday, but I came up short. I don’t think I’m alone in this. I saw a lot of other traders at Warrior Trading dealing with frustration from missing opportunities on Thursday.
S&P Performance
Despite my poor trading performance, the S&P has been on fire. We have had the strongest week of trading since 2020 as the market surged following CPI data on Tuesday morning. In all my years trading Small Caps at Warrior Trading, drawdowns in the market hurt small caps, but moves to the upside don’t always help. And in any case, the smalll cap market typically lags well behind the large cap market. It takes time for growth in the economy to trickle down to most of the small cap companies.
Game Plan for Thanksgiving Week
This week we have 3 days, then the Thanksgiving holiday, then Black Friday. Typically the Friday after Thanksgiving is a slow trading day. It’s also only a half day. I really have to set low expectations for this week. My guess is that volume across the board is light due to people traveling. Light volume can be okay if there are obvious stocks, but I don’t know if this is the week a company wants to put out excellent news. The headlines may get lost in the shuffle with holidays and travel. Realistically, my best shot for redemption will come following the holiday.
If I can hit small green days and add up a couple of base hits, I should be able to recoup most of Friday’s loss this week, but I’m not expecting any big winners. Of course, setting expectations low means I can be pleasantly surprised if things improve.
Don’t forget to Stay Social!
You can follow Warrior Trading on Twitter or Instagram in addition to the main Warrior Trading YouTube Channel. If you haven’t checked out my new book “How to Day Trade: The Plain Truth”, it’s now live on Amazon. It’s a brutally honest take on what it’s really like to become a day trader.