Well, I wanted the short. 

Instead, for the first time in years, my trading workstation froze just before the U.S. session opened.  Note the 30 minute space between transcript posts … almost unheard of if I’m there!

Fortunately, I have a second charting platform always running parallel on my backup PC -the one with the Jellie chat – so I could at least follow the early flow before getting everything running just in time to catch the first MATD oscillation on the long side.  Because if I missed that one, it could be a day without income.

From that point, it was trying to keep everyone’s conviction on the early MATD long in tact despite some irrelevant wiggles (again, see transcript), and keep everyone’s head cool … and in turn, mine which is why I often babble … call it Dr. Brett’s Internal Observer.

And the Jellies usually know my not-so-subtle hints.  For example, I rarely use caps or make lunch bets (I’m a thrifty New England Yankee!).  So when I do, it’s my way of telling them – and again reminding myself - that the probability is pretty damn high.

Call it air traffic control during light turbulence.

No one ever said this biz would be easy.

Yet having (1) a backup plan and (2) conviction during battle is the only way to win the longer term war.

One issue many have in this business – including traders, analysts, advisory services, and market columnists – is the need to be right.

Which includes trying to rationalize when wrong.

Frankly, I could care less.

I’m wrong lots in this business, and to some extent, wrong on every sequence in terms of optimal management.

And this morning, my bias was as wrong as possible as noted in this morning’s Tank transcript (note the chat extends to a second page).

Lest we forget though, trading isn’t about being right or wrong.  Rather, like poker, it’s how little you lose when you’re wrong, and how much you win when you’re right.

And I credit the Tank a bit today, who cautioned me about my early bias.  We take a pre-market poll in terms of long, short, oscillating, coiled, or no bias … as we do from time to time during the day.  And as noted in the transcript, we had “Christmas Tree” colors, which is very rare and usually a warning sign.

So I kept sizes light, got out of dodge the minute my premise busted, and adjusted to reality as noted in my actual trade plots which are superimposed in the corner of the 5 minute chart.

While I read the market well this week, I was wrong at times - including being major league wrong today 

Yet the performance chart at the right – when updated later today – will show a strong Gain/Loss dollar ratio for the week.

Today, I felt I was holding pocket Tens at open (and actually profited doing so during the Europe session). 

Then, the U.S. general session flop came A-K-5.

I think Kenny Rogers wrote a song about just that.

The PJO (Prime Jellie Opportunity).

Corny?  You bet.  But I’ll take corny profits for a hundred Alex as this morning reinforced the notion that it’s all about stalking those trades when everything lines up.

In the Tank, we use “bullets” (*****) or the term PJO as shorthand.  For as any bona fide trader knows, it’s NOT just about the setup.  It’s how hard you push you chips on any given sequence. 

btw, note my response to a post in the Networking Forum re: trading later in the day. 

And that’s the part of trading few ever want to address, primarily because they’re chartists instead of traders.

For it’s “safe” not discussing sizes.  After all, they don’t all work out.

Yet it’s also “safe” never getting out of bed in the morning.