A Big Missed Steak

Back in the corporate world, I have a quota of 18 cases per day. I close more than that and I get an incentive. I close more than that, pwede ng pumetiks. Quotas keep us aligned on the trajectory we place ourselves in. They keep us focused, motivated. But the best part? They keep us rewarded once they’re hit.

Here in the trading world, I set my quota to +10% overall port gain per month, or in a different perspective, +2.5% per week. Sounds doable, no? If achieved, it would mean that I could double my capital in 10 months’ time. And in a year, a profit of more or less +120%. I don’t know about you, but that seems like a pretty sweet deal to me. But if I was being completely honest, I wasn’t confident enough I could deliver. I trust in the system. I’m just not sure I trust in myself as much.

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August. Officially the first month we were left to our own devices. I got my eyes on my monthly goal. But there was a constant question of: could I or couldn’t I? I have written about my August travails on a prior post and I do not wish to be redundant. To cut the story short, I managed to bounce back from the losses and end the month with a +15.1% gain. Beginner’s luck? Probably. But what the hell. I was ecstatic, mainly because I proved to myself that I could do it.

September. I was stuck in the hellish metro traffic. I was running late for my doctor’s appointment but I couldn’t care less. It was just the second day of the month and I was already up by +6.67%, just 3.4% short of my monthly quota. Thanks to this baby:

Five days later, I was up by +8%. It was just the first week. 

Oh sweet heavens. Is it still beginner’s luck? Or am I already getting the hang of it? 

HAH! The dream. What I would give to say that I am. 

The fairy tale ended quicker than HiddleSwift called it quits. You know what they say, if it’s too good to be true, it probably is. So one fateful day in September, FOOD was on the table and everybody was on a feast. 

It was a similar play to MED. And so due to my prior win and what I thought was a high probability set-up, I went heavy on FOOD. The most volume I’ve ever put in a single trade since the course. The problem with FOOD though, once you've consumed too much, you're sure to spit it out one way or another. 

For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty, and slumber will clothe them with rags. Proverbs 23:21

How befitting.

So yup, that's a -17.94% loss. The system says sell at the open in a situation like this. There was a way to stop the bleeding from becoming a full-blown hemorrhage. But I didn't react when I should. Instead, I fell in a state of catatonia. I was stunned, maybe I was in denial. And it proved very costly. All my September gains wiped out in a single trade. There's the market always looking for ways to humble people down. 

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It's the end of September. I took a little trading sabbatical after that FOOD poisoning. And unless the only stock I'm holding performs a miracle and shoots up to the ceiling by Friday, I know I wouldn't be able to meet my monthly quota for September. But I guess it's okay. We learn our lesson and we move on. We live to trade another day.