No one is born a great trader. We are all learning along the way.
How many mistakes you have to make before you learn something (losses or missed opportunities) will determine how quickly you progress.
The big money in the market is usually made from understanding the SMALL nuances most traders completely ignore when selecting stocks.
I struggled with this exact same thing for YEARS.
When you first start improving as a trader, the hardest part almost becomes that you suddenly start seeing “setups” everywhere. Every chart starts looking interesting, every breakout feels buyable, every dip feels like opportunity… and before you know it, your focus becomes completely scattered.
What helped me the most was realizing that my edge was never going to come from trading more names.
It came from getting significantly more intentional about which names deserved my attention in the first place.
1) That’s why my process today starts with relative strength FIRST.
Before I even think about an entry setup, I ask:
- Is this stock outperforming the market?
- Is it outperforming its sector/group?
- Is it holding moving averages while others fail?
- Is volume confirming accumulation?
- Is there a strong narrative/theme backing it?
- Are institutions clearly involved?
- Is this a potential Stage 1 → Stage 2 transition?
- Is the group itself showing signs of leadership?
That immediately cuts down 90% of the names for me.
There are ALWAYS going to be “setups” on random charts...but not every setup deserves your capital or your mental energy.
2) The next thing that helped me massively was building watchlists with INTENTION.
I stopped trying to watch 100 names equally.
Now I usually have:
> a few true leaders I deeply understand
> a few emerging themes/groups
> a smaller handful of names actively setting up
And then I basically stalk those names all day waiting for MY entry model:
controlled weakness into support, 9/21EMA pullback, 15/30min pivot, undercut/reclaim, tightness, volume contraction, momentum turning back up.
Once I simplified things down like that, conviction naturally started increasing because I actually understood WHY I was taking trades instead of randomly reacting to candles all day.
And another thing…
Confidence usually comes AFTER repetition.
A lot of traders think confidence magically appears first, but for me confidence came from seeing the SAME setup work repeatedly over hundreds of examples.
That’s why I constantly preach backtesting and studying prior winners. The more intentional screen time you get, the easier it becomes to recognize:
“Okay… THIS is real leadership.”
vs.
“This is just random participation.”
So if you feel overwhelmed right now, that’s normal. It probably just means your eyes are improving faster than your process is narrowing things down.
The solution usually isn’t finding MORE setups.
It’s learning how to become dramatically more selective.
For anyone who has underperformed during this rally. I know, it sucks. I’ve been there. I’ve underperformed many times in rallies where it seemed like money was raining from the heavens and I ended up empty handed. The worst was 2019 where I was heavily long the entire rally and somehow lost 30%. Kept over sizing and losing and was able to dig a huge hole which I wasn’t able to dig out of until the huge rally in 2020.
This rally I’ve underperformed as well.
But guess what! It’s not over yet!
There may be many more opportunities and there will be a lot more rallies too. The market isn’t going anywhere. Reflect on what went wrong, how you can correct your process and go from there.
Stop chasing extensions like a golden retriever and a tennis ball.
Buy RS names on weakness into support pivots using the 30min pivot, & your entire trading might change.
Wait for leaders to pull into support, tighten up, reclaim pivot high, enter, and stop LOD.
Chart: $OUST.
$AFRM looks wonderful.
It is probably my favorite-looking chart that has not broken out yet.
The first flag is setting up beautifully, pressing right into the 200-day SMA. MACD looks locked and loaded.
I've seen so many examples of this pattern leading to really big linear moves.
I have a feeling AFRM is cooking up something good for all these agents to use when they start spending our money autonomously.
There’s always going to be another trade.
When I identify a great setup + narrative on a stock but miss it I don’t care.
If this happens to you it shouldn’t bother you either.
Why?
Because if anything it should give you confidence knowing you identified the setup + narrative correctly and know you’ll be able to do it again.
The market is presenting new opportunities every single week. If you think back 3-6 months and try to remember the trade you “missed” back then you probably won’t even remember it.
Become immune to fomo.
Memory, photonics, and optics are insane themes…
But just wait for the robotics + humanoid trade.
The government is going to pour so much capital into this group in a race against China that I think it eventually becomes one of the biggest themes in the history of the market.
Never quit. Some trading and life thoughts:
Keep drawdowns small enough to stay in the game.
When your edge is working, playing too small is an error like drawing down too much. Win bigger.
Don’t style drift. Master your style.
Jumping from system to system is how traders spiral.
Be proactive about achieving your life goals and define those goals. Get after it! 💪
...and don't forget to enjoy yourself, life is short.
The market will crash again at some point, as it does every ~7 years. But it's a fools errand to predict when. PhD economists can’t do it, why would you try? The people incessantly warning of crashes, are the same people sitting on the sidelines through historic bull markets.
Am I the only one who honestly doesn’t care if we’re in an AI bubble or at the start of an epic run?
No matter what it is, it doesn’t change the required usual actions: follow price, keep risk management and portfolio dynamics in check, and keep routines sharp.
Even if things go the opposite way, the 20MA will get you out in time. Every big correction starts as a small one.
Overhyping or demoralizing ourselves and others based on macro views never ends well . Staying focused , versatile and not anchored is an edge.
The window of opportunity is open this week for parabolic reversals in $SNDK $MU and solana:JCEmtMhYCuijq6t3bXbZeyr4566RYmsLaSdr6pYd79Rt
Let's see if this post is more hated than the parabolic short write-up I did on Silver in late January....
Jokes aside, I wanted to share my thoughts as I have during parabolic moves over the years with stuff like $SMCI $NVDA $MSTR $SLV $GLD $KORU $CAR etc, especially if I can help someone who is riding a large unrealized gain take advantage and trim into these parabolic extensions.
Early last week, I shared a screenshot of a spreadsheet I had saved from a study I did on the specific extension metrics in which many historic parabolic moves peaked. I also noted that it was too early to short the semiconductors as that they had not filled out the criteria required for a parabolic short.
Below is the same spreadsheet, but included is $SNDK $MU and solana:JCEmtMhYCuijq6t3bXbZeyr4566RYmsLaSdr6pYd79Rt updated with their extensions as of Friday's close. The green highlighted boxes represent above the average in which all the study examples peaked at.
As you can see they are not all quite above average yet, but any continued hype and momentum early this week and all three of these names will very likely be in play.
One characteristic that is extremely important when identifying a parabolic advance is consecutive weeks of range expansion. We recently saw this with Silver in January when it put together 3 consecutive weeks of range expansion before it's climax, as well as many more classic, model book examples throughout the years.
Consecutive weeks of range expansion signal exponential price progression, a hallmark of parabolic curves. It is a week by week build up into a climactic reversal. The cherry on top is a signifigant range expansion week on the 3rd or 4th week of the burst, which is typically the final week of the move.
Here are the last 3-4 weeks of percentage gains for these names:
$SNDK
Week 1 (+7.48%)
Week 2 (+19.91%)
Week 3 (+31.62%)
$MU
Week 1 (+8.20%)
Week 2 (+9.15%)
Week 3 (+9.16%)
Week 4 (+37.73%)
solana:JCEmtMhYCuijq6t3bXbZeyr4566RYmsLaSdr6pYd79Rt
Week 1 (+9.81%)
Week 2 (+20.50%)
Week 3 (+20.69%)
Week 4 (+25.40%)
Textbook parabolic price progression over consecutive weeks on all three of them.
After that final 3rd or 4th week of signifigant range expansion, you then look for a similar parabolic burst on the daily timeframe. $SNDK $MU and solana:JCEmtMhYCuijq6t3bXbZeyr4566RYmsLaSdr6pYd79Rt all closed down on Thursday, before exploding higher on Friday. Need at least 1-2 more large, consecutive days higher for these to trigger a climactic reversal.
We also witnessed what felt like complete upside panic and FOMO in the leading semiconductors on Friday. One example being the news that hit at 1pm stating that Apple and Intel reached a preliminary chip-making agreement, which led to a near +13% gain in just 20 minutes...
Moments after that headline, Trump said "Go and buy a Dell", which sent $DELL soaring an entire 200% ATR move in just 30 minutes.
This is typically the type of price action and hype you see during the final stage of a parabolic burst. Not to mention the absurd volume of options being traded on these names as we approach May OPEX this Friday...
To close this out, we also have the $QQQ at 9.91 ATR multiples above the 50-day moving average as of Fridays close, a level of extension never before seen since its inception in March of 1999. I have no doubt this market can continue higher this year, but this print only helps add conviction to the names potentially setting up for a opportunity into this week.
To clarify, the parabolic short is an extraordinarily high-probability mean reversion opportunity, that can sometimes lead to secular tops, but not always. I have no clue where these stocks will be a month or a year from now, but I know my setups when I see them.
I love the U.S. stock market.
What a game we play.
There is nothing else I’d rather be doing than actively participating in the greatest game on earth.
The hardest thing in sports isn't winning a championship. It's repeating the win. Q "won" the game and after 2023 wasn't as focused, was travelling on his yacht all over the world with his gf.
I'm very cognizant of burn out and reduced motivation after you win. Have to stay very focused.