on point, but no action

gone are the days of mad volatility. i still remember November, what a bear fest. i was making money hand over fist, left and right, all you had to do was go short. why in the hell did i ever listen to my parents and try to get a job !

i was in early today. sipping my hot chocolate, watching the market. i wanted to go short. i thought there was still some weakness from yesterday to shake out...but overall i still felt we were in a rally mode. GS was weak. other names were okay. i just couldn't see a low risk trade. meh. i had a meeting at 10 am anyway. meeting spilled over. had to go give my car for repairs. went to mexican for lunch.

i come back, there's been a nice rally. the dip down in the morning had been a fake out. unfortunately, the rally was already starting to break. i wanted to short IBM, but meh again. i felt the day would end flattish. there really was no trade.

now here's where i fucked up. what i really wanted to do was a quick scalp on POT. the kind of stuff i used to do back in the day. in and out with a couple hundred bucks profit. 200, 300, hell even 100, it's all good. but, my brain these days thinks more like a swing trader and i fucked up. i didn't watch the tape closely enough. didn't take the small profits when i had the chance. and ended up with an overnight which i totally didn't want.

why? cause POT is really volatile. my position risk is 20 puts, rather than a more manageable 10. we are still in a bull rally. it stayed strong through close. plus, the chart like the market is neutral. we could see a huge gap up or down tomorrow. only thing in my favor, is that hopefully the market will be indecisive tomorrow, swing around and let me offload this position.

so here's the lesson. make up your mind. what kind of a trade is this. Day trade or Swing trade. don't fucking switch them around.

now i need some beer. but not too much.