Groundhog Day Trading

Day Trading Mistakes Happen.  Get Over Them and Move On

Have you ever seen the movie Groundhog Day?  It stars Bill Murray as a disgruntled weatherman who’s pissed about his assignment to cover the events surrounding Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney.  Due to a blizzard after the events he is forced to spend the night in this town that he loathes.  He wakes up the next morning to find himself reliving Groundhog Day again.  This happens repeatedly until he straightens his priorities and gets his co-star (Andie MacDowell) into bed.

Groundhog Day came in October for Me

Bill Murray spends the first few days reliving February 2nd in utter confusion.  He allows the events to repeat themselves almost exactly as they had the last day with little deviation from his routine.

This is how I felt last week.  3 days last week I attempted to short strong stocks in the morning.  3 times last week I was spanked by the market and found myself losing 2/3 of my daily risk early on.  And each time, despite having recognized that similar events had unfolded the previous day, I simply sat there confused that patterns that normally work out for me were failing.

Making Quick Adjustments

I did make the adjustment each day and got long for some reasonably good results, but my overall results for those 3 days might have been doubled had I not continued to make these mistakes each morning.

Learning From the Mistakes

Bill was stuck in Groundhog Day for long enough to learn piano, chainsaw ice sculpting and just about everything about everyone in town.  This must have taken “years” of being stuck repeating this same day.  It wasn’t until he had constructed the perfect day that he was allowed to proceed to February 3rd.

Hopefully it won’t take me as long to learn from my mistakes.  At the end of each day, I recognized what I was doing wrong.  I was repeatedly attempting to short stocks that screamed “Don’t short me!”  They were strong stocks with big news and lots of momentum.  Next week, I’d like to forget the losses but remember the lessons learned; that way I can progress to the next “day” in my trading career.