$SBUX still on watch but no entry
So today $SBUX opened higher and might get a close right on the trendline. I really would like to see a definitive close above trendline before considering a long, not some wishy washy 1 cent close above trend. Honestly, I hope it closes up here and then retraces towards yesterday's lows for an entry tomorrow or later this week.
I am not itching to get into a trade or to call out trades since I just went 3 for 3 last week on swing trades. In fact it is 10:50 AM and I have zero day trades in the books because I just don't like any of the patterns.
Warren Buffet said that in investing, unlike baseball, you don't have to swing at a pitch until it is right in your sweet spot. I used to be a real piker when I first started trading, and felt compelled to always be in a trade. That quickly leads to trading bad setups instead of perfect setups and that means losing lots of money. I would do 30 trades in a day and barely make any money or walk away with a big loss after having started the day with a big gain.
My personal preference now is to only look for day trades from 9:30 to 11:00. That is when the market is most active. It is such an awesome feeling to place a trade at the open and be done with trading for the day 1 minute later.
The same mentality applies to swing trading, which is approached like day trading except with overnight holding periods that can last from a few days to a few weeks. There might only be a few trades, less than a half dozen, to be placed in an entire month. The rest of the time is spent keeping your capital out of harms way.
Think of trading as like prize fighting, the first rule is to protect yourself at all times. Also think of trading as like football, defense wins games. An old trader I know used to love to say that scared money don't make money, to which I always said yeah but they don't lose money.
