At least she's studying a practical major. Met one of my neighbors last night whose daughter is majoring in social work and Islamic studies. I was thinking, why the hell would any parent allow their kids to spend money on not just one worthless degrees, but two. And regardless of much of that will be her own funding, I know she'll be voting for student loan forgiveness (wealth transfer from the productive to the unproductive).
Nice reversal of fortunes. Did you have a max loss limit today, how much would have lots if all day trades had gone against you by full amount..
Best wishes to you. Sounds like you just need a slight mindset shift. Your title for this thread is an example of a component of your mindset that needs to change.
Geezus, this journal is only up for a few hours without any verified trades to speak of, and yet all these market wizards (with advanced psychology and finance degrees) are going overboard, wanting in on the action. My gawd!
None of the trades are really day trades - swing trades at best.The average holding time for the pair trades is 6 days, the median is 3. The only stop I have is a time based stop - if pairs are not profitable after 30 days they are closed. The wheel strategy usually holds for ~ 30 days and doesn't have a stop either - the risk is typically determined at entry via position size. If it goes against me it adjusts the option delta (which often locks in losses).
Is your "process" tested to be absolutely reliable and profitable? If yes, just trade "the process". It's not that difficult. Unless you don't trust "the process". Then that's a different story. Sounds to me you don't trust "the process" so you feel there is always a need for you to interfere and deviate from "the process" and put in your own discretionary trades.
MattK, don't listen to all of these negative people. They are just jealous that you have an excellent career, a plan for your family and a high net worth. As an computer programmer, I disagree completely that software people cannot trade. Also don't listen to people who say selling premium is a bad strategy... you just need to tweak the wheel strategy a bit to tamper down the convexity and add hedges during major downturns (see below my much smaller account in blue where hedging on top of wheeling beats benchmarks). In fact, I think software engineers/data scientists make for the best traders. You can write many live trading algorithms and/or tens of thousands of backtests and beat screen traders trading over simple moving averages any day with 0 rigorous statistical validation. You can automate your system and still work your day job (or just do NYTimes crossword puzzle) whilst the haters sweat bullets watchin' ticks and glued to their screen. The only unsolicited advice I'll say is to understand how the wheel strategy is designed for, a bullish or flat market. In a bear market, you are simply collecting some time-premium as your portfolio delta turns into essentially a buy-and-hold equity strategy. Find a strategy that keeps somewhat delta neutral whilst harvesting theta.
If your daughter is clever why would she not study on her own and learn the tools of the trade without formal education. Win a few data science competitions and you got the foot in the door of any hedge fund and ibank even without college degree. College nowadays is only for average folks.