Bad week. No drama, no blown account, no excuse-making — just a bad week. I gave back $1,240 on the week, mostly from an earnings play on a semiconductor name that I had no business being in three days before the print. I know the rule. You know the rule. I broke it anyway because the setup "looked clean." It did not look clean. It looked exciting. Those are different things and I know the difference, which is the annoying part.
Here's the number that matters more: account is at $71,405, started at $8,400 in March 2023. That's still up ~8.5x, and drawdown from the high is 6.2%. I've had five weeks worse than this one on the way here. It just doesn't feel like it at 8pm on a Sunday.
The week in numbers: 9 trades, 4 wins, 5 losses. Win rate 44% — that's fine, my winners ran bigger. Average win +$712, average loss -$813. Yes, you read that right, my average loss was bigger than my average win this week. That's the earnings trade dragging it. Remove it and it's a normal, boring, slightly green week. One trade, man. One trade.
What I'm doing about it: no earnings plays inside 5 trading days of the print. Written it into the trading plan, told two people who'll check on me. The plan only works if the dumbest version of me can follow it, so the plan has to be written for the dumbest version of me.
Next week: back to the list. No revenge trade Monday morning. I promise nothing except receipts.
3 comments:
"It looked exciting. Those are different things" — writing that on the whiteboard above my desk, if that's allowed. Took a very similar chip earnings hit in July for almost the same reasons.
Posted by MiguelS · October 12, 2026 at 6:41 AM
Question on the earnings trade — was position size normal and it was just a bad stop, or did you also oversize because you were confident? Curious how the rule gets written.
Posted by Kelly T. · October 12, 2026 at 9:15 AM
Size was normal, stop was the problem — I moved it "to give it room" two days before the print, which in hindsight was me refusing to accept a small loss before earnings. So the new rule is about timing, not sizing: flat inside 5 days, full stop.
Posted by Jordan Reyes · October 12, 2026 at 6:03 PM
Been reading since the $40k days. The weeks where nothing works and you post anyway are the reason this blog is the only trading blog I still read.
Posted by quiet_lurker_ohio · October 13, 2026 at 8:22 PM
Comments are moderated when I remember to check, which is weekends, usually. Email me if it's urgent.