IEP Trade on Feb 25, 2021 15:58 from tjmiller2001: Tradervue User Stock Trades.

This stock has been vertical from $60 to $69 a share. I really believe in them. New catalyst with position and board seats on Bausch Health. Today's market weakness gave me a great dip buy opportunity.

Got long at 67.00 with a SL at 66.00 and a TP at 70. Good 3:1 RR. The spreads on the shares and contracts are wide and price moves quickly so I need to be careful that a 65.95 exit doesn't turn into a 65.50 exit where I sell the contract for too cheap.

++ 02/26 - When the stock reported strong earnings premarket, I felt good about their chances of a green day. However, when the overall market had it's second straight big red day, it brought IEP down with it. Instead of listening to my stop loss, I doubled down, buying 2 more contracts that had low IV percentiles and are longer dated for June.

I have conviction in this name and these prices are a gift. I think IEP will receive several upgrades before Monday's open because of their strong earnings beat. Also, as money shifts from tech to value, IEP is a value name that will benefit. I'm sized up and long but I'm aware that my emotions are playing a role in this. I missed the move up on IEP from 50 to 69 and I don't want to miss the next move up.

++03/01 News came out that one of the companies that IEP is involved with is being investigated. This sent the stock down but I believe this was an overreaction to the news. I averaged down on my June calls and started a position in September calls. This is a long term hold. I'm not happy about breaking my stop rules, but since I believe in the company I treat each dip as a buying opportunity.

++03/02 Got in a September call at EOD for cheap, got filled for a low price. Liked that we made a higher low on the daily, could be the start of a reversal here.

++03/04 Tech selloff and strength in energy. I think this will benefit IEP. I added a September call for cheap. I was curious what the "Flatten" button did on active trader so I clicked it and that sold all my June 70 calls. I felt so dumb, I didn't want to sell. At least now I know what it does. I was able to get back in for only $0.02 more on each contract. My temptation is to scale out of these as the trade starts to work in my favor, but I feel like if I have conviction and these contracts don't expire for 100-200 days, I should keep holding. When swinging for months instead of weeks, as I did with ARKK, it's tougher for me to know when to scale out.
++ Continued to scale-out throughout May

On May 24th I finally scaled out of the biggest loss of my career. I completely ignored my stop loss and as a result of that, lost half my account value. One single trade cut my account in half. I have an ego. Sometimes my decisions make it seem like I'd rather be right than profitable.

I'm surprised I'd make the mistake of holding on to a loser for such a drawdown after I've been trading for over a year. But it happened. And I want to learn from it. I've stopped swing trading and I bought a course on Supply and Demand Zones. I'm hoping to learn that intraday strategy well and become a consistently profitable trader that way.

I think that strategy fits better with my personality and strengths. Painful moment in my trading journey but one that needed to happen for me to switch something up and start treating trading as a career not a hobby.

Lesson Learned: Listen to my stop loss if I want to do this for a living.