Reflection. FOMO. leaving money on the table. Resisting the urge to trade with emotions.

I know someone will say it so ill get it out of the way now. Yes, I know im gambling. This is sort of a written reflection of todays events.

Last week I bought ten May 31st puts of SPY 400 strike for 4.72. Because I work at night and sleep during the day, around 3am, ill often set a limit trade. This particular trade I set at 5.66, the 20% mark. I also set a price alert at the 10% mark, 5.19. Only yesterday, I discovered I could allow notifications from my trading app to go through my "do not disturb" status.

It only got to 9:31 am before I woke to the alert. The notification worked! 1 minute in and its down that much. The FOMO only took seconds to grow. I ran to my computer. My trading app was running, but it was sleeping. I frantically woke the computer. I was too late... the limit trade had activated. Sale price of 6.04. 27% gain. I was happy... but the regret began to grow the further I watched.

SPY continued to sink... As of writing this post, that contract sits at 11.25. Oh the gianz!

Yes, my exit strategy was successful. 27% is awesome. 138% would of definitely been awesomer.

I think now that I know the notifications are successful. Ill not set a working order while sleeping. Ill leave the alert so that I could wake up and watch it a little closer.

Here I sit watching the market further sink. I am resisting the urge to reenter. While I want more gainz, I know the moment I buy another contract the market will immediately do the opposite. Today strategy is take my gainz and run. Tomorrow is a new day.

Backstory, I trade within my ROTH IRA. A few years ago, I had the same amount of money in cash as I did in a mutual fund, so I decided every $6000 contribution I made would be split evenly. Half to the mutual and half to play with. My goal is to beat the mutual fund. Currently beating the fund by 45%.