Reckoning With My Worst Trading Week In Months

It’s been another okay week for my August trading account. There’s still a good deal of opportunity out there, it’s just hard to find in between some of the chop. 

I unfortunately kicked off the week with one large red day that was mitigated by a string of decent wins amidst some rocky charts. All told, I closed out the week at around $50,000 in gross profits in my main trading account.

Although that represents a strong weekly finish by any metric, it’s also my lowest weekly performance in months. After weeks-upon-weeks of +$100,000 finishes and multiple days that saw me regularly surpassing $50,000, to just barely average $10,000 a day is a strong signal that something is changing in the market.

With fewer than 100 trading days left in 2020, it’s not too surprising to see some changes in the market. The fourth quarter is quickly approaching along with the typically-volatile autumn months that, this year, will also bring with them a presidential election in the U.S. And with the S&P 500 hitting new all-time highs, trading activity in the next four months promises to be interesting.

Hopefully, that volatility will help provide more directionality to the stocks we look at for day trading. That’s something I’ve bee struggling with in my swing trades on Tesla, Inc. TSLA and Netflix, Inc. NFLX, both of which are moving sideways at the moment.

I’m also looking for stronger follow-through on my day trades in the coming weeks and months, though that is somewhat harder to anticipate. Still, traditional market wisdom says that the fall months will bring increased volatility, and autumn has historically seen my strongest monthly performance.

For now, I’m going to try and make the most of what remains of August. However, if I keep seeing my weekly totals diminish and the number of red days continue to rise, I may need to reassess my strategy once September rolls in.