I left my job five years ago to pursue something new and fresh. The part of my job I liked best was working through Excel sheets and analyzing data. The natural progression was to study data science. But I needed to learn how to code. So you know what I did? I learned how to code.
I played around with data science courses and eventually moved on to more complex projects using machine learning. Armed with my newfound knowledge, I was ready to tackle a long-time passion: the stock market.
I began trading stock options in September 2018 and had varying degrees of success over the months. Three of my first four months were winning months. I followed risk management and discipline.
But I wasn’t making enough money. So I got really aggressive. I was heavily short in December 2018. If you were around then, you know what happened next: the stock market sold off sharply into Christmas Eve. I made $12,000 in one week. That was staggering money to money.
I never made that much in a month. Now I made that much in a week.
–
They say one of the worst things to happen to a new trader is getting a big win early on. That’s because your future expectations become anchored to this, regardless of whether your windfall was due to actual skill or dumb luck.
That’s what happened to me. In the next several months, I lost $20,000. That initial gain was gone. That and half of my account. This is a lot harder than I thought…
To be continued…
Stoic Trader 