POD Stuff w/e October 24th, 2025...

Let’s get everyone caught up.  The last time I posted anything was October 4^th in the #GTMI Forum. Why no recent posts Wayne? Wix ($WIX), my website provider, decided to do away with the “FORUM” application.  That means the #GTMI Forum is no more!  You can still see all the categories and posts until some date in March of 2026 when the entire thing will be deleted by them.  Why did they do this?  No idea, and I have not seen a single Wix user happy about it.  The alternative to the Forum is what you see on the website called “#GTMI Groups”.  This is what "they" think can/should replace the Forum.  Well, it completely sucks for numerous reasons.  It’s simply not usable.  I looked around for other alternatives, but I haven’t found anything I like yet.  So, I’ve just decided to use the BLOG portion of my website for all the POD posts going forward.  It's not ideal but better than groups!  Keep in mind I haven’t used the blog since March of 2020, so expect some glitches. Oh and that's why if you're getting this in an email that's unexpected and/or unwanted, it's because YOU signed up for my blog as some point. I'm not spamming you. You asked for it. You can simply unsubscribe. Any questions on this, please let me know!

Now that’s out of the way, let’s get caught up.  How have things been since October 3^rd? Honestly, rough.  Downright tough.  NOT my favorite trading environment at all.  

Here’s the data (remember, this is based on risking only $100 per trade):

As you can see, this past week was especially sucky.  To put this week into perspective, here's the data just for it:

As you can see, that's just awful.

So, what should we do?  How should we move forward?  What changes should be made?

First, let’s not overreact.  Things aren’t THAT bad.  And I suggest most that REALLY struggled lately did so because they went off the rails and did a bunch of stupid stuff on their own that's not presented in the tracker.

Again, don’t OVERREACT. But there are some SMALL suggestions and opportunities seen in the data:

The data suggests staying away from or at least cutting your size down on anything that’s #TFTF.  We just haven’t been seeing a lot of follow-through (aka “R”) in general, so if a stock has already made a big move quickly to get to the entry, buyers are likely to be exhausted.  Consider waiting for that 2^nd mouse or again at least cut the size back.

This also suggests sticking to the stocks that are truly in play.  I know we often debate what exactly this means and applying the process to the RHFs complicates things a bit more. It’s not always black or white.  If a stock is in that gray area, ask about it and we’ll discuss.  In short, the stock needs to have fresh news and the relative volume to back it up!  When the market is in a strong uptrend and everything is going higher, you can get away with trading something that was in play 3-5++ days ago.   We’re chopping sideways right now.  Stocks aren’t just melting up.  Plus, many of the daily charts aren’t exactly bullish right now which is going to add more pressure.

And third, the data suggests staying away from the "R#29 on the daily" stocks.  The reason for this is just like the TFTF intraday issue.  Buyers are exhausted.  Markets are sitting up at all-time highs.  Most are expecting some sort of correction at some point which we almost got a bit ago but nope…  There's a bit of fear out there and traders aren't chasing upside shape as much

In general, when buying something, ask yourself who’s going to buy it AFTER YOU?  Is everyone going to be selling and taking profits from the larger move that already happened? Don't be the one providing their exit liquidity.

Finally, on this topic, let’s just be more selective.  Get back to the basics and stick to the "super-duper clean ones" that check most of the boxes.  And in a slower market, we’re not going to be able to find a lot of those, so be patient and don’t force trades. 

Here’s a bit more info on how the past weeks have played out:

And to wrap up this week's post, the raw results of the poll from THIS week:

What was your largest mistake this week?

• Missed a bunch of singles

• Going on TILT one day and loosing way more than I should have.

• few rogue trades that cost me.

• letting stops get away from me

• no large mistakes .. didn't honor my give back budget one day as much as I had planned

• Got caught in a couple of flushes on Wednesday. Need to be more aware of “real” risk.

• getting a little frisky in AHs with a little too much size and gave a little back a couple days in a row...

• nothing really,

• Not seeing changes in market fast enough

The best lesson I learned in the POD this week:

• set the alerts

• I should walk away once I'm up. I need to figure out what "up" really means

• tighten up the wigs

• we all struggle with the same things once in awhile

• Nothing new, just reinforement of what I already know to be true.

• wasnt around enough to hear the good lessons unfortunately.

• See changes in mkt and size accordingly

The biggest thing I'm going to do differently next week:

• Do a better job with give back budget.

• sell early sell often unless news dictates otherwise

• nothing

• Trade smaller until I have a week of green days.

• keep trying to focus more and take the trades i like

• keep fine tuning.

• Trade more

Things are a bit bumpy and rough right now.  Stick to the process.  Don’t do rogue stuff and make it even worse.  This action will pass.  When?  No clue.  But when it does, remember THE big lesson to come out of times like this.  When the market decides to make things less hard again, that’s when we swing the bat even harder and make up for the slower times.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!