New Month, New Market: Resetting For September

Even though it’s a shortened trading week in the States thanks to the Labor Day holiday, the first days of September have felt like a fresh start. That might be a good or bad thing depending on how you frame it since I did have a loss that ended an 11-day green streak, though it wasn’t excessive.

Overall, this week has felt like a clean slate, and my accuracy and profit/loss ratio are right in line with my typical performance. As it stands, I’m averaging a little over my $2,000/day goal. While that means I might be short my weekly $10,000 goal (again, given the short week) I’m feeling pretty comfortable with what I’ve been seeing on the opens this week.

I started Tuesday strong with a single trade in Eltek Ltd. (NASDAQ: ELTK) for about $2,800 I followed that up with a couple of winners and one loser on Wednesday for a total of $6,600. Finally, Thursday had me shave off my profits by my -$5,000 max-loss limit in some mis-timed trades in OpGen Inc. (NASDAQ: OPGN). 

That last one was disappointing since, had I been a bit more diligent in reviewing OPGN’s bid/ask spread I would have been less aggressive in my initial position, or I might have avoided the trade completely.

Despite that last hiccup, I’m feeling comfortable about these first days of the month. Part of that comfort is due to what I mentioned last week about the psychological shift that comes in transitions between months (seasons, quarters, years, etc.). 

However, I also chalk the feeling up to my practice of cashing out most of the profits in my trading account at the start of the month. This helps me reset for a month and keeps my trading consistent, since—if I kept adding $40,000, $60,000, $80,000 to my account every month—I might get a little reckless with my buying power by the time fall rolls around. 

Of course, following August’s strong conclusion, I did leave a little extra gas in the tank. Hopefully, I’ll be able to make the most of it in the remaining weeks of September.

Warrior Trading is a content partner of Benzinga.