The market continues to chug along nicely as breadth improves, with the indexes hitting the highs of the day. The action is still driven by stock picking in hot sectors, more than anything else right now, and it is accelerating in some areas like cannabis.
I'm reminded Tuesday how essential emotions and mindset are in navigating the action. I did an unusually high number of trades on Monday and had been pushing very hard to stay with the momentum since the first of the year. I'm not feeling as energetic now, and as a result, I'm missing out on some of the good trades I'd usually catch. The setups are there, but my emotional energy is missing, so I'm not taking some that I usually would have taken. The market may not need a rest, but I do.
It is important to be self-aware when you are trading. Success in the market has more to do with your emotions than anything else. If you are feeling a little off, the chances of a mistake are much higher. I'm not pressing good setups like I usually would, and I am better off embracing that than fighting it.
The best trading comes when you are emotionally in tune with the action. Monday I was firing on all cylinders, but I'm not feeling it to the same degree. There is still some stuff working very well, like Marathon Patent Group (MARA) , New Providence Acquisition Corp. (NPA) , GrowGeneration Corp. (GRWG) , Opendoor Technologies Inc. (OPEN) , Esports Entertainment Group (GMBL) , FuboTV (FUBO) , Applied UV (AUVI) , and Synchronoss Technologies (SNCR) , but I'm reluctant to put substantial new funds to work.
Sometimes when you aren't "feeling it," the inclination is to take a bearish posture. In my case, the market is fine, but I need a rest.
I'll be looking for some late-day buys again, but I'm not going to press as hard as I normally do when we have momentum this strong.