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You know those afternoons where you feel the market shift under your feet?
I watched one unfold in real time recently, and it was a clinic on why you can’t just set a trade and walk away.
Everything looked great through the morning.
Redwire (RDW) was up 10%, silver positions gapped up with iShares Silver Trust (SLV), and the tape felt strong.
Multiple positions were pumping.
Then the afternoon session hit, and the mood changed fast…
I remember staring at the 1-minute chart thinking it looked like watching meteors fall.
The selling pressure was relentless.
Everything that was trying to pump up earlier started getting dragged down.
That visual stuck with me — how quickly momentum can flip when the wrong kind of volume shows up.
The Exit That Saved Me
Here’s the part I’m grateful for: I closed my SPX position on Wednesday, around 1 to 1:20 p.m. ET.
It was at the 6,940 and 6,945 strikes, and at the time, it felt like a disciplined take.
Nothing dramatic, just banking what the market gave me and stepping aside.
By the time the afternoon sell-off accelerated, if I had held that position, I would have been losing. Instead, I was flat and watching.
That’s not hindsight talking — that’s the benefit of managing by the clock and respecting intraday profit when it shows up.
Some positions dropped as much as 74% during the afternoon session.
Wild moves… The kind that makes you second-guess every decision if you’re caught on the wrong side.
Strategy And Staying Power
Even as things sold off hard, I kept perspective.
The positions I was still holding had longer expirations, so a rough afternoon wasn’t the end of the story.
That’s not blind optimism — it’s knowing your time horizon.
If you’re trading weeklies or 0DTE (zero days till expiration) contracts, an afternoon flush can wreck you.
If you’ve built in time, you can afford to let price action breathe without overreacting to every candle.
There’s also a cost angle many traders forget.
Hypothetically, you could just let a position expire worthless and save on the transaction costs.
Sometimes stepping back and letting time do the work is more efficient than constantly adjusting out of fear.
I even wondered aloud whether the gap from the morning would get filled during the same session.
It was that kind of day — fast, volatile and unforgiving if you weren’t paying attention.
The lesson here isn’t complicated…
Manage your exits before the market forces them.
To better trading,
Alex Reid
WealthPin
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*This is for informational and educational purposes only. There is inherent risk in trading, so trade at your own risk.
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