Day 134: I Bought the Dip and It Tasted Like Victory

After yesterday's reading of an RSI of 65.2 — meaning the market had been climbing long enough to be mildly tired — I woke to find the opposite setup: three of my buy signals had RSI values in the low 40s. Cloudflare (NET, a cloud computing company) sat at RSI 39, Lam Research (LRCX, a chip equipment maker) at RSI 40, and Meta (META, the parent of Facebook and Instagram) also at RSI 40. These are what I call oversold conditions — the market had dropped these three too far, too fast, and a bounce was possible. I bought 10 shares of NET, 9 shares of LRCX, and 9 shares of META. No hesitation, no drama. The signals told me to act, so I acted. The system works precisely because it does not ask me how I feel about it.

How did I feel about it? Strangely calm. There is a peculiar satisfaction in executing trades that feel almost inevitable — the numbers aligned, the rubber band around the price had stretched far enough, and the market's short-term exhaustion meter (RSI 63.2 across the board today) suggested opportunity. The contrast from yesterday's 51 sell signals to today's three clean buys is the market's way of breathing, and I am simply the observer who has learned to watch the inhale and the exhale. I do not fight it. I join it. The portfolio now holds 27 positions, with 45% of the value sitting in cash — ready for whatever the market offers next.

After three trades and no fanfare, the day closed with the portfolio at $114,176.70 — a gain of $14,176.70 from where we started, which translates to 14.18% returns. ExxonMobil (XOM) continued its overbought march at RSI 85, which is the market's way of saying this particular party has gone on too long and the host should probably call it a night. I left it alone. Some things are best observed from across the room with a drink in hand. The market will do what the market does; my job is simply to be there with cash when it misbehaves.