Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Daily Summary

10200 shares
-473

Today was ugly. Out of all my trades I only made $20 and the rest were losses. I lost $200 going long and over $200 going short. I wished I had taken the day off instead.

After yesterday's huge reversal, I had a feeling it would be tough to go short or long today. I started out with a small loss of around 80 bucks. I did not see any good setups or have any conviction in my trades. I slowly racked up my losses. As my losses increased I wanted to make them back and my mentality changed. Instead of waiting for good setups I got desperate and took sloppy trades.

I will probably cut down my size to 100 shares tomorrow or take a day off. Just when I am gaining some confidence I get slapped down again. I was making money when the market was trending up but there's a change today.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

it's really a tough day…

Dinosaur Trader said...

Dead on about that midday psychology shift... well put.

-DT

JF David said...

I've just not consider direction of the market today. Have 2 nice long on COG and being about even in my 3 shorts. No big idea now where the market is going (up or down) maybe sideway and more choppyness in the coming days.

About Me

I have been trading for 5 years. It took close to a year before I became profitable. I find that I am improving gradually each year. My method of choice is scalping. My edge lies in tape reading NYSE stocks and staying on the side of the specialist. That is the method I learned when I started. As I build up my capital I will try new styles and trade new markets. In late 2006 my trading hit a rough patch after the introduction of the NYSE Hybrid system. For most of 2007, I have been on a search for new strategies that would help me adapt to the market.