Friday

Friday was interesting. Over my testing period I logged no losing days and this was my first...but with real money so I lost...$11 over three trades.

Trade one was not bad but I exited too soon for 38 cents. I don't mind exiting early at this point, I am still learning and better to exit positive early than turn it into a loss by holding.

Trade two was just plain wrong and I see now why I placed it and why I should not have placed it. I was losing the focus that I was working so hard on. My mental state was ready to place a trade to just be in. I had missed the key entry point and watched as the price dropped figuring to let it go until the next setup...I actually went short after a large move without real confirmation. Then, once in and seeing it was not a good trade I told myself to go for a breakeven and mentally called the exit but did not place the order and it would have been a very small profit...instead I rode it to a 30 cent loss.

Trade three was a non-loser...if you can count 11 cents a gain. I called it wrong, went long and held past the only peak. Once again I mentally called it as I would have while faking but held to see if I could squeeze more out of it.

So down $11 for the day. I stil met my daily average goal as I only traded three days and hit 3.6% but I would have liked to have cleared my weekly goal. I almost called it a day after trade one and would have. Got to listen to my gut.

Interestingly, had I been trading 200 shares instead of 100 it would have been an up day, if only by $8. Basically I gained but then lost due to the commissions.

Also worth noting, I am planning on trading 200 share lots after next week but had I been trading them all along I would be at 9% return so far. I will give myself one more week before bumping that up though. I need a little more confidence in my method.

The end result of the week has me learning more, which is the whole point right now.

Go with the gut for the exits
Don't try to "squeeze" anything, there is no control, only reaction
Trust the entries

I may start using market orders for the next week. I am finding that the tight limit order is just a little too restrictive as I make the call, place the order then do some juggling to get it filled. The trouble is that once I see a setup I wait for some confirmation and sometimes that includes a price move which puts me chasing the price a bit. I do not like to chase prices, better to have placed a market order if the spread is small.

Hmmm... maybe just limit orders with a wider price margin. A market is prone to getting a poor fill so at least a limit will keep me from getting tagged way out of the inside prices.

JD.