February 18th the balance of the trader's lament

Other than this morning's shenanigans I have no real excuse for not making the trades that I will be outlining here. I called each one of them cold but failed to press the order button. I believe that I am suffering from a form of trading fear, which is odd as I have typically not had any trouble making trades...even in cases where I KNOW that I will expect a loss if not just a very high probability of one. I have blown through $100s of dollars in a day to test theories, order execution, my willingness to take a loss so I know that I can take a loss.

So I must suffer from a fear of PROFITS!

Go figure. I wonder if they have a phobia name for that kind of fear.

So, the morning chart, I will skip the HGU and HGD charts as they track well and make no real difference in the interpretation...other than the drop in price is a gain in price on the HGD, being the bear fund.
First blue circle: teh morning's shenanigans, I dropped a box here to represent an HGD trade that I would have entered but I will leave it off of any calculations. The next circle was my "not quite PP entry". Given the pattern here I was thinking about buying HGD at the peak to catch the drop that I figured was coming...that one was just a thought though as it didn't really follow my PP200 plan.

After the price fails to remain below the S1 line, I watched as it climbed back up, then tested the S1 at about 1020h...order was set, finger on the button...AEM was at a support point as well so it was a good confirmation...I just didn't order. My "non order" is the first green rectangle representing my entry at the bottom and my exit at the top. The second rectangle was exactly the same story...everything was a go including the good ol' finger on the trigger...

The 200sma as resistance (green sma line) was a perfect setup, as perfect and predictable as they come. AEM was also hitting it's respective 200sma, both HGU and HGD were doing the same...although they are usually close to in line with the index.... then the small bounce off the dashed S1+1/2. Even since there are two more medium sized trades that setup but I have just closed down my trading platform for the day.

The "trades":

Buy $14.50 Sell $14.90 Gain 40 cents ps Return 2.7%
Buy $14.93 Sell $15.17 Gain 24 cents ps Return 21.6%
Buy $7.56 Sell $7.70 Gain 14 cents ps Return 1.8%
Buy $14.96 Sell $15.00 Gain 4 cents ps Return 0.2%

$144 net gain overall or 3.6% overall return on $4000 portfolio.

Had I taken the first two trades, even given the odd moves, another 42 cents per share...or another $144 net was on the table. I might have stopped trading after those two alone, or at least after the listed trades.

Now I just have to work on my order entry, perhaps glue a 1/4 inch extension on my order button finger so when I hover and think "order" I will hit the button by mistake.

Jeff.