It was nice to get back on the computer and what a day to be active. I was definitely out of sync with the market, getting off to a horrible start with my first two trades; down $3.89 per share between 10:15 and 10:34 am. It is clear that time away from scalping softens the reflexes and the judgement.
I then went on a recovery streak of 13 for 15 winners; standing then at + 1.71 cents per share (reversal of $5.60 per share)
All for naught... the next two trades were like my first two of the day and I was down again... this time by -$2.17! The SKF, my only trading vehicle for the day, moves exceptionally fast at these levels and can turn on you sharply. There is no excuse when I am "scalping" to allow a loss of over a dollar per share. Simply no excuse. I am NOT trading the ETF, I am scalping it. Gotta be sharp and gotta be quick.
Next four were winners, then it got really ugly; five straight losers totalling - $5.07. If I were trading 1000 share lots, that's 5 losing trades and -$5070 gone. I found myself chasing here...indecision and chasing. Not focusing! By this time, the SKF was up huge on the day and it was just in a chop pattern and that was part of the problem. I was staring at trees and missing the forest. No definitive movement. I made another trade for a gain of .90 cents then shorted the SKF with a longer view in mind. It just felt too over bought here at 1:44 pm. I held on and did some chart study with the IB program minimized to avoid more overtrading. At 2:34 pm, I maximized my IB and OH MY... the bottom had fallen out of SKF and my short was up +$6.29! I quickly covered, having missed the bottom by a significant amount... the absolute botton of this move would have given me about $10.00 per share gain!!!
I went on to make many other trades but none of this impact, even though the reversal back up formed a perfect "Vee," and would have doubled that big gain. I decided to play small ball from her on out and finished the day at +$1.44 per share.
After my week-long absence, I was shooting for active, trial by fire trading today. And what a ride I got. One thing is certain, I am not ready for my real money account... despite my net gain.
30 winners out of 47 trades, a 64% success rate. Net gain = $1.44 per share.
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