"A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits."

Monday, August 10, 2009

August 10th


It didn't go too badly today but the gains were small. I still find that I am not buying the breakouts and breakdowns but rather, am buying reversals and trying to hold them as long as I feel is right. This is a mode of thinking that often excludes me from the biggest moves. I have to learn to identify more entry opportunites and not wait for the one or two familiar entries I have. Also some patience wouldn't hurt. I missed the breakout in GENZ late in the day because it was just trading in a small channel causing me to abandon it. I felt it was going to do something but I was looking for greener pastures... Speaking of patience, I am still in scalper mode. this is really not the type of trading I am trying to achieve. My largest gain today was only 9 cents (on a full 1000 share position). The next best was also 9 cents but with a half-position of 500 shares. I will study my entries and exits later and see if more was available. As mentioned earlier, my preference for playing reversals of direction may be a limiting factor in this.
Had one scratch trade and three others that were essentially scratches. I wanted to play conservatively and not take losses on stops when I recognized that I was in questionable trades. ONe trade did go to stop-loss and I exited minus $35. A bad decision at end of day on GENZ... I let it run past my stop while talking with my wife who had just come in from work. It moved pretty quickly... the stop loss was about 50% larger than I had planned.
The next two days are busy with Day-Job so likely no trading until later in the week.
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7 for 9 winners, a 78% success rate. Gain of $82 in 6.5 hrs of paper-trading. One scratch trade not counted.

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