July 31st

I took two trades near the open of the market and scalped an easy $50 in my live account. I was out egregiously early on both however, capturing only 8.5% available to me on the first and 17% available to me on the second. Until I get a specific exit plan in place and until I can become more familiar with this style of trading, I will continue to try only for the easy money.

I moved to my paper-trade account thereafter and was relatively inactive with clicking the buy and sell. Mostly I was watching and mapping movement on the screen, looking for patterns or anomalies which might yield a clue to future movement. I was paying particular attention today to gap-ups and gap-downs between 5-min candles, especially where direction changes. I don't know if there is anything of note there yet. One stock tracked over one day can't yield a measurable trend.

This trek I've set out on sure does take patience. At times, I really feel like I am searching where I shouldn't be searching and probably tripping over what is crucial. One thing has not waned in the months I have been doing this and that is my desire. I still want it very badly. The cost is high though; opportunity costs are far greater than the money I've lost. Yet, here I sit faithfully while the markets are open and I think about the stocks when I am not sitting here.

I just have to keep the faith that I'll absorb it. To all of you who are where I am, I also say, "keep the faith."

-

4 for 6 winners for 67% success. Gain of $65 in 6.5 hrs of trading; $50 on 2 for 2 in 2 hrs of live trading and $15 in 4.5 hrs on 2 for 3 paper-trading.