December 15

I sensed a great spot for a breakdown in TNA and took the paper-trade short around 12:20 pm. I was early and sat throught another 10-12 minutes of consolidation waiting for my trade idea to unfold. The delay made me "antsy" so I covered for a tiny gain. Too bad... I was in the infant stages of a teriffic breakdown, just as I had predicted. Emotion-fueled impatience ruined a nice trade. I made an attempt to target the reversal of the big move I missed and the entry was early, (wrong) so I used it as an opportunity to scale in knowing that the move was getting "stale" and a reversal would come. As the turn was made and the stock started going up, I scaled out at $69.42 with all but one full share which I held until after the 17 EMA cross. This was a bit early on the final exit, but I avoided holding through a pullback which brought price back down to my initial scaling-out area. As the minor trend I was playing came to an end, I shorted... once again a very nice entry but out too soon on a end-of-day drop; a drop which included enough downward pressure to include a nine cent gap down at 3:40-3:45 pm which didn't get closed. I got a nice scalp long at the end of that quick move down, exiting near the eventual closing price of the candle. I was done at that point and didn't participate in the final two candles of the day.

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Thoughts: My entries are getting better and my "gut feel" for momentum is improving, albeit slowly. I still have difficulty with patience, getting in and out far too soon in many instances. And, I still am lax about setting stops. This is my major mental/emotional hurdle to clear. I simply don't want to realize defeat on bad trade ideas; it believe it will be my last conquest in the struggle to become a live-account trader.

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I have day-job for most of today so it will be unlikely that I can practice-trade. If I do, it will be briefly.

Good luck to all!