August 23 - EOD

End of day in TNA... I was watching now and then as I did some work at my desk. I saw the big volume spike as TNA dropped at 3:35 pm and went long with two paper-trades. This felt like the right call but definitely not more than a scalp, considering the risk associated with trading against a strong trend. I felt the momo stop and got out just as the market turned back down. At some point, I hope to be able to trust my judgement that the move I'm in has completed and make a play the opposite way. It sure would have worked well here...

FYI - Did a "bonehead" move by clicking the MELI line on my trading platform when I was trying to go long on TNA at the 3:20 pm breakdown. I quickly got out for a 1 cent loss plus commissions. I thought I had TNA ready to go on the platform but hadn't even typed in the ticker yet! Because of this error, I missed my chance to play the 28 cent reversion to mean. It was a nice set-up: right after a long red candle coupled with increasing volume- not to mention I really love to scalp the retracement move when I see ramping volume accompanied by the candle ending at its low or high.

Focus, focus, focus...?!

With the inderstanding that some trade ideas should not be executed:

The bright white line at the 3:55 pm candle is the spot where I had a thought to go long... yikes! I was really not comfortable about it because of the prevailing downward trend and the end of day coming. I only marked the chart to see what would happen. I wonder if that is a sign that I'm polishing my self-discipline skills... or just dumb luck that I didn't take the "whim" trade that seems to punish me every now and then? I'll ponder that in a few minutes over a cold beer :-)

August 23

I just got back from a day-job appt. and found my MELI overnight trade in the money. I closed it out without regard for price, etc.

I intend to look at the markets for the rest of the day as I do some admin work for the day-job.

A couple of observations...

1. This trade was down at the open by roughly the same amount as it was up when I closed it out. Trusting one's instincts is important, but I wonder if this was walking the high-wire without a net. Had this been real-money, I wonder what my reaction would have been? Paper-trading IS different than real money in that sense. Although, on an overnight hold/ swing-trade, I would have mitigated risk with an appropriate position size.

2. I missed the ugly open, but I also missed the best pricing at the lows of the day just after a flood of short sellers got out en masse at 10:45 & 10:50. (The first wave of covering occurred at 10:20 am.)

3. The spread hurts on this stock, considering what I am used to practicing on: TNA, POT, MOS, etc.