November 19th

Like yesterday, I was in the office briefly between day-job appts. and took a practice trade short in TNA and had a very similar result as yesterday. That is to say, it stop-limited out automatically while I was away. It was a short just prior to a pull back but it was not the drop I was looking for.

When I returned to the office, I traded manually(?) and took a short that proceeded to give me a small gain. I was out a bit early but the stock did reverse and head up so I made a good choice. At EOD, I shorted again, sat through a slight move up that didn't trigger a stop, then got the drop I had anticipated and covered in the last 30 seconds of the session for a winner. Positive for the day in my practice trading.

One thing for sure, this works much better when one is present to actually perform the trading. duh!

November 18 - Set it & Forget it

I stopped in to the office for just a minute to reload with supplies for the day job project I was working and turned on the markets. TNA looked like it was topping out and was ready to roll over for the day. I decided to take it short, set an automatic stop just above the HOD, and go back to my duties. It seems that TNA had just a bit more life in it before turning over for the day. I got stopped out for a loss on a price that turned out to be quite close to the HOD in relation to the amount of the climb from Wednesday's close. My sense that the charts were signalling weakness was reasonably good... Sometimes there's wrong, but sometimes there's early right. Both are wrong but one is more wrong than the other. :-) ...How's that for a rationalization?

It has been my goal for a long time to grow accustomed to taking losses; it is the next step in my development. I am thrilled at taking the loss in this manner. I gave up control in two ways... a) I took a trade and walked away b) I set the stop and didn't move it, didn't cancel it, and didn't fret over the loss.

Taking more losses is something I am going to work on as I go forward. It is crucial to good trade management and it will sharpen my entry skills, if I want to improve my win percentage.

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With regard to the trade itself, it was folly to see a chart for two-three minutes, take a trade counter trend on a huge trend day then walk away. But when there has been a tremendous move in one direction with barely any chart reversal, it only makes sense that those who have been sitting on unrealized gains will want to lock them in. The markets turned in the candle just after I stopped out and as I write this on Friday morning, the futures are pointing down.

The markets undulate and we as traders in training must learn the patterns of that up and down movement while trying not to get "faked out of our shoes" by those who are smarter and more experienced.