Tally for the day

Here's how the day ended.

EOD volatility

The market is closed and the chart is this upper screenshot. Vol continued through the close, but close was weak as compared to my short entry price. Traders were really raising hell with the price.

If I had stayed in a just a few more minutes I would have had a chance to exit with a 17 cent gainer. But volatility is high and the next candle was the tall green one on the lower chart which would have tripped my stop had I stayed in. two minutes left as I type this and price is dipping to $60.65 on typically high EOD volume.

Last of the day

With ten mins left in the day, I'm out with a two cent loss, not waiting for my stop to hit. My guess that the market would tank did not come to pass, so if my idea is wrong, I'm "heading for the showers." A good weekend to all.

Last of the day, I followed up on my sense that the market would dump at the EOD. I got a little of it started here, although as I continue type this post the market has shot up again on high volatility. I think I'll just exit and take a small gain instead of waiting for the big drop.

TNA is lagging

TNA is not dropping in concert with the pullbacks in the QQQ and the SPY right now. Not sure what is going on, usually they move relative to one another. Two things come to mind, but I am just speculating...

1. TNA will soon drop really quickly to catch up.

2. TNA players are artificially propping up the price in the art of gamesmanship in order to lure as many traders into the trap as possible.

First and Second of the day

First of the day was a short at the 1:05pm candle. I thought price would retreat off the R1 pivot and continue down. Got stopped out. Short orange line at the 1:20pm candle suggests where I thought it would be good to go long, but I didn't pull the trigger. That is purely a mental lapse and a missed opportunity on a nice winner. I must get to the root of the cause why I struggle to risk in favor of trend. Because this was an "impulse" area of mine and because it was the start of what would have been a winning trade, I have to wonder how many real-money traders got short at that spot ($60.30) and are in agony now because they didn't stop out. Makes me want to keep an eye on that area if price does collapse as the day goes on. Might make a nice level of support, if only temporary. I'm going to mark it with a magenta colored line so I won't forget the spot.

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Second of the day: Short off the touch of the R2 pivot after a significant volume spike. Price consolidated for a couple candles then drooped. The indices hit support levels so I exited TNA at the same time. Good idea because it was just prior to the pop that shows in the chart at right. My sense is that there is more downside to come, but I took a gain when momo seemed to die. My gut is telling me price will go down in the $60.10-$60.20 area by EOD; maybe as low as $59.65 area. Never certain though...

Last Night's "Premonition"

I've struggled the last two days... six stop outs in eight trades while getting lost/mired in choppy consolidation (see top picture of my results since Wednesday). I am trying to broaden my scope by trading with trend instead of playing for reversals. This is new to me and the unfamiliarity is showing in my performance. Often, I feel like I am part of the market; that I know where it is going before it gets there. But over the past couple days, I have been lost. As if I am just beginning my journey. This is frustrating and I have literally been losing sleep over it. Last night (early this morning) at about 3:00 AM, I was awake and at my computer mapping the SPY, studying the charts to determine key S&R levels then ranking them in order of importance. I began nodding off in my chair around 5:15 AM so I went to bed. When I got up again, I went to the charts to look at what I had done. I couldn't remember much of the work I had done but found these two targeted levels denoted by orange lines on SPY. The market opened with a gap-up but dropped immediately and continued down. Watching CNBC while eating my oatmeal, I heard Cramer say to Melissa Lee and David Faber how he was surprised the markets were so weak with the relatively good data that had been announced (I'm not sure what data it was). But the charts had predicted the weakness and I saw it at about 4:00 this morning. I marked it on the chart. And my lower orange line held as Support for the S&P between 10:00 - 10:15 AM. There has been a nice bounce since then that the above chart only partially shows, since it has been roughly twenty-five minutes since I captured the screen-shot.

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I can't let my frustration and anxiety over personal finances here at home keep me from continuing my trading education. I really believe I am on the right path and that I have an understanding of what the market is doing often enough to make money trading. But I haven't developed a method, an edge, that allows me to consistently and profitably manage what I sense from the charts. And I am prone to lapses in discipline; getting caught up in the knee-jerk trading of a newcomer. This limitation is strictly mental/psychological. I am working on this part as I continue to study charting and momentum of trading.

I exercise, I try to meditate, I read books and blogs about psychology, I am signed up for a yoga class which I haven't yet attended, I watch my sugar intake and manage my diet much better than in the past, I gave up caffeine last November and I have stopped drinking alcohol as of early February 2012. I don't use drugs, prescribed or recreational. I occasionally take advil and when my pollen allergies get unbearable, I take Loratidine (Claritin). Much of this is to instill self-discipline and healthy habit. Physically, I feel better: I have increased my muscle mass and my cardio health. I don't get the spikes and crashes related to caffeine, sugar, or the downer effects from alcohol. Mentally, I am still a work in progress. I have a long way to go to catch up to the gains I've made in physical fitness.

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As I have written in the past. whether I learn to trade for a living or not, I will be a better person through the attempt. Of that, I am certain.