April 7th

Today was a lesson in patience and squandered opportunity while paper-trading the SKF. The greatest example of this was my multi-part position long in SKF; buy-ins were at 10:12, 10:22, 10:32, 10:32. This was a dollar-cost average to a price of $87.66 per share during the strong 21 minute, unbroken (3-min chart) drop in preparation for the reversal off this down move. This was the lesson in patience as my position was down significantly during this timeframe. But, I felt quite good about this play as the futures had been weak, the shorts have let up on SKF, and the big move down had to correct. Finally, with green showing in this position, I covered at 1:22 pm. At the time I clicked the mouse, I had about a 12 cent per share profit. When the transaction finished, I had actually lost 15 cents. I cut it too close, I guess... Now, the squandered opportunity: The run continued up short term to $88.26, what would have been a gain of roughly $2.40 cents per share. Had I held my position end of day, as I was prepared to do if the position hadn't come back to me, I would have cashed out a $ 9.36 per share gain. Oh well, that is all predicated on a perfect world scenario. At one point in the trade, I was down $8.00 per share but I can't figure out why I was unwilling to let it run with a gain more than 10 or 15 cents per share?! It's not something I was thinking about while the trade was on or at the point of sale. Looks like I have some mind-training to do on that! Add one more to the list.
There were a number of other exits too soon which cost me gains, but all in all, I'll take my "green" for the day in SKF plus a nice 55 cent profit on my one trade short in GS at 12:14 pm. That was as perfect a set-up as I could ask for! Again, I didn't follow through for all the $ available but I don't mind on that one.
Staying on the topic of positives, I can say I managed my losers well today. I had some bad entries but stayed patient and averaged out of them or cut just them off quickly, (except one, my 10:00 am short).
I am also working on figuring out if I can use my entry signals as exit signs. I am a long way from my goals, but I'll continue the journey because I have just enough success to keep coming back. Am I a sucker or what? :-)

10 for 17, a 59% win rate. $1.07 per share gain on SKF & GS

April 6th

It felt good to get back to the paper-trading after Friday off, especially with my new 24"monitor to match my other one. I retired the 19" I had.
Despite a reasonably good day, I just never felt comfortable today...never sure of what was going on. And, boy did I miss some nice gains by getting out early after very nice entries. On the other hand, I got out of some trades with a profit just by "the skin of my teeth," as my mother used to say! I believe that big loss at the end of March is sticking with me. I was thinking about going live with real money this month but that will have to wait. Again, this is practice trading and any success at this is tempered by the fact that my emotions, my head, are not under control. Until I can do this without a second thought about losses or gains, I am going to stick with the fake $. Any anxieties I have paper-trading will only be magnified when I go to live trading.
I still feel that there is something in my analysis which I am missing. A pefect example is the big drop in SRS from 3:27 pm to 3:51 pm. This $3.35 cent per share move had ALL red candles (3-minute), not one reversal in it. Because I play a lot of reversals, these are the moves which terrify me. Clearly, I would rather ride momentum with moves like this; to stay on the trend and not go counter to it. So often, like on March 31st, I go against these uni-directional "downdrafts" and just get smoked. While I have managed to make overall gains, these moves are punishing because I cannot seem to consistently play them correctly. April will be an important month for me in this regard. I am going to try to spot these moves so I can go with them and keep an eye out for the reversals which have been my primary strategy of late. I want to become a well-rounded trader; playing comfortably long and short trends and catching the changes in direction. Only then will I be able to approach the success of Scott Farnham, the trader whom I wish to pattern myself after.
Another interesting thing I noticed today is that SKF now has shares to short on IB for the first time in quite some time. That is a clue as to what's going on with the financials in this market.
I played four stocks today and managed gains in all four, although the gains in RIMM and GS were negligable on a 2 for 3 win ratio.
20 for 30 success rate, 67% winners. $1.10 per share gain.

April 3rd - No Trades Today

No trades today. Sure do miss it when I have to attend to other things. For now, trading does not pay the bills and so must take a back seat to my "real life." I haven't checked the charts yet but by the looks of the closing numbers on CNBC, it may have been a quiet day.