August 5th

I must go out to a day-job appt so I'll post and leave. A bit of summary to follow later. I went from the doldrums today to finishing on a high note. Some days, training for stock trading is a mental roller-coaster. I can only hope there will be a day where it is no more than just a boring session at work. My dream... my goal.

Addendum:

Made one stupid move without really thinking about what I've learned... I bought AIG long at the hod in an extended, over-bought condition after a huge rush of volume (all signals of probable reversal). I did this by going to the chart for the first time of the day, seeing the run it had and getting "gold fever," and counting on a continuation. All these decisions in about 5-10 seconds. No thought whatsoever... just looked at the price chart and clicked buy... like I said, stupid. I held onto the trade and dumped it for $20 loss as it retested the hod a while later.

Toward end of day, I got my wits about me and started to use some of what I've learned. I added to a long position in SKF once it showed momo; did this at the same price of the original entry made earlier and got some extra gains as it went up. I did sell too soon per usual, on this trade and the following trade; both had nice entries but I had no sense of an exit designed to maximize profit. I think the answer is to use the same signals which make for good entries as a means of identifying good exits then wait for the turn to take place to get out(?)... it's hard to say for sure. I'm still trying to figure it out.

I took a small bite out of AIG at 3:40-ish as it was rising. Picked up 16 cents gain there, again selling too early missing an additional 32 cent rise in the move.

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5 for 7, a 71 % win rate. gain of $136 in 6.5 hours of paper-trading.