March 30th

The end of March is almost here and I'm really feeling more confident about paper-trading in this style. I'll have a chance to be at the computer tomorrow as well but I'll be back to the day-job for Wed, April Fools Day.

Nothing really to remark about today, except that I was getting some mis-timed entries and had the discipline to double-down on the trade on four occasions, with all but one of these situations resulting in a gain. Patience is difficult to find when one is down $1.60 per share but I found a way to fight through the urge to "cut and run" and it paid off, for the most part. Discipline, refinement, and patience. These are the things which are my focus right now; necesary to a successful career as a trader.

If I can figure out how, I will do some re-caps and add them to the margin of my blog. Maybe a week-end project...

12 for 13 winners, a 92% success rate. $1.83 per share gain

thought...

"Thrift and self-control are not sought because they create wealth, but because they create character." - Calvin Coolidge

March 27th

My morning day-job appt was a bust so I had a chance to sit in front of the mkt for the entire day and I truly enjoyed getting back to paper-trading. Not a bad day for me, had some early success with my first four trades, averaged my buy price down on the next two but bailed out on them too early; both went on to what would have been nice gains. I find that when I double-down for a better price, I often try to escape with a modest gain, even though my gut, experience, and action of doubling up indicate a nice run is expected. It is a curious habit and proves that fear is alive and well inside my head. I've done it about 6 or 8 times over the past weeks and each time escaped with a very small gain or a small loss. The fills are hit or miss for profits on the sale even though I always show a gain when I pull the trigger. I must condition myself to wait and trust my "gut."
The rest of the day was quite fun and I was in early on a number of nice moves but bailed early; decent gains but fairly small ppercentages of the entire move. This is something I must fix but it is a great problem to have, as problems go; I won't beat myself up too badly. I just looked over at my SKF chart as I'm typing and saw a great entry... at the 3:00 pm candle, but I am done for the day. Yup, over a dollar per share available so far on that move... it appears I quit too soon!

13 for 19 winners; a 68% success rate. $2.62 per share gain.