April 16th

Well, I covered my paper-trade position from yesterday's close with a gain of $1.14 per share. Missed up to an additional $7.00 per share by not sticking with the trade. (the trade was a 4x position, four buy-ins)

Glad to take the winner though, after two days of losses.

A day- job appointment at noon forces me to quit on the markets early today. If I can get back to my desk before closing, I will. But for now, the trading day is over.

Addendum: I was able to trade the last hour and twenty mintues of the day. I added 58.5 cents per share to my earler gains after a 9 for 13 success rate in the afternoon session. I really tried to focus on the momentum and on selling at the least sign of a trade moving against me... trying to use mental stops. This really worked...mostly, it gave me confidence to stay in slightly longer (I felt like I had "insurance.") I kept repeating to myself, "it only costs $5 to click sell" all the time I was in a trade.

12 for 17 winners, 71% success rate. Gain of $1.72 per share.

April 15th - tax day

Another tough day. Same deal as yesterday. One tough trade hurt my results; $2.16 trade loss on SKF at 1:00 pm brought what would have been a slight 37 cents gain on the day down to a $1.79 loss for the day.
In addition to other problems, my analysis after the close indicates I am trading far too much. Discipline is really what I need and is the hardest for me to attain. I still feel pretty good about my method. I am certain that at this point, self-control and patience are my stumbling blocks. This is not an overnight fix... I will not get discouraged. I will just keep plugging away until I can trade impassionately like a machine and not as a human being; one who races between joy and disgust, depending on how the day is progressing!
These are my first back to back losing days since February 24th - 25th. I don't like the trend!
For the record, one trade was a scratch and isn't counted in any way. I also am long SKF overnight as I could not exit the position in time for the close. That trade is not counted here.
Average win is $1.23 per share. Average loss is $3.94 per share. Ouch, that is a telling stat! And, even without that one really nasty loss, the average is still -$2.15 per share; double my average gain per trade.

24 for 36, a 67% win rate. -$1.79 per share loss.

April 14th

A tough day which did not have to happen. I'm going to work hard in this summary to find the good in a big losing day of paper-trading. I'll start with this. Except for one trade, I was actually up $1.60 per share. As happens from time to time, I found myself playing for a reversal on a big directional move... this time on GS. Volume level and price distance from the mean were signaling an entry... but, it was a "false positive" and the trade sped right away from me. I did the worst of all things... instead of selling (or reversing), I averaged onto the losing position. This is something which can REALLY sting you, and this was one of those times. It's bad enough to hold a loser like this for so long but the pain is compounded exponentially when one adds on to the loser as it moves away. I just continuously shake my head at my inability to correct this habit. All I can hope is that I will eventually learn to manage it. Truly, I don't think it is a fear or greed thing... I think it is a false sense of confidence in my method. It is correct often enough that I expect it to work all the time! Averaging in on a trade which is down can and often does, reward you with a gain, provided the reversal eventually comes, and comes in time! But, depending on the entry, you may not recover. I didn't... Enough said about that.
As I mentioned before, that one lousy trade made all the difference. I was up $1.60 without it, I had a 63% winning trade percentage without it. And, after the big loss, I was 7 for 12 with gains of $1.21 vs losses of only 35 cents per share.
So, there it is. The good and bad. It wasn't enough to leave me negative for the month.
I'll just continue to practice until I can get my head right... I have a reasonably good feeling about my trading method, I just need to work on the mental discipline.

22 for 36, a 61% win rate. Loss of -$4.37 per share.