June 2nd

My day of paper-trading was one where I could not focus solely on the stocks because of more pressing things related to the day-job. I have let many of my administrative tasks lapse in favor of the markets and today I tried to do both to get caught up. I didn't do too badly considering my broken attention. The SKF was not moving very much today... the day range and the momo was not great based on other days. I t sure has changed from the month of March when I was just getting into trading the ETF's. Of course, sustained volatility like that only comes around every so often. I have a feeling that trading in the future will resemble more of what we see now as opposed to then, or even less movement/volatility. September 2008 through March 2009 was very unusual, for sure. Today and probably days in the future are indicators that I may have to go back to searching for ADR stocks rather than just being able to count on certain ones to move every day. Not sure about that, but my gut tells me it might be that way. Relying on movement in the financials and their ETF's have made trading so much easier in that no scans or searches have been necessary. Just punch up the SKF, SRS, FAZ,FAS, etc and go to work! We'll just have to see what the future holds. I really don't have much experience in the quieter market times to compare to. I know one thing, I'd really like to see the VIX above forty for the rest of my trading life! As for today, I had some good entries and I seemed to gauge direction fairly well. I just didn't stay with my trades long enough. Same old issue for me. I'm at the point where I'm ready to just take the chance that all my trades might stop out rather than take quick gains. It seems that many of the trades, if I were to let the trend develop, would offset the losers I would take getting stopped out on the trades where I normally take quick gains. I'm going to take a closer look at todays exits and measure them against the eventual reversal to see how much I gave up today. I'll post it if it is noteworthy.

7 for 7 winners, a 100% success rate. Gain of $366 in 4 hours of "inattentive" trading.

June 1st

Friday's open postions went from bad to worse... I simply closed them out when I got back to the office. The experiment to see what my broker would do to sell positions from my

account when exceeding margin and by how much wasn't even successful as IB did not liquidate any more shares after the two small forced sales on Friday. I did get an email from them however, but nothing more. So, it was a bust all around as a learning tool. So, I'm starting the month off on a losing note but it is all for education. Needless to say, I would not have let this happen with real money. I had a chance to make a few small trades after clearing my account of the open SKF and GS. All three for winners with a gain of $323 on them. Those aren't going to show up very well against the -$13,534 loss... Ha!

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3 for 5 winners; a 60% success rate. Down -$13,211 in 30 mins of trading (closed open positions)

May Recap

MAY TOTALS:
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Gain: $4981, net of commissions
Trades: 90 for 134; 67% winners
Ave gain per day traded: $356
Ave gain per hour traded: $150
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Days traded in May: 14 out of 20; 70%
Days traded with a gain: 13 out of 14; 93%
Days traded with a loss: 1 out of 14; 7%
Hours traded in May: 33.25 out of 130; 26%
Largest daily loss: -$5930 on May 18th (only day with a loss)
Smallest daily loss: *see above
Largest daily gain: $2995 on May 28th
Smallest daily gain: $190 on May 14th (the day with the least time spent trading: 1/2 hour)
Most active day: 17 for 30 on May 19th ( the only day I traded the full 6.5 hour session)
Least active day: 2 for 2 on May 26th
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Notable:
My time in front of the market seemed to shrink this month as day-job got busier. Because of this, I'm now tracking hours spent in the market as well as days to give me a feel for my efficiency as well as what the time commitment of my practice trading really is. My number of trades is down also, partly because of less time in themarkets but also because of more patience and discipline in my entries. This is a very positive change in behavior and the one thing this month of which I am happiest. There are still some "flunky" moves, of course.
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My average daily gain is down again this month, in part because I have been spending less time trading in the days which I can get into the market. I was in the market only 2.5 hours or fewer in 11 of the 14 days I traded. By the stats, with a 67% win rate and only one losing day all month, less time in the markets means less overall gains from missed opportunity. Day-job is at fault...
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With only one losing day all month, my gains should have been much bigger. Same old story as prior months... one or two really nasty losing days can offset a relatively high success rate of wins to losses. I'm hoping that becoming militant about setting stops will produce better results in June and beyond. I'm not ready to be a real trader until I can set stops and mitigate losses effectively.
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I have calculated the monthly stats in dollars rather than cents per share, although much of the month was not originally measured in dollars. This is the progression toward trading real cash.
Also part way into this month, I switched to measuring wins and losses by the cumulative position and not by the individual trades which make up each position. As such, the monthly stats are not precise.
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Overall: I am improving as time goes forward and I am happy about many parts of my practice trading. I am MUCH more comfortable getting in and out of trades and often find myself not looking at my gains and losses at all, just price and volume. I find I rarely get emotional about the various trades I put on. Mostly, I am just analytical about my activities in the market.
In mid-May, I decided to commit to trend trading and to wean myself from the practice of adding to losers to average a better overall price. This requires a concerted effort to use stops. My frustration with this change is exhibited on May 18th, my only losing day. It was a bad session as I tried this new approach for the first time and got chopped to bits after repeated hits on my stops. The next day May 17th was a tough one managing stops also although I scraped together a $770 gain. I fear it will take some time to master this new method...partly because I am so strongly compelled to revert back to my old trading style of averaging down by adding to losing positions. (like today for example)
Holding winners through a trend also seems to be tough for me. I attribute it to not having a "feel" for slowing momentum. As such, I take smaller gains when I have them. I believe the remedy is to focus closely on what happens as momo slows... and to study charts after-hours; my own and those at Fear & Greed Day Trader.
I do hope all of you had a productive month and I wish you good trading in June!