December 1

I didn't have a lot of time to look at the markets today; maybe the last hour and 45 minutes.

TNA wasn't moving too much but because I am trading for practice and not for $, I decided to stick with it and try to pick up some experience. I got a bad read and went short. It went in my favor about eleven cents and reversed. I should have stuck to my quicker exits that I typically operate with. However, I held and it reversed against me. So sure was I that my read of a fade into the afternoon was right that I held anticipating the downturn. Well, it didn't come and I didn't stop it out. I bought a better average price at what felt like the top then waited. The turn did come shortly afterward and within 7 cents of my second short entry. After the turn, I looked for a chance and exited when it felt like a short-term bottom was in. Good read of momo there, because price did climb for 20 minutes from that point before topping out and dropping into the close.

What I take away from this is:

1. take some time to feel the movement before jumping in

2. faithfully set a stop

3. play the moves I see and not what I expect will happen because I tend to be early/wrong.

For the most part, I am starting to get a feel for movement. If I am wrong at first, I seem to later be able to get it right after paying closer attention. But, I need to be sharper with my entries... or, maybe I should be more selective about the set-ups I think are worthy of playing.

Certainly, I must be more in tune with playing the extremes of moves and not the S/R levels in the middle of trend. These are low-percentage plays.

To close this out, I'd say lack of patience seems to play a part in most of my faulty paper-trades.

November 30

I was office-bound for the first half of the day so I had the trading platform up and running while I attended to other tasks. I saw some opportunities I didn't take but did manage to get these practice trades in.

Nothing notable with the exception that I thought the second trade entry was a horrible one and I was very uneasy for the 3 minutes I was in it. I have no idea why it felt wrong but I just had to exit. Strange that it would turn out to be a good entry on a ten minute move up. I will be giving that some thought as the hours pass this evening. The third entry was a good one and felt right also. I took it 30 seconds before the candle change and just before it broke out of consolidation. Then it dipped slightly as it entered the new candle then moved up and away. I sold the initial big candle, sensing that a reversal was coming after such a nice move. It did reverse slightly, pulling back to the 7 EMA, then rose nicely for an hour and fifteen minutes. By that time, I had already left for the afternoon, so staying in was not an option anyway.

November 28, update

I stuck around until the open this am after seeing the futures on CNBC. I'm now out of my TNA swingtrade.

Something tells me that the market wants to close that big gap-up from last Wednesday, and is flirting with that area right now. I really have to get to the day-job and can't stick around to watch the action.

Good trading to all!