End of Day Journal (4-21-2010)

I have been having problems with the paper trading account - Monday I reset the account to $25000, with the first trade of Tuesday being a loser, IB did not allow trades after the day trading minimum was violated. I reset the account for $30000 for today, but IB was having problems with the paper trading accounts - I was only able to trade ETFs.

Missing all the screener entries was a little frustrating, but I traded EDZ and TNA. TNA pretty much kicked my butt. EDZ showed a mediocre morning and a decent afternoon. Here are the trades:

EDZ saw a mistake on the first entry, the account did not meet margin requirements, thus the 1000 shares default  switched up to 600 sold. This presented a problem on the exit, which defaulted to 1000 shares, leaving me holding 400 extra shares and not realizing it for about a minute. Looking at the chart I am not sure what prompted the second short, but it met and surpassed the stop.I then tried a late reverse while it was approaching a new high, only to again meethe stop. I finally caught the flow with a good exit and reverse, and early cover. I tried to get back in on the drop, only to be immediately stopped. I tried to reverse to meet the stop again. I was nervous on the short just before the nice drop at 12:10 and got out too early. The afternoon saw a mistaken short, reverse, late exit and reverse and a stupid, nervous exit:

I noticed TNA had twice the movement while I was goofing around with EDZ. Frankly, I am embarrassed to put this one up, but it is what it is:

Ummm.... I don't know what I was doing. Except trying to read the candles and market movement and not being afraid to change my mind. It went something like, entry, stop, reverse, stop, etc., etc n(starting with a short). Nibbled to death.

What should have been my clue? I am not really sure, just glad it was paper. I was in a good position for the first reverse position, and should have stuck it out to the positive, but the rather large candle at 15:00 had me reversing and then back and forth with stops. Several long candles with wide subsequent high/low spread. Profit kept showing up only to disappear, no clear direction. Feel free to offer some interpretation here.

Not sure how to take today. I was ready for some very good entries via screener, but couldn't trade them. I do not think I would have traded in EDZ and TNA given the numerous other 'good' opportunities, but who knows for sure. It is all about being picky with your entries. But I did enter these fully expecting to make money. Hope it works tomorrow.