End of Day Journal (9-28-10)

Summary:

Paper traded 200 share lots today:

Looking at the summary, I had a 28% win rate and grossed $1210.00. Number of trades was back up. Stops appear to be within acceptable limits for the most part.

Largest stops:

BIDU at $0.25/share.

Largest wins:

BIDU at $0.75/share.

What happened today? Pretty much a down trending morning and uptrending afternoon... It seems I go in spurts...

All I can say about the morning is that I was out of my element. I felt tired, worn out from some personal extended family drama, and didn't find time for meditation or visualization this morning. When I sat down to trade, I thought to myself - 'I don't feel so good about this.'

It quickly became apparent that my intuition (about myself) was spot on.

If I could use a chart to sum up the morning, I would use MTB; thought BIDU would be a close second.  

Looking at BIDU's chart, I think it is easy to see a connection to TNA's from a few days ago - me not believeing what I was seeing and trying to find the turn around.

What happened over the afternoon?

I took a break: I started the afternoon session with 30 minutes of mediation (a.k.a. mental and physical relaxation - or, DTF falling asleep) and visualization.

As far as I can tell, the only difference yesterday in the morning and afternoon trading sessions was me.
The meditation generally consists of affirmations or an audio relaxation lesson. I practice the visualizations when I am done with the meditation or during the mediation in the case of the relaxation method. I can tell a definite difference in the way I feel when I am done.

So... the importance of being in touch with myself. And of visualization. And of meditation.

Trade well.

Details:

AAPL

This was a sad entry. AAPL made two tremendous drops and when the market started dropping at 2:30, I thought AAPL was due for another quickie. All well and good, but the stop was not placed (NT's ATM balked... might be the two series that I have on a chart, I am going to check this tomorrow) and I goofed when I placed the manual stop, and doubled the position. Anyhoo:

ACXM

I liked the smooth morning action on this one. Ironically, I bought right at the top. The arrow marks where I considered going long, but had too much going on:

AEM

AMED

AVP

Keep watching:

BCR

Clear exit signal on the 12:55 short:

BEC

Marked it with the arrow for later review, then decided to jump in anyways. The exit left a lot to be desired:

BIDU

Pfft. I drew the ascending at EOD as I was reviewing. The first short was a great entry. But the next candle is screaming long. Fought it all the way up, and when I finally got the direction right I got stopped out. The candles don't look that bad, but zooming in shows a lot of wick. The signal of the day of course is the 2:00 doji on the 15. I missed it:

CGNX

DLB

FCX

FLR

HNR

KCI

LH

MON

The difference between the morning and the afternoon? For sure not the stock... plenty of movement to be had...

MTB

Early exit on the long, ($1.10 total) and $0.97/share and I watched it come all the way back... wasn't in tune this morning...

NEM

NKE

NTAP

OIH

Arrow at the top. The short later in the day was a good call, but the market was taking everything up.

PWRD

RGLD

The arrrow was calling a short entry. The long... this is why a guy should hold until the flash: up $0.50 from the exit. Need to remember, market or flash exit: 

RRC

Exited, but hooped back on board with the EOD rally:

SYK

VECO

Didn't trade, but was on the list. Great breakout pattern:

WAG

Not much of a breakout, but with the gap open I thought we had potential:

ZMH

Up and down. Nice chart: