End of Day Journal (11-16-2010)

Summary:

Live trading on 50 shares:

Good day - but as always - it could of been better. Shorted AAPL on the LOD like an emotional yahoo. Today was nearly a $4/share day (before commission). Commission eats up a lot on these small lot sizes - the live account finished at  +$145.

Despite today's success, I had an incredibly difficult time detaching emotionally. I traded late into the morning and took some time away over lunch to process. I decided to put off even looking at the market until 3:00 EST and spent from 2:00 till 3:00 trying to distract myself. It didn't work.

Things really clicked a couple of weeks ago, but it feels like old thought patterns are settling back into their well-entrenched  paths. I would like to snap out of it again, but not sure how to make that happen. Per Douglas, the steps to 'recovery' consist of capturing and re-directing 'thought energy' from the undesirable paradigm to the desirable paradigm. This seems to be a 'two-step forward, one-step back' routine. Feel free to offer any insights you may have here. The good part about it is that I know what the 'right' paradigm feels like, I have tasted it. Today I was fully aware of what was happening in my head and decided to reduce my trading time because of it.

The correct paradigm is important enough that I was willing to fore-go screen time. This is new for me.

Trade well.

Details:

AAPL

Yes - in case you were wondering who you bought from at the LOD - that was me.... maybe a penny or two off. The delayed afternoon session found me in my emotional hell hole (even after I had tried some re-focusing and distraction) and you can see the results. If I only would of done the exact opposite... heh.

Funky - I know what the right paradigm feels like - it is like being a detached observer of the markets - but I had such a difficult time getting into that zone. I am going to spend some time reading and thinking about it later today, maybe I will figure something out.

BIDU

CMG

FCX