End of Day Journal (12-2-2010)

Summary:

Live trading on 50 shares:

Pfft... Sat thru a lot of money today...

Incredible huh? Something happens in my brain, 'hope' (perhaps better called greed) enters the framework and I stop 'seeing'. Nearly every exit was signaled. Sometimes it happens extremely fast and I miss it. Other times I was too busy trying to draw trend lines or justifying an even bigger move. Yikes.

Quite remarkable to see what the charts are saying when a guy takes time to try and read. EOD review once again reveals (for the most part) significant volumes at the beginning (break thru S/R) of a move or at the end of the move. Key is what has happened just prior (lower/higher h/l), or what happens just after (second successful h/l). I also noticed that most 'outside' (setting the day's bounds) have 3 legs while most inside moves have 2 legs. I should also note that most S/R is setup simply on volume spikes. But occasionally S/R comes thru as a price level without significant volumes (the price level is 'clean' and no mistaking it); often volume will pick up at the price level S/R later in the day. Funky...

I tried to use some of what I had noticed yesterday in my trading today. But I made several mistakes today, primarily centered around simply not paying attention. I came in on CMG on what I took to be exhaustive volume, but it was volume coming in on a successful low and thru S/R. I tried twice. The second mistake was holding thru substantial profits on CMG, AAPL, and UPRO, with CMG and AAPL signaling clear exits.

Yes - I was frustrated, fearful, and pissed off. Classic. Expectation schmexpectation. The missed run on NFLX yesterday set me up for 'optimism' today. I really need to be aware of this and make a conscious effort to work thru those kinds of decisions as I prep for the next day.

And another change - I am going to switch up my trading schedule and only trade the morning session. Not because I necessarily think that I do better in the mornings, but because I have a lot of things that have been put off as I concentrate on this (namely my dissertation). Also - I would like to eventually adopt that type of trading schedule - make money in the morning and taking off the rest of the day, so this will be my focus. I will spend afternoons studying/annotating charts, working, studying/annotating charts, or my dissertation... or studying/annotating charts.

This exercise - even though it has only been two days - is proving to be quite remarkable. The goal is to have my senses so keenly attuned and familiar with what to look for, that it becomes a sixth sense. It is kind of crazy really, at first study yesterday I didn't spot a thing, and then I noticed that price was moving and volume was changing. Heh. That is all that can possibly happen.



Trade well.

Details:

If you are interested, CMG and NFLX are quite remarkable. It is almost ridiculous to see how often things repeat themselves. Perhaps I am simply seeing things... Feel free to leave some feedback.


AAPL

CMG

NFLX

UPRO