BK's Journal of Mistakes

B

BostonKiller

To Whoever is Looking:

My goal is to get comfortable trading and become profitable with 100-share positions in the next 3-4 months. I would trade in the morning (9:30-11:00 ET), go to work and trade in the afternoon (12:00PM onwards)

I expected an initial struggle and lack of stable (good) results, but reality has been more discouraging that I have anticipated.

So, I decided to keep a journal of EVERY trade I make, good or bad and post chart with explanations as to why I made particular trades and why I failed.

Today, I was not able to trade in the morning (work-related) and made 3 poor trades in the afternoon. Charts will be posted below.

ADBE: Saw a clear S/R channel and traded on the breakout upwards around 12:40. Set a Trailing Stop at $0.40. Got Stopped Out at around 1:30PM. Flat trade, but lost on comissions (I pay $8 one way)

LRCX: Same S/R channel, same breakout. In at 12:50PM, Trailing Stop of $0.20 initiated at 1:20PM. $0.01/share loser.

MET Agian, the same setup. S/R, breakout, but this time an even more marginal one. In at 12:40PM, Stopped out at 1:45PM. $0.033/share loser.

I fully welcome your comments/suggestions/nasty remarks.
 
Thank you.
Long way to go though. Loooong way...


Among mistakes of the day (besides not trading in the morning), I should mention not reacting on reversals after my initial trades failed. I should have jumped on them in the other direction.

Yes, yes, yes: shoulda, woulda, coulda...
 
Made more mistakes this morning. In fact, last (calendar) month I've done nothing but make maistakes. Not suprisingly, the last positive day I've had was on 10/10/2008 (I disregard a +$2.18 day on 11/6, due to it being well, pathetic).

My losses were far from catastrophic (ranging from $50 to $80 per day), but not having a winning day in over a month is definately a cause for some serious concern. Today was a much bigger losing day (-$245), but while I can write it off finance-wise, phychologically it is extremely tough to wether this barrage of failures.

In the month of November my trading record on 100-share positions was 5-14 (5 being winners). The biggest winner I've had was a laughable $11. The biggest loser was -$161 (but on a 200-share position).

I will be taking a break to regroup and analyze my mistakes. My MANY mistakes.

I will be posting my observations and conclusions here. Not sure if anyone will be interested, but in order to keep sane I need to write my thoughts down.
 
Quote from Builder17:

Nothing wrong with LEARNING from your mistakes and limiting your losses. you'll get it back.
More...

Agree. But today got me thinking. And what I came away with was that there is a lot to be done around myself most of all.

So, I'll concentrate on the most important part of trading - the trader...
 
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