Yesterday
3-3-2008 = -$35 on 2 contracts
3-4-2008 (today) down big time -$475 on only 4 contracts.
Account details:
Today's balance: 2,440
P/L since start: -2,580
Rate of return: -51.6%
Commissions Since start: $1,165
I now have suspended all real money trading and will restart paper trading. With -51.6% drop in equity is very painful, it's especially painfull when you break your own rules.
Today was a perfect example, unfortunately. My $475 loss occured within one hour of market open. I used wider stops due to volatility but did not help.
Market Today:
1) opened right under Daily Pivot of 12227.
2) It was a bearish sign to begin with
3) it moved down to MID Daily S1 12195
4) Down to DAILY S1 12162 (more on this later)
I had already one contact at loss when I thought small up rally started off DAILY S1 but it was short lived and turned right back down after hitting Monthly mid PPS at 12189 (not sure why I even used monthly pivot data)
I was trading from the long side, looking back I should not have traded from the long side...market started on bearish note started below Daily Pivot moving down to S1.
Now, around 7.20 AM PST I saw market rallying to higher Support pivot point, I thought if it crosses 12195 I need to go long which I placed a stop buy order at 12198 which was filled and went as high a couple more ticks to 2001 or so then it was a sharp, sharp turn around which cost me 40 points on 1 contract. yes, it's way pass mine regular 10 point stop but things got bad, all way down. I think I covered at the vey bottom. Looking back now I don[t remember what TRIN reading was and what ADV/DECL ratio was...but fuck what else should I say.
I post some more observations later.