One that worked and one that didn't

This first example is a trade that worked for me today. Unfortunately, I let my fear and emotions get the best of me and risked less than half a percent of my portfolio on this trade. The stock was liquid enough, but my plan of buying more than 4,000 shares caused my heart to flutter when I saw how much it would cost--nearly $200,000.

I've never put that much into one stock so I decided to go with a much lower number. The market is still pretty fragile, so I am hesitant to go full bore right now. I could have made a bundle, but I guess it's better to feel somewhat safe going into a trade.

I shorted PCLN after the "bear flag" broke out at noon. Things looked good as the stock dropped to $64. But then the whole market turned and started heading higher and PCLN went along with it. I feel OK about this trade. I lose on more trades than I win, so this one wasn't a big deal. The only thing that bothers me is that I lost more than 1R. I must have calculated my stop loss wrong or something.

All in all, this was a good day to trade. There was enough action in the market, and we didn't see huge gaps that made things difficult to trade. For the day I made 5.48R.