Monday, November 10, 2008

Cool head=cool profits

Today I traded the way I'm supposed to. I followed my plan, I avoided outside noise (I didn't read or listen to anything this morning), I chose stocks with clear setups, I had specific targets and I avoided emotion-laden, knee-jerk decisions.

The market rewarded me by giving back my losses from last Friday -- 4.37R.

Most of my gains (3.45R) came on one trade (out of the four I made today). Let's take a look.

I actually took two trades on NRG. The first was just after the bear flag formation. It petered around for 15 minutes and I sold it at break even. After that last doji near the 20MA I took another position and followed it down until it quit around 1 pm. I debated holding on, but I'm glad I got out.

I made my first "fade the gap" trade with DIA. I got nervous when things reversed a bit and I got out at break-even. I should have held on. Maybe next time.
Overall, I'm happy with how things went. I don't know why I got caught up in trading in ways that leave me feeling exhausted (and broke). I'm glad I made some money today because it will reinforce my trading plan and help me get back on track.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Way to go.

Steal great trading ideas! said...

Great job Scott - it's good to see you succeeding in your new method of trading.