Trading results 2/1/10
February 1, 2010 2:45 pm Trading resultsI took a good day and turned into a horrible day
Early on I did well with AMED IDXX NFLX and VCI. JNY never was a good trade but I walked away soon enough.
I ended up on the wrong side of IDXX and AMED and picked the worst times to walk away. Well almost the worst times.
AMED on my second time with AMED I did take a stop (way later than I should have) but I did go long and made some back. Then I covered the long pretty much at the top of the move and started to short again. I wasn’t very aggressive on the way back down but I did add as it fell and then started to cover. I traded it back and forth a few times and closed out – 1910. This was actually much better than at the point I took my first stop but no where near enough size. AMED after the first time trading it today was a nice gain so this was that much worse. – 1910
IDXX was poorly executed on the second time as well. I had closed out a gain and I shorted it again when it looked like it might break through 49. I added as it went down and then scalped some but when it snapped back up into the close I waited to long to exit. I then actually went long at the end as it tested 50 but covered at just above break even with about a min to go. I don’t have up on my charts an alert of entry for oversold. So when I at first went long IDXX I manually calculated it. That worked out fine but on the second time around I interchanged VCI with IDXX when I went long it was not in my mind that this was the oversold stock earlier. I am not sure how I did this but perhaps because I finished it and then went on to homework. When I came back to it and shorted it is when I thought VCI was my oversold long. Very frustrating. – 534
JNY was a long that never worked out after three tries and getting stopped out for small losses each time. – 137
NFLX was ok. Went short and was stopped out early in the day. Took one more stab at it and stopped out again near break even. + 42
VCI was my one good trade that I didn’t make multiple mistakes with or allow it to go bad. Gap up signal that did not fully qualify in time but the price qualified it. Made just over target even after scalping it. + 330
I allowed my PnL to alter my exits and choices and paid the price. Like stated in Trading in the Zone I ended up doing what I was trying to prevent by trying to prevent it. One saving grace I guess is that I did exit everything at the close as I didn’t have a reason to hold overnight with IDXX and especially AMED or NFLX. At one point it was a very good day. It seems like I make a lot of these simple but dumb mistakes when I am tired. I went to bed and fell asleep around 2am as I could not sleep and then was back up at 6:30. Also the entry for following into the close with a trend needs to have an entry and exit worked in the signal so that I may simply enter in both at the entry of the trade and let it do what ever its going to do. I keep making the one step forward one step back and hopefully for the next of the week/month etc… I can figure out how to get away from this pattern.
- 2209
