i was really looking forward to trading today. i am on a under 25K capital restriction, where i can only do 3 day trades in 5 trading days. that's because i lost a lot of money :) but i am building it back. one step at a time. it's frustrating in that before i went in and out of positions really, really fast. you get good enough at it, you can make $500 easy on these wide volatility moves and all those add up. now, i have to double think my positions and i try to maximize my return, which causes problems such as today (more about that later). also, now i try to do more over night's, which don't count as day trades, but are riskier overall. that's why i haven't traded for the last 3 trading sessions.
in any case, i was so excited, that i didn't go to sleep till 6:30 am. i know, i'm crazy. the alarm rang at 8:30 am and i was way too tired and i decided to trade later in the afternoon. i only had one day trade for the day anyway, so it didn't really matter. i woke in the afternoon. the morning had been way oversold, so a nice rally was developing, yet i didn't really believe in it and decided to short either IBM or AAPL. i calculated buy levels and waited and waited and in all that waiting i got kinda confused and finally bought IBM but not at the best levels. it happens. you second guess yourself to death over time. sometimes, my best trades happen when i just decide on a buy/sell level quickly. second guessing is just killer. get the big picture and just make a play. quit it if it goes against you. easier said than done.
the buy is not too bad. 2:30 pm market is tanking....lalala...i turn on the music, light a cigarette and am prancing around. now based on analysis i had set a sell level earlier of a +1 profit, which i thought was reasonable. IBM was close to it about 30 cents off. so i'm prancing about and all of a sudden it goes down that 30 and i have my sell level. but, what do i do, i get greedy and wait some more. it goes back up 30 and after that it never comes down to that level again for the rest of the afternoon. so basically, i got greedy, ignored my sell level, which was superbly calculated and so lost out on an easy 1 K. fuck. merde. i cursed myself for the rest of the hour.
i could have sold for a + .5 profit...but IBM is showing weakness, so i will hold over the weekend. which i hate doing, due to time decay. oh well, at least my day trade was not wasted and i can now use it next week. and IBM may well tank. CAT is reporting Monday and that should suck. but, i am fearful of a rally. it could come anytime. creep up on ya.
i try not to use too many "but's" in my sentences, but that's trading...nothing is concrete, everything has a fucking "butt".
it's friday. i guess i'll go and get drunk, but it would have been way more fun with that little profit under my belt.
