Tomorrow I should finally get the chance to do some pre market prep, trade the opening and put into practice my strategy trading microcap stocks.
Today, I gave back a hunk of my gains in my contest account. I kept on shorting the financials primarily through FAZ and FAS after the gap up, and got stopped out the first two rounds. Then I was short when it took the quick drop late morning, but it bounced right back right up and I was stopped out for a wash. Essentially, I was trading for longer swings rather the scalps available so far today. I would have had a greater loss but I did make short scalps of RF and BAC that worked out somewhat (which I could buy more shares of per the contest rules)…but more importantly, some bad habits came back:
1) My mindset shifted back to a profit and loss framework ($$$$$)!
2) I had no formal rules to follow so no other way to measure my success.
3) With no thought out trading guidelines, more of my trader were made on guesses.
4) As I made more hunch founded trades, the number of transactions increased.
5) The greater number of trades, the more impatient I became.
And now as I look back at the markets again, and the financials are legging back down a bit more, if I had stayed short from mid morning using the HOD as my stops, I would be looking pretty now!
Anyway, this was a good way to ease back into things. Will get back to the formal rules-based paper trading tomorrow. If I have time, I’m going to try to fire up the Cy Group’s Laser platform after my paper session tomorrow.
PS: The baby gained 4 ounces over night, this is big news; but my three year old son is having some trouble adjusting to the dynamic of an extra being in the house. But his natural reaction to the baby is to smile big and soften up, so that’s a good sign.
