UPDATE: Was freed up this afternoon and did some real money trading…I shorted ERES around 3:30pm for a $6.66 gain after commissions. There were several other trade set ups that I passed on and then they ran; I have to make sure I don’t fall back into being overly cautious and hesitant again. First green day in the prop account – I’ll take it even though its small potatoes. My darn computer was sluggish too, running diagnostics – not good when you want to enter and exit trades expeditiously.

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I know now why people say paper trading is a waste of time; after you actively trade with real money, it sure can be boring. And when the market bounced this morning, I got really excited and fired up my prop account. I had an order loaded up, but closed it down. This wasn’t the plan today and my emotions were taking over.

Paper trades: Longed FAS on a nice pull back, but the rally stalled. I was up .20 cents but exited on a 10/60 cross on the 1 minute chart for a wash. I then shorted BAC on what looked like a break of $3.50. I was up 10 cents and then was stopped out for a 3 cent loss. I followed my rules stated from Friday, though I didn’t really enter BAC on an uptick, and one did come.

Tomorrow I’m going to go back to trading with real money. I’m adding or modifying these rules:

1) Prepare for the day planning for possible market scenerios and create a top watch list of 5 stocks to monitor.

2) If following rules, I will enter more than one trade at a time by waiting 10 minutes before making a new entry.