Well today got a little off track and I started making trades just to catch up, and then NOT following what are now my nebulous rules at all. +.35 gross, +.155 net on 13 trades. There isn’t much to really learn from here, I was in micro scalper mode and I’m not very good at it and just got lucky. When I take quick .10 profits (which would be like $100 per trade with 1000 shares) it’s not much reward when you add up the commissions and the stop losses – and there are always lots of money left on the table when the stocks make bigger moves after I exited, e.g. TPX short at near $11 as of lunch time sank to as low as $10.60.
Anyway, as always, I have decided to change my plans once again:
- My 30-day simulated trading boot camp has been truncated to 5 weeks (for a total of 23 days).
- I am going to take next week off from paper trading and blogging for the most part with the goals of 1) knocking out my personal/work “To-Do” list mentioned a while ago, and 2) completing some trading research and planning stuff.
- In the trading category, one of my main aims next week is to read every post (159 of them now!) of this blog from the beginning. What’s the point of such a detailed journal without some reflection? Second, I want to look at some more historical charts of gapping stocks. Third, I’m going to put down on paper some draft rules regarding my new strategy.
- The week of April 27th, I’m going to go back to paper trading for four days. Based on those final results, I’m going to write up an interim trading plan. I will primarily be focused on variations of one type of set-up on stocks that gap up or down – usually these moves seem to happen between 9:35am to 10:30am.
- If that first part of the week goes relatively well, for the month of May, starting on Friday the 1st, my plan is to make 1 real cash trade a day still with 100 to 200 share positions using my prop account with Cy Group.
- If time permits, after making the real trade, I will paper trade in the mornings to get more practice in.
- May should give me 20 real trades under the belt – if the results warrant it, I may open up things a little for June. Will cross the bridge when I get there.
I will be back tomorrow with a Fitness Saturday post, got another 5K run at 8am!
I think spring is here to stay.
