Striking Off Another Day

Made $278.02 today with a 100% (though barely) win rate.

Days left: 94
Status: on schedule

I may have had a green day today, but my trading was terrible. It's weird how that can happen. Sometimes I break even or lose some money and feel I had a great day. Today, I didn't listen to myself, and not only that, but I made some stupid mistakes that really should've bitten me in the ass (but I lucked out). First, that circled trade above was not supposed to be executed. I wasn't thinking and accidentally sold another 100 shares of SRS when I just wanted to put in a buy order at a lower point. I got out with a small profit on it, but the misstep threw me off.

Another thing, I told myself to short SRS at 45. I chased it and got in .20 lower (or $200 below where I wanted). Oh well. I still got out with a profit (albeit, seeing it at ~43.20 right now makes me a little sick...).

The more I trade, the more I realize it does not benefit me to chase prices. If I buy or sell on a pullback, I'm 100% better off. Plus, when you chase stocks, you not only get in at a worse price, but also without a buffer. Say you chase the price, and the price you get in at happens to be the low for the duration you're willing to stay in for--you're kinda screwed. Whereas, if you entered at a higher point anticipating a drop (based on chart pattern, or something else), you have enough room to get out should something go against you (or at least, you will tend to have more room to get out than you would if you had chased the stock--that's how it works for me).

Anyway, I did fairly well with trading ES today. Actually, I'm finding it allows me to play around with other stocks and futures by giving me a little bit of a cushion. I don't feel as threatened when one of my other positions goes into the red if I have some ES profits backing me up. If I didn't have that cushion today (and probably last week when I traded the NQ for the first time), I would've ended in the red, just because I would've cut my losses earlier; I tend to be a lightweight when I'm trading 1k positions. Heh.