This is the first recap I have done in a couple of weeks because the blog has been having some problems. We finally got the site switched over to new hosting provider and upgraded our version of Word Press which will now allow me to put images into my posts once again. After the last upgrade word press would not allow me to insert images into a post and that has been fixed with the new upgrade.

I have stopped doing daily recaps on the blog and started keeping a journal in Microsoft Word. I started doing it this way because it is much easier for me to put down my thoughts about a trading day when I know no one else will read it. It’s not that I don’t want to share my thoughts with other traders but the fact that it takes me twice as long to complete the task when I know it will be on the blog for anyone to read. Also, the quality of my journal has increased dramatically which should help me pinpoint mistakes and improve my trading, which is the purpose of keeping the journal. So for now there will only be weekly recaps about how I traded and things I want to improve on. Also I have started recording all my trades with Camtasia and review them every afternoon after the markets are closed. I am averaging about 2 hours of video a day. I usually spend at least 1.5 hours completing my journal and reviewing trades everyday. So I am spending an extra 3 to 4 hours a day, writing the journal, reviewing and editing charts and watching the video from my trades. This is a great help in revealing mistakes that I make and allows me spend many more hours watching and reviewing my trades. The video is especially helpful because I can get totally involved with watching the trades and even feel the worry or anticipation that I feel when I am actually in the trades. Its also helping me to pickup on things that I do when I start to get nervous about a trade. Knowing these things will help me to recognize them in the future so I can learn to take a few deep breaths and not let my emotions dictate how I trade.

On to the weekly recap of my trading. I ended the week profitable but only slightly. I missed my weekly goal of $1,000.00 in profits by about $800.00. That’s a big miss!!! The problem came from an old cliche about trading: Let your winners run. There were multiple instances of me being in a winning trade and exiting before there was any sign that the trade was slowing down. I’m not talking about instances where a trade will pause during the middle of a trend, trade sideways to slightly up and then resume in its current direction. No, I’m talking about taking a short trade and the stock does not print a single green bar but I am exiting anyway, only to see it move straight down another dollar. I even go back and watch the video and hear myself saying: ” I think I’m getting out now even though I believe it will keep going my way and has showed no signs of moving against me”. That’s messed up. So I know I have to figure out why I am doing this and either be able to fix it mentally or mechanically, i.e. trailing stops. Also i have found multiple instances of over trading during the middle part of the morning. I want to make money so I am attempting trades when the market has no real direction and just chops around. Got to fix that!! There were also two or three times when I would exit a trade before my stop was hit only to see the trade go my way very quickly. I would feel anxious about losing money on the trade, even though my stop loss was well within my average loss limit, and just bail so I would not have to feel the anxiety of having a possible loser. And then when the trade would start to go without me I would revenge trade and lose money. So instead of keeping the winner and making $400.00, I exit, jump in another stock and lose $160.00. Another problem to fix.

Now a few positives about my trading. I had a six day winning streak, I think its my longest winning streak, that ended on Thursday of this week. During those six winning days I made just over $2,000.00 in profits. I was able to identify and take lots of winning trades, even though I did not always maximize those winners. I kept all my losing trades under $200.00 and was able to fix a few problems I was having with putting on too much size. I am also paying more attention to the indicators I use, which is helping me time my trades much better. When my timing is good it allows me to enter trades at low risk points which keeps my losses much smaller.

To cap off the recap I will post a few charts of the winners I had that I exited way to early.