Back online!

2 months have passed since my last post. My world has been upside down getting use to having a new little one in the house, but things are getting better. I must say that having a child is one of the greatest experiences one can have. I see that one of my life’s future achievements will be to watch my kids (one so far) grow up and some day have a life and kids of their own.

As for trading, it has taken some time to get back into the mix. I paper traded for the month of October with some mixed results. I found that my winning trades outnumbered my loosing trades but my results were inconsistent. After reviewing these trades, I found that my results were inconsistent for the following reasons:

1. Entering the trade in anticipation of a price move (that obviously did not occur) – This caused me the biggest dollar loss in 2 trades – What a big waste of money!!!

2. Entering the trade too late – Chasing a trade that had already made its move.

3. Not exiting a trade when I was happy with the gain or my indicators were showing an imminent short term reversal - I think that I missed about 30% additional across the board profits because if this.

4. Mistakes – Being too hasty with my analysis and entering a trade based on what I wanted to see, not what the chart was telling me.

5. Staying in a loosing trade too long when the stock moves against my position - This is a tough one. I like to set my stops above support and resistance which means that my stop could be a couple of dollars above my entry point. As it relates to my option trading, I could loose half of the contract value before being kicked out. OUCH! If I am going to trade support and resistance, I need to work on the timing of my entries

6. NOT TRUSTING MY ANALYSIS & HESITATING TRADE ENTRY – This is my killer. I entered late and missed some nice price moved because of this (number 2 occurs). Overcoming my own fears is the only solution.

Cheers - David