5 trades: 2 winnners, 1 scratch, 2 losers. Net +$57.

Great opportunity day, not much to show for it. Need to walk away with $200-300 on days like this.

Trade 1 Panic trade. You don't always get to get the 52-week high top tick, but if you are impatient, your time will come. Wait, even on trend days there are pull backs. Got spooked by the SPY/XLY running up quickly and VFC breaking above its channel.

Trade 2 Although that patience is tested when you are trying to get in on a limit order. I originally tried to get in when the market was $176.12/34. I chased it all the way up to $176.60 before finally getting in. I was trigger shy from the last trade. It amazes me how the last few trades can completely mess up the ones that follow it. I jumped on weakness here. Another risk because it was a trend day and I might not get back in in time.

Trade 3 Bought the pull back to the EMA21. I was focused on a multiday channel. Price was at the top and struggling to push through. I was lucky enough to get out of the last trade in time, so tried again here. It was a nice little 2.6R trade, but price went on for another 7R.

Trade 4 Hmmm I am now buying a complex pullback at the top of a $4 run up. I am a little manic at this point, as seen by my notes at 10:50 "big block trades on bid, moment of truth..." and 10:52 "asks are rising... Run!" From despair to euphoric hope in just 2 minutes. I took a bigger stop on this trade to give it room, ugh. Didn't lose more than planned, but in retrospect, risked too much.

Trade 5 I love looking for the short after a big run up. Stop it. I was mentally not my best today. Asks were floating outside my stop. I was resigned to just taking the slippage. Bad attitude. Got out at BE.

bijeremiad 

... I am a little manic at this point, as seen by my notes at 10:50 "big block trades on bid, moment of truth..." and 10:52 "asks are rising... Run!" From despair to euphoric hope in just 2 minutes. .

I can relate well to the issue. I constantly remind myself to pull the trigger when I am a little scared rather than when I am a lot excited.

4 Trades: 1 winner 3 losers. Net -$71.

Earnings day. Good numbers but not as great as the run up in the stock yesterday suggested. Strong bear open.

Trade 1 I am looking for a channel to form. Take a short. I see two high volume bars pushing price down, but price is not going down as much as it was earlier in the day. I get a pull back to the channel. I get a fourth push lower since the open - none of them are that much lower than the prior. So I jump on stalled price. Pretty content with how this trade played out for 2.5R.

Trade 2 Price is bobbling along the bottom. I get long. Three pushes above the EMA21 fail to take hold. Wish I had gotten out at the second or third. Held for a small loss, -0.2R.

Trade 3 15 minutes later, price takes what I think will be one last swipe at the LOD. Go long. My stop is below LOD, but price goes lower. Right idea, but about 30 min too early.

Trade 4 For all my seraching for a bottom, I don't know why I play this test of a prior day level. I guess I thought becuase it was such a negative day, it couldn't totally rebound, could it? Yes, yes it can. Here conviction got the better of my. I acknowledge in my set up that the trade is counter trend, which means I should be impatient with my stop and I should definitely not be adding to a CT trade, but I did, convinced I saw a complex correction. Others saw it too and were trapped with me. Price went on 9R past my tap-out point. Ugh.

4 Trades: 1 winner, 1 scratch, 2 losers. Net -$76.

Trade 1 was an error. My price target had been set at a previous level of interest. When my trade was executed, it triggered automatically. Still weird that it takes 34 seconds to fill. You would think that would be more immediate. Lost $23.

Trade 2 So I get back in at 5 cents better, on the test of yesterday's high. Doesn't go anywhere. Get out for a small gain - to even the out the blunder of Trade 1.

Trade 3 After a lower high and another test of LOY, I thought the level might break. I go short. Taken out quickly.

Trade 4 Yet more lower highs, forming a triangle down. I get short again. LOY holds for 4th time. I scratch out.

Trade 5 LOY holds for 5th time, so I get long on the 6th test - only 100 shares b/c my losses are highish for the day. Breaks down into the close. Thanks Mr. Market. Thanks.

4 trades: 2 winners, 1 scratch, 1 loser. Net $136.

Trade 1 I got short after price pulled back to the upper bound of a bearish multi-day channel. Market was moving quickly, which I confused with directional bias. I should have been watching volume more closely. After the 30k bar printed around 8:03, I should have been more leery of breaking higher than that bar. In stead I waited until the HOY.

Trade 2 With a bottom well established and 3 swing lows behind me, I got long. I could have minded that multi-day channel again. Fear of missing out got me.

Trade 3 Once again my most recent trade totally biases my next trade. I get short to honor the multi-day bearish trend. Price action was okay, but no much penetration past the EMA21. Got skittish and bailed for a scratch.

Trade 4 With the bearish channel challenged I bought towards the low of the trading range price had been in. Got out near the top of that trading range. Ok trade.

Two trades: 2 losers. Net -72.

Trade 1 Strong move up on the open. I was pretty patient with my entry. Trade started moving my way, so I took some risk off based on a recent swing low bar, but price pushed through it before continuing on in my trade. Originaly stop would have been honored. Don't know that I can do much about that. Fair trade otherwise. Would have been a 3-4R trade.

Trade 2 A bit of a panic trade. I was out, watching the market run. I decide to get in on a very shallow pullback. Just as the market breaks a recently steeper trend line. This was more forced error than the previous trade and unduly influenced be the previous trade.

Two trades: two losers, net -$106.

Trade 1 Pretty weak trade in retrospect. Hard to justify - smack dab in the middle of a trading range. Triangle pretty visible with no apparent trend. Wow.

Trade 2 Even when I go back and read my notes I can't understand why I took these trades. Was at least a little closer to the trading range extreme on this one. Cant fish from the middle of the stream...

Two trades: Two losers, net -$75.

Mild upward trend day. Nothing too big, but a nice "easy" day. If you trade it right. I was late to getting my platform up, so didn't see the earlier set ups, but opened above HOY, and pushed past S/R from a prior day.

Trade 1 My first trade was just a little late. Stop triggered for me, even though no one in the market saw fit to transact there. Price went on without me.

Trade 2 I tried to recover the trend in the second trade just a few minutes later, but a trade error took me out before the trade even took off. Shut down for the day

Two trades: two losers, net -$70.

Another 1-2 punch day. Getting old.

Trade 2 Another trade error. Profit limit triggered automatically, not even a second in the trade. Paid the bid-ask. The position of the short was ok, intended short would not have been hit, chance for small profit.

Trade 2 Chased the entry on this on a little much. I trading range, nothing too special. I was hoping for a trend continuation. Three large volume bars suggested that I might be right, so I held my position. I was in it for 90 minutes. Should have scratched. Was up 2.5R at one point. Kind of silly.

3 Trades: 3 losers, net -$82.

Good losing streak going here.

Trade 1 Price pushed past the high of yesterday and came back to the EMA21. I grabbed an inside bid ask price just around the HOY. Looked like a decent pullback. Then it melted in 1 second. Surprisingly quick. It happens. Glad to be out.

Trade 2 Simple pullback to the EMA21. Then a high volume bar (32k) put a higher low and long tailed bar in front of me - a little unsettling, could be reversal with that strength. Exited at a small loss. Original stop would have been honored.

Trade 3 Poor entry motivated by missing out on the downward trend in the last trade. Coupled with a stop too tight - wasn't going to make it.