First the market started off very strong yesterday. It gapped up and was pushing to new highs on some pretty nice volume. I got excited by this - “finally my frustration with August will end, the market will break out and I will make a lot of money today,” I thought to myself. So I immediately broke a rule. I started a small position on AKAM before 10:30. It wasn’t off of any bars, so I had some trouble thinking of where to place the stop. Eventually I put in a stop and it was hit. So I started off right away with a small loss. This added to my frustration for the month, but I was still confident in the market and that I would make some money on the day.
My next trade was VRTX:

VRTX started off right away going in my direction, but at around 11:30 I saw weakness in the market and so I decided to close out VRTX at about breakeven when it took a quick dive back to where I bought it. This was a huge mistake. I grew more and more frustrated as VRTX continued to climb all day as I was stopped out of each trade after trade that I opened.
Early on I reached my “3 strikes and you’re out” point in which I have three closed trades on the day and I make myself stop trading. I wish I had. But at the time I knew I wasn’t going to. I’m not completely sure why. Anyway, this is a rule that I am not following - so it is not a good rule for me. I’ve got to come up with something else. I’ve thought about it and I think I have something. I am going to try to set up a routine to my trading that won’t allow this to happen. I’m going to set a maximum number of trades per day. I am also not going to keep track of my running total profit or loss. I am also not going to worry about what day of the month it is. What I am trying to do is make a set routine system of trading that I do the same every day no matter how well or poorly I am doing on the month and no matter what day of the month it is. I want to get very ingrained in the routine of this system that won’t allow for any more “worst days” but will still make very profitable days possible. I am going to try to completely stick to this throughout September and October to see what results I can get from it.
I will stop doing the week in review series, and only do montly reviews of my trading.
After a horrible day, when I think about posting the results to this site, at first I dread it. I’m ashamed and embarrassed to have to put up about how sucky I traded. I don’t have the strength to do it. But then it is refreshing to get it out and think it over. It’s kind of like a trader’s support group - which is really nice to have. But it’s unfair that in this forum I am the only one who can talk about my trading losses. So I have set up an uglychart.com Trader’s Support Group so that other traders can log in and post about their own losses/issues and we can give support. I’ve added the link to the sidebar.

When I have been trading poorly or I have lost some confidence in my trading, I often go through Maoxian’s dummy lessons. It is a huge help. It always seems to bring me back to center. What I usually do is click on the top entry (the last one), read it, and then click on the “previous entry” link. This way you can go through the whole set pretty easy.
Check out this trade where he made over 15R on a short of JDAS.

Look at the bias in the broad market, find an unusual suspect, trade with the trend, wait for your spot, set your stop, manage your risk.

…every trade you play “correctly” is a winner, no matter if you make or lose money.

The main thing you have to remember when trading is that you don’t want to complicate things. Keep it simple and try to limit the number of decisions you have to make every day.

If this were published in book form, I would buy it.

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

Well, I had another worst day of the year. That makes two for August. Ouch.
It is a miracle that I am only down commission for the month. That means if you took the other side of my trades you would be down even more. Commissions this month have been a bitch because I have been overtrading like mad. I really have to do something about it.
I broke all my rules. It’s embarrassing to post how weak I am at following my own rules. It is pretty pathetic. I recognize it as pathetic. I would like everyone to know that I am pathetic at following my trading rules.
I just have to put this day behind me. Is trading just an endless process of breaking your own rules and then sticking to them for a while and then breaking them again? I hope not. I’d like to progress so that these breakages become fewer and further between.

Good morning, my name is Ugly, and I am a loser. I have it in me to do serious financial damage to my account.

Dear Diary,
Based on yesterday’s trading, the following stocks are worth noting:

Support uglychart.com by becoming a sponsor!

Stock spam is growing rapidly because, according to a study by Jonathan Zittrain, it works well:

Sophos, a Massachusetts-based supplier of software for protecting companies and consumers from online threats, reported in July that 15 percent of all junk e-mail messages are now stock spam, up dramatically from less than 1 percent 18 months ago.

The researchers discovered that if a spammer bought a stock a day before beginning heavy touting, then sold the morning after the first day of touting, the average return on investment was 4.9 percent. And more effective spammers saw a 6 percent return. On the other hand, if a victim were to invest $1,000 in a stock on the day of heaviest touting, that investment would be worth, on average, $947.50 in the two days following the spamming campaign.

“The thing that surprises most people is that the company [whose stock is being touted] is often not aware their shares are being manipulated in this way,” adds O’Brien. “They’re often just as much the victims.”

For some reason in our society there is an outrageous prejudice against box wine. It is often thought of as lower-class and I know many people who won’t drink it because of this. As an excuse they will say that it doesn’t taste as good as more expenisive wine-in-a-bottle, but the real reason they will not drink it is because they do not want to be associated with the lower class (these are usually the same people who will only drink bottled water). I have mentioned before how one of the wonderful miracles of nature is that wine has many health benefits. Boxed wine is less expensive and it keeps better because it prevents oxidation. I have been called a Goon Dog because of my beliefs, but I can’t imagine paying $7.99 for a 750ml bottle when you can get 5 litres of the same stuff for $12. Plus, once you are finished drinking the contents, you can use the empty sack:

Once the sack has been fully consumed, it can be inflated and used as a pillow or tied to a tree to scare away birds and small children. Country Australians have been known to use discarded ’sacks’ on statues to create a postmodern effect.

Related Link: Give the gift of a personalized wine bottle to make a lasting impression.

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –

“It is one of the great paradoxes of the stock market that what seems too high usually goes higher and what seems too low usually goes lower.” - William O’Neil

– Click here for today’s full list –