Rejuvenated

Well, it's been quite a while since my last post. After making a few misguided and, quite honestly, SHITTY trades in a row I decided that I need to step back and evaluate what I was doing. Mainly, what I HAD been doing right when I first started and what I was now doing wrong. As I write this my account is down about 50% from when I started, most of it from my failed FNM trade and most recently from making a piss-poor trade with DTG. I had watched DTG for a bit and thought that it was about to bounce up so I got in at 1.75. This trade was so fraught with mistakes I'm actually sort of glad that it happend (I know it sounds weird to say, but the most expensive mistakes sometimes turn out to be the most meaningful......a lot of times you won't learn much/pay much attention if you only lose $40-50). The first mistake was the rationale: at this point I can't even remember what it was. Next, I didn't place protective stops. This has burned me before and I kept telling myself that I needed them, but in this case they weren't there. I was long 1,125 shares @ $1.75 and it plummeted to around a buck, which is where it is right now. So I didn't place the stops, and once I realized what has happening I didn't get out. When the stock didn't rebound like I anticipated is when I realized that I seriously needed to do some researching because I definitely wasn't trading the way that I know that I should be. Over the course of the past month I have been reading every investing/trading/technical book that I could get my hands on and have been expanding the realm of websites that I check out. I have been reading more and more about options trading and finally ventured out today and purchased my first options contract (5 of them actually). I purchased 5 Nov 10 Calls for CIEN at $0.65/per contract so we will see how that turns out. So enough babbling, let me outline my rules:

- Before I enter any trade, make sure that I know the rationale for getting into the trade in the first place and know what I will do if the trade doesn't go my way.

- If a trade ends up moving the other way, GET OUT!!! All major losses start out small at one point and could have been easily prevented.

- For short term trading, be aware of nearby support/resistance points that may hinder breakouts or crashes.

- Successful traders trade for CONSISTENT profits, not huge gains.

- Make sure the indicators that I am using are fitting for the trade. If I am looking to hold a position for a few days then why would I use a 1-minute chart?

- Everybody goes through the Success-Failure-Success-Failure routine. The main difference between strong traders and washed out traders is usually just that strong traders have traded through that last failure while the washed out ones let it get the best of them.

- Take profits as they come. Once the trade is profit to a pre-set degree start scaling out, probably in 25% increments.

- The purpose of trading is to add to the quality of my life, not to take away from it.

So with this being said, it's time for me to start anew. My covestor account will remain unchanged as I don't want to "erase" my bad decisions that have been made in the past. The way I see it it's just motivation to do even better! I'm going to start posting my monetary gains/losses as well so I can track it here on the site.

Starting Account Value: $1,524.92

Trades: NONE

Ending Account Value: $1,524.92

Current Holdings:
Symbol Qty. Purch. Price
DTG 775 $1.38 (avg)
EUQKB 5 $0.65/per contract (OPTION)