Recap of Tuesday's Trading (11/17) - $511 Loss

The trade I took home last night ended up working out for me.  Scaled out of the trade and pulled in $500. So my official tally from yesterday was -$600. I know I've said before that taking positions home overnight is a bad idea.  But I still had a valid setup on this trade, and hence a plan.  As long as there is a plan, and not a reliance on hope, I'm ok with leaving a trade on. Still don't need to be entering anything from 3:30PM on.

Yesterday's posts were a bit lengthy.  Let's see if we can keep this a bit shorter but still informative.

Started out the day early with my first trade taking place at 5:30AM.  Made a quick $337 on two pullbacks before the day session began.  Second one wasn't as smooth as the first.  My PC clock wasn't synched, so I ended up getting fortunate that two of my limits were hit followed by a stop out on the last lot after the 8:30 econ release.  I was planning to exit this trade before 8:30, but my PC clock was off by 2 mins.

Took a gap fade that hit for a $800 profit despite an initial $900 drawdown. 

At 10AM I'm up $1100 on the day and sitting pretty.  But the next trade set the tone for the rest of the day.  Took a short pullback off the 5 min chart, but placed my stoploss somewhat haphazardly and was stopped out at the high tick.  Sat and watched as the trade quickly reversed and would've been fully profitable.  So lost $562 on this trade which would've made at least the same.  Now I'm up $600 and change vs being up over $2K on the day.

After a breakeven trade around 11AM, I was out of the office for about 3 hrs only o return around 2:00PM.  As is often the case, I tend to "find" trades quickly when I return to the office.  While there was nothing wrong with the setup, volume was very thin which made it a gamble.  Ended up getting stopped out for a $500 loss.

And finally the last trade of the day was also my first big blow-up since my intro into the blogging world. Took a short pullback off the 3min chart with an initial 6 lots that never materialized.  Gave the trade way too much room to run.  Added 3 more lots. Watched as the trade continued higher.  Kept thinking we'd reverse, blah, blah.  Anyway after a more than $1100 drawdown, I was fortunate to get out with a $700 loss.  Looking back I should've been out of this trade within the first 10 mins and remember having this thought to myself.  What's separating me from being a solid trader is acting on these instincts.

So there you have it.  Crappy start to the week.  Loss of $586 on the day and now down $1100+ on the week.  All easily surpassible though.  Need to re-focus tomorrow and come back hitting on all cylinders.

Update - One final trade afterhours for a marginal $75 gain.  Should've held longer. Loss on the day now at $511.