Tuesday Wrapup (2/9) - $188 gain

Frustrating doesn't even begin to define today's trading.  It's days like today which really make you question your approach.

Missed my first, and best, trade of the day after a nice pullback ended around 6:30AM.  Was distracted and not really following the charts at the time.

First trade of the day was a gap fade.  Figured I'd be able to at least scale out for a small profit.  Didn't think the gap would fill, but anything is possible right.  Entered with 3 lots and spaced my targets to exit at 33%, 66% and 99% gap fill levels.  After a moderate drawdown, price came within a pt or so of my first tgt before reversing higher.  At the worst I was in the hole $488 on the trade (usually trade gaps with a 5 pt stop).  Didn't like the price action on that first pop higher, so I scaled out for a minimal loss of $138 on the first pullback following the new HOD.  And what would happen from there?  Nope we didn't re-challenge the high, we fell below the day's OR low.  And in the process 2 of my tgts would've been hit.  Sure, we ultimately reversed and traded higher, but I would at worst been stopped out for a couple hundred dollar gain.

That's not the worst of it.  In addition to my core day trading, I also have a portfolio of automated daily setups I trade.  Well one of those went long the Dow around 10AM and quickly moved nicely higher.  But on that move lower, I was stopped out 8 ticks from the day's low.  And course everyone knows what happens next.  So I lost money on the gap fade and on the Dow trade too, both of which could've seemingly been profitable today.

Aside from the gap fade. I went 2 for 4 on my other trades today.  Made $175 on these core trades.

I guess the good thing about today is that my frustrations didn't provide the fuel for a huge loss day.

UPDATE: Guess I posted too soon.  Had a nice pullback into the closing bell that I sold at 4:02PM.  Scaled out for a $150 gain over the next 30 mins.