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This month has been a yoyo on my account

This month has been very volatile in terms of my account value. I have been moving between 15,600 and 16,700 all month. I am currently at about 16,000 net liquidation value. I have been stopped out of about 50% of the positions that I have put on this month. The biggest urge that I am fighting right now is wanting to close out positions that are working. I think that many times we are all guilty of trying to wash away losses with what little gains we may have in positions that may have just started working. I know I am guilty of this on many occasions. I really think this is the reason I leave a lot of money on the table because the last loss I made is always in front of me. Which if you think about it is completely ass backwards. You need to be able to put your losses behind you and be forward looking. I mean learn from those losses but you really need trade amnesia when looking at current positions.

Another thing that I found myself doing this month is going long when stocks had already had a big move and really looked extended on the charts. Driven by fear of missing the next move. I did not realize it at first, but as I got stopped out of my positions I started looking back at the charts and realized I did not have the best entries. It was this realization that made it apparent to me that I would be better off analyzing potential trade ideas outside of market hours. As you mentioned it is much too easy to act on impulse during the market hours. I know there may be some opportunities missed but I am okay with that.

I know I have been talking a lot about what I have been doing wrong and not much about what I am doing right. I do think it is just as important to spend time focusing on what you are doing well vs wrong. To be honest I think that the first and foremost thing that I am doing well that I have sucked at and failed to do in the past is analyze my trades and define my methodology to the market. Coming up with a theme towards my approach to the market. Drawing conclusions based of analysis of trading results. Also acknowledging and identifying my mental state when putting on trades. My risk management has come a long way as well. I guess you can sum it all up by saying that I have become more process driven rather than results driven. I think that if you focus on the process the results will come.

I continue to learn more about the markets and myself everyday.

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