Closing Up Shop Early

Gross: +$567.40
Net: +$414.94
Loss From Top: $239.97
Trades: 73
Shares Traded: 151280

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Bank of America (BAC): +$293.03
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): +$243.90
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): +$131.40
General Electric (GE): -$19.20
Walmart (WMT): -$22.57
AT&T (T): -$23.83
Exxon Mobile (XOM): -$49.32
Motorola (MOT): -$138.41

Arrrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhh!

The execution server went down this afternoon and they were not able to get it back up and running and told us all to go home. Arrrghhh!

After a great morning, I made some stupid mistakes around lunch hour and lost over $200. I was preparing to make it all back and more in the afternoon....but no luck....we were down company wide.

Today I really tried to push myself to my limits and it seemed to work in the short run. I really tried to increase the sizes of my positions and really waited as long as I could before banking profits on my winners.

Two bad trades and one good trade today. I slowly began losing money during the lunch "dead zone" and I was so upset that our company halted trading for the rest of the day (I didn't get a chance to make my money back).

Ohhhhhh wellllll.....what is one to do?

Good Trades
10:49AM - (M) Bank of America (BAC) and the Futures were uptrending. BAC had just broken big resistance at the $50.48 level (there was over 2000 size on the ask) and it approached an even bigger resistance level at $50.50 (there was over 4000 size on the ask). When it started to break, I went long 8000 shares. I got out as follows: 3-cent winner (6000 shares), 4-cent winner (1000 shares), 5-cent winner (1000 shares) ($270 profit before fees)

Bad Trades
10:03AM - (T) Motorola (MOT) was uptrending while the Futures were pulling back. I went long 10,000 shares when I saw an intraday high break, but prices rolled back down. I got out as follows: 1-cent loser (900 shares), 2-cent loser (3000 shares), 3-cent loser (5000 shares), 4-cent loser (1100 shares) ($263 loser before fees)

• This was meant to be a trend trade, but for some reason I decided to get in with a hefty position
• The Futures were not confirming the direction of Motorola and hence I shouldn't have traded it at all

11:50AM - (M) AT&T (T) was uptrending while the Futures were uptrending. I went long 5000 shares shortly after the Futures had finished ripping up. The Futures pulled back and I was forced from my position and got out as follows: 1-cent loser (900 shares), 3-cent loser (3700 shares), 4-cent loser (400 shares) ($136 loser before fees)

• I wasn't really paying attention when I put on this trade - I simply saw something on the level 2 and just went ahead and put the trade on without looking at the charts
• I shouldn't have put on a position after the Futures had finished it's move up