Blew A Tire On The Final Lap

Gross: +213.98
Net: +$86.71
Loss From Top: $331.86
Trades: 79
Shares Traded: 120402

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Corning (GLW): +$419.24
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): +$335.98
AT&T (T): +$120.81
Bank of America (BAC): +$41.24
Motorola (MOT): +$17.89
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): -$4.99
Seagate Technologies (STX): -$34.24
Home Depot (HD): -$37.68
Exxon Mobile (XOM): -$40.07
Time Warner (TWX): -$118.03
Walmart (WMT): -$613.24

Whoa! Did anybody get whiplash from that wicked move after the Fed announcement? I'm just glad I didn't get tricked into getting long during the initial move up. Amazing! We had a 4 handle rip up, immediately followed by a 13 handle tank down on the Futures (e-mini S&P500).

I hate it when you have a day when everything is going alright and you are following your trading rules (and you've avoided trading when you shouldn't be trading) and then near the end of the day, you goof up, put on a bad trade, and lose everything you made on the day.

That's what happened to me today. I thought I was well disciplined all day long and I was felt I was fairly successful in holding my winners longer than usual. I didn't put on many trades in the morning because the Futures were rather flat and most of the stocks I was watching were not moving either. I traded only when my trading criteria were met and I was extremely patient in waiting out the market lull.

I was also very cautious when the Fed announced a rate pause and managed to put on a few small winning trades.

But then, at around 3:20PM, I had a mental lapse, put on a trade that I shouldn't have, and ended up losing $550 (before fees) on it.

Needless to say, I blew a tire on the final lap of a race in which I was leading.

It feels as though today was a complete waste. The worst part about this is that I was supposed to leave early today at 3PM to go get my passport renewed. But I decided to stay and try to trade the volatile markets after the Fed announcement.

Oh well, I guess it's the perfect punishment for my incompetence.

Now that the Fed has made it's announcement, lets see if the market actually goes somewhere from here...

Good Trades
3:31PM - Corning (GLW) was downtrending as were the Futures. GLW reached the $18.00 level which had about 700 size on the bid. The Futures began tanking some more and the level at $18.00 was about to break so I went short 3000 shares. Held this position until it looked like it was going to reverse. I got out as follows: 11-cent winner (2000 shares), 12-cent winner (1000 shares) ($340 profit before fees)

Bad Trades
3:22PM - Walmart (WMT) was going bananas while the Futures were making new intraday lows. There was support at the $44.40 level (had about 900 size on the bid) and when the Futures popped down, I went short 6000 shares. The level at $44.40 did break and the position went in my favor by about 2 cents, but suddenly, a huge buy order appeared on the level two and pushed prices up by 10 cents! I got out what I could and ended up taking a severe loser as follows: 3-cent loser (1000 shares), 4-cent loser (1000 shares), 12-cent loser (4000 shares) ($550 loser before fees)

• What the hell!?!? It seemed like a good short at the time, but I remember looking at a chart of Walmart and having second thoughts about it (it didn't really follow the Futures very closely for most of the day)
• 6000 shares is way too much especially since I knew Walmart didn't have good price action all day
• I was also acutely aware that everytime the Futures tanked, some big buyer was buying WMT up anytime WMT fell...why didn't I consider this at the time of the trade? I think it was because I felt I missed out on so many great moves after the Fed announcement that I was determined not to miss another...some good that thought did...