Rare Afternoon Gains

Gross: +$655.50
Net: +$458.57
Loss From Top: $4.41
Trades: 78
Shares Traded: 182000

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Motorola Inc. (MOT): +$319.01
Time Warner Inc. (TWX): +$307.95
Eastman Kodak Company (EK): +$130.62
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT): +$74.35
The Allstate Corporation (ALL): +$14.74
Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. (DO): -$11.71
Boston Scientific Corp. (BSX): -$67.58
WCI Communities Inc. (WCI): -$79.96
The Boeing Company (BA): -$99.71
Altria Group Inc. (MO): -$129.13

This morning I came into the office ready to end January with a bang so that hopefully it could carry forward into February.

I think it was this mentality coupled with a dull, sideways market that I ended up losing money in the morning. There weren't any really good looking setups, but because I was aggressive, I know I put on some positions that had only mediocre setups and I was not patient enough to wait for the good opportunities.

By lunch, I was down over $300 and I was upset over the fact that I took soo many lousy trades in the morning. Even those stocks that were gapping up or down didn't really have nice moves in the morning and I should have anticipated this kind of market just before the Fed announcement.

For those that follow this blog closely know how much I complain about afternoon trading...about how I either don't make much money or I lose money during the afternoon and if I had a choice, I wouldn't trade them. And that the mornings is usually where most of my profits come from...

But today everything seemed to be the opposite. I ended up losing money in the morning and in the afternoon I managed to take some rare gains. I have the market's reaction to the Fed announcement for that.

But even when the overall markets rallied in the afternoon, I found that most of the stocks I was watching were reluctant to follow (another reason I don't seem to really like afternoon trading). Had that afternoon move occurred in the morning, I'm sure you'd see a lot more good moves made on stocks, but this afternoon I kept having to second-guess myself before putting on any positions because the stocks I was watching just didn't want to budge.

All afternoon I had to claw my way out of negative territory and the stocks I traded just didn't want to run. As a result, I wasn't really able to capture any real good gains on the day (just lots of $80 here, $100 there, $40 here).

This was not how I really wanted to end January, but a gain is a gain and considering I was prepared to go home with a $300+ loss, I'll take it.

So, that wraps up January...I'll post up my monthly review on the weekend (maybe on Friday).

However, one thing I've noticed in the past is this: whenever I have a good day to start the week, I slowly find my profits shrink as the week goes on...then late in the week, I struggle to make profits (maybe just barely break even), and then on Friday is when I usually lose a lot of money...

We'll see if this holds true for this week...if so, I expect that I hardly make anything tomorrow and I'll lose a lot of money on Friday (let's hope not). Again, this is just from my own personal observation.

Perhaps my focus and concentration declines as the week goes on, or maybe it's because I find myself mentally drained as the week goes on (I sure felt it today...I felt kind of sluggish in the afternoon today).

Oh well, better get to doing my research, then posting for my "On Tap" and then I'll see if I can get to bed early today....tomorrow is the start of a brand new month!

Good Trades
None

Bad Trades
None