Too Many Trades, Too Many Stocks

Gross: +$1,006.00
Net: +$894.69
Loss From Top: $41.60
Trades: 77
Shares Traded: 120600

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Motorola Inc. (MOT): +$884.81
United States Steel Corporation (X): +$239.38
Alcoa Inc. (AA): +$87.28
United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS): +$58.59
Countrywide Financial Corporation (CFC): +$32.98
RadioShack Corporation (RSH): +$31.92
The Proctor & Gamble Company (PG): -$1.06
Unum Provident Corporation (UNM): -$22.40
Weatherford International Ltd. (WFT): -$36.23
Continental Airlines Inc. (CAL): -$46.81
Wyeth (WYE): -$50.97
Getty Images Inc. (GYI): -$76.73
Zimmer Holdings Inc. (ZMH): -$102.56
USG Corporation (USG): -$103.47

Whoa there...look at the number of stocks I traded today....

Maybe it was because there were lots of stocks that reported earnings, or maybe it was because many of the stocks I was keeping an eye on didn't really have good looking charts, but I think I just traded too many times today and I traded too many stocks.

In fact, coming up to lunch, I only recorded 30 or so trades and the bulk of my profits were made in the first hour...

But then came the afternoon and all I did was just churn and churn and I ended up going nowhere fast. As a result, the number of trades tallied up, and the number of stocks traded piled up as well.

I could have left at 10:45AM with a little over $900 net, but I decided I'd stick around for most of the day today...but it looks like it was just a waste of my time.

I found myself constantly changing stocks and flipping the charts to other stocks to see if anything was moving all afternoon. There were a few stocks here and there, but it seemed like I was really desperate to find something to trade or to look for something that was trending.

I also really stretched my definition of a good setup and traded some positions that only looked partially good.

As a result, I took a couple of unnecessary losers and I had to make back some of what I lost. But all in all, I just hovered around the $800 and $900 mark all afternoon.

I'm starting to get used to some of those thinner stocks, but today they really gave me trouble. US Steel (X) was good, but I only managed to capture a small part of that massive move it made at around 2PM...again, I have to work on this a little more. I got spooked out of my position because when this stock started moving, the spread became huge and had me jumping out of my position...I'll work on just relying on the charts....

Took some good moves on Motorola (MOT) in the morning...in fact, I probably just needed to trade MOT today because the gains and losses on the other stocks I traded just seemed to cancel each other out.

Overall, I guess I'm glad I was able to control my losses and I didn't let any of those losers run away from me (some of my losers could have severely gone against me, but I got out before it got to that point). I was also fairly patient in allowing some of my trades to start working....but most of the time, it just resulted in a loser.

Today I also seemed to miss many good breaks on some of the stocks I was watching....some of those stocks simply exploded after breaking through a level that I tried to get in on (I'm talking about 40 and 50-cent pops immediately after breaking through).

Sheeesh! This Hybrid market sure is fast! Sometimes I'm watching for a level to break, the next thing I know, it breaks and prices are starting to run before I even have time to react! I guess I'll just have to do more anticipating in the future...

The 5-minute charts continue to keep me out of trouble...as I mentioned earlier in this post, I didn't trade as much in the morning because the charts weren't showing me anything good. This will hopefully have me trading better, higher quality setups.

Two good trades and no bad trades today.

Tomorrow's the last day of January...let's see if we can all finish it off strong!

Good Trades
10:08:28AM - Motorola (MOT) was moving up and was going to test it's intraday high at $19.50. There was big size on the offer at $19.50 and when it broke, I went long 10,000 shares. MOT popped up and stalled a few cents up, which spooked me into letting go of half my position. MOT would then continue up and I guess I was lucky that I got filled at the top of the move up. I got out as follows: 3-cent winner (5000 shares), 10-cent winner (5000 shares) ($650 profit before fees ; Long 10,000 @ $19.50 ; Out: 10:10:34AM)

10:18:29AM - US Steel (X) was moving up and was testing it's intraday high at $79.50 and when it broke, I went long 1000 shares. The move upwards was a real see-saw battle, but I managed to get out as follows: 15-cent winner (500 shares), 20-cent winner (300 shares), 25-cent winner (200 shares) ($185 profit before fees ; Long 1000 shares @ $79.50 ; Out: 10:20:18AM)

Bad Trades
None.