Chipping Away

Gross: +$156.00
Net: +$110.66
Trades: 81
Shares Traded: 63400

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): +$245.63
Reliance Steel & Aluminum (RS): +$132.96
Wyeth (WYE): +$108.58
Cablevision Systems Corporation (CVC): +$60.37
Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT): +$37.11
CIT Group Inc. (CIT): +$32.26
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD): +$15.74
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM): +$3.07
Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY): +$2.16
Altria Group, Inc. (MO): -$0.85
St. Jude Medical, Inc. (STJ): -$9.55
Oshkosh Truck Corporation (OSK): -$17.40
H.J. Heinz Company (HNZ): -$18.54
Baxter International Inc. (BAX): -$23.18
Herbalife Ltd. (HLF): -$25.92
SUPERVALU INC. (SVU): -$69.31
Schering-Plough Corporation (SGP): -$83.00
UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH): -$279.47

Oh man.....this morning I found myself stumbling and fumbling all over the place. I just couldn't seem to book any winners and many of the level break I took part in just didn't follow through.

It was another day in which I'd find myself in a long position and the Futures would quickly go down, dragging the stock down with it. I'd then find myself in short positions and the Futures would pop up and the stock I was in would follow.

One of the first trades of the day was a fairly big loser on UnitedHealth (UNH).

On the break of the $52.00 level on UNH I went long 2000 shares and it moved up one or two cents, but then quickly came back down and I bailed out for a fairly big loser.

Well that big loser kinda set the tone for the rest of the morning. I got in a couple of other stocks on level breaks and they all did basically the same thing - it'd go in my favor by a few cents, then quickly reverse.

By lunch I wasn't a happy camper as I was sitting in the hole by a fair margin.

I took lunch and went out for a quick walk and it kinda felt good to get out there on such a nice day.

I came back and spent the better part of the day chipping away at my loss.

It seems like every time I have to dig my way out of the hole, I always end the day more exhausted than normal....having to grind it out like that is just very tiring.

One bad trade and no good ones.

Gonna keep this short so that I can enjoy what's left of a beautiful day out there.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $200 or more)

• None
  

Bad Trades
(trades in which I lose $150 or more)

• 9:55:08AM - UnitedHealth (UNH) started moving up after gapping down and when it reached the $52.00 level, I decided to hit it with 2000 shares. It briefly moved up a few cents, but then rapidly came back down. That move scared me out of my position and I had to get out as follows (I used a 1-minute chart below so that you can better see what happened): 10-cent loser (600 shares), 11-cent loser (400 shares), 17-cent loser (900 shares), 19-cent loser (100 shares) ($276 loser before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $52.00)