Frustration Nation

Net: -$240.23
Trades: 86
Shares Traded: 45200

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX): +$123.21
WellPoint, Inc. (WLP): +$95.91
Eaton Corporation (ETN): +$68.75
Wyndham Worldwide Corporation (WYN): +$44.15
Johnson Controls, Inc. (JCI): +$29.54
McDonald's Corporation (MCD): +$27.61
Owens-Illinois, Inc. (OI): +$20.67
McDermott International (MDR): +$18.32
Danaher Corporation (DHR): +$12.19
Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (WPI): -$18.32
Idearc Inc. (IAR): -$23.39
Varian Medical Systems, Inc. (VAR): -$26.91
FedEx Corporation (FDX): -$28.74
Whirlpool Corporation (WHR): -$41.02
R.H. Donnelley Corporation (RHD): -$47.07
Constellation Energy Group, Inc. (CEG): -$47.12
W-H Energy Services, Inc. (WHQ): -$61.02
E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company (DD): -$83.20
Hartford Financial Services (HIG): -$87.40
Oil States International, Inc. (OIS): -$104.95
Continental Airlines, Inc. (CAL): -$111.42

What the hell.

These last two trading days have really really sucked.

Today the markets moved, but the moves made by stocks just really really sucked. Unbelievable.

Literally every trade I got into didn't want to do anything. Even when the overall markets were ripping, the stocks I happened to be in didn't want to move.

I dunno - maybe it's been my attitude these past two days....I've been wanting to get May off to a roaring start and maybe I'm coming in too aggressive by taking trades that may not be all the best.

I've also been going in with larger positions but like yesterday this only amplified the losses I was taking.

For whatever reason, nothing wanted to move or run.

And my mistake was that when I did have a position that was profitable, I waited and wanted to book a big winner on it....but by waiting, I missed out on my opportunity to get out and as a result, there were many trades that were initially winners, but turned into losers.

And there were just soo many trades where I would get in and I'd sit there and wait and wait. I felt like I was just wasting my time by sitting there waiting for the stock to make it's move. When I could have been focusing on other potential positions, I'd wait and wait and in the end, I'd either book a loser and a very small winner that was hardly worth the time.

It's not that I lost a lot of money today, but for some reason I really felt ticked off today.

Usually when I get frustrated (or desperate), I end up taking a lot of trades and trading a lot of stocks.

All afternoon I kept going from one stock to another and I'd be thinking "Damn this stock, oh yea, well there's another stock over there that'll probably move!".

What I think I have to do is to go back to the way I was trading all last week....by picking the opportunities and waiting for a good trade. Today I was trying to trade everything that came up as an alert (mainly because I was frustrated).

I had been up in the morning...then I proceeded to lose close to $600 during the course of the afternoon.

For the rest of this week I think I'm just gonna call it a day after lunch....I'm finding that the afternoons moves are not like the mornings and the same setups don't seem to work as well in the afternoons.

Ahhhh forget about it. I don't want to think any more about today.

Good Trades
(trades in which I make $250 or more)

• None
  

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

• None