The Cage Rattler

Gross: +$502.71
Net: +$298.70
Loss From Top: $206.25
Trades: 76
Shares Traded: 191602

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
Motorola (MOT): +$326.43
General Electric (GE): +$72.85
Home Depot (HD): +$29.04
AT&T (T): +$22.99
Walmart (WMT): +$14.98
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): -$23.24
Exxon Mobil (XOM): -$144.35

It never seems to end. Just when you thought you've identified what might be going wrong with your trading, something else pops up. Once you've figured it all out, a problem from your past re-appears.

It just seems so hard to keep everything balanced and everything in tune. I'll have it all figured out hopefully sooner rather than later.

The morning went great for me (as usual) and coming up to 11AM, I was up over $500 net.

But then, it happened.

A cage rattler.

I may have called it something differently in previous posts and it's something I know I have to work on. So what is it?

It's kind of like being told that someone close to you just passed away and you were told to continue on trading. Some people would be able to do it - but most would find it difficult to concentrate. In short, a cage rattler is something that trips you up so that you have difficulty focusing at the task at hand.

My cage rattler happened on a bad trade on Exxon Mobil (XOM) (OK, this cage rattler is not as extreme as the example I gave, but I feel it is totally applicable).

This bad trade caught me off guard and I lost focus. I knew I shouldn't have traded the rest of the morning, but that bad trade really rattled my cage and I don't know why I continued to trade.

Thirty minutes and four bad trades later, I had lost close to $600 and I found myself negative for the day (Hmmmmm....this seems to be a recurring story for me).

And it was not as if I was really upset at the bad trade on Exxon. It was more because it was totally unexpected.

Let me explain.

I knew going into the Exxon trade that things were going sideways and so I put on a small trade with the hopes of making a few cents.

On every trade I put on, I am fully prepared to lose 1 or 2 cents should the trade go against me. Sure I may also occasionally have to take a 3 or 4 cent loser if prices really started going against me. But if I have to take a loser for 5-cents or more, it means that the trade just got away from me and I couldn't get out.

I wasn't expecting much from the Exxon trade. But what I didn't expect was for it to go against me THAT much (see bad trades at 10:58AM).

I knew I had a pretty good morning going into this trade and had I just lost 1 or 2 cents on the Exxon trade, I would have been okay. But for whatever reason, that bad trade really broke my rhythm and tripped me up.

And it wasn't as if I lost a lot on that bad Exxon trade (I lost $138 before fees on it) - it was just something in my brain that felt it was unacceptable. Perhaps it was a need to try to get back into my trading rhythm or a need to try to make back what I lost. I dunno.

After I lost that $600 and found myself in negative territory, I told myself to stop, shake it off, and wait for new opportunities. I looked at the situation and scolded myself for trying to trade the completely flat morning.

So I waited until the FOMC meeting minutes were released and I was lucky to catch a late day trade on Motorola (MOT), which was basically my entire day.

There were 3 bad trades and 2 good trades.

I have to work harder to ignore the effects that individual trades may have on me and I just have to finish a trade, let it go, and move on. I'm just glad I'm keeping my emotions more in check lately...now I've got to work on my thinking...

I'm also going to stay away from Exxon Mobil (XOM) for a long while. Ever since it went Hybrid, this stock just scares the bejeezes out of me, with all it's really wicked chops. I just simply cannot handle the 10 and 15 cent quick chops that this stock now exhibits.

Good Trades
1:10:56PM - Motorola (MOT) was uptrending while the Futures were moving up very slowly. MOT was re-testing it's intraday high at $22.30 and when it broke, I went long 4000 shares. I got everything out for a 4-cent winner ($160 profit before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $22.30 ; Out: 1:12:28PM)



3:09:07 - Motorola (MOT) was downtrending while the Futures were moving up. MOT looked like it reached support and there was huge sizes on the bid at $22.26 and $22.25 (both had 1000+ size on the bid). I went long 10,000 shares @ $22.27 and patiently held it. I got out as follows: 1-cent winner (5000 shares), 4-cent winner (500 shares), 5-cent winner (4500 shares) ($295 profit before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $22.27 ; Out: 3:15:48PM)


Bad Trades
10:58:19 - Exxon Mobil (XOM) was moving up while the Futures were flat. This was the cage rattler. XOM reached some resistance at $74.80 (big size on the offer) and when it broke, I went long 2000 shares. As soon as I got in, I was looking at a bad loser and I didn't expect XOM to chop sooo severely sooo quickly and I got out as follows: 3-cent loser (200 shares), 6-cent loser (1000 shares), 9-cent loser (800 shares) ($138 loser before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $74.80 ; Out: 10:58:48)


11:24:05 - Motorola (MOT) was moving up while the Futures were flat. MOT reached resistance at the $22.00 level and I just jumped the gun a little too soon and hit the $22.00 level with 10,000 shares. The level didn't break and started heading down. I got out as follows: 1-cent loser (5000 shares), 2-cent loser (5000 shares) ($150 loser before fees ; Long 10,000 shares @ $22.00 ; Out: 11:25:32)



11:35:45AM - Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) had just bounced after hitting intraday lows while the Futures were flat. I went long 4000 shares at $21.50. Just got chopped out and I got out everything out for a 4-cent loser ($160 loser before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $21.50 ; Out: 11:37:07AM)

The "I-Don't-Care" Attitude

Gross: +$332.27
Net: -$19.30
Loss From Top: $373.17
Trades: 169
Shares Traded: 329576

Stocks Traded Today (net profit/loss):
AT&T (T): +$412.93
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD): +$170.59
Corning (GLW): +$103.06
Disney (DIS): +$90.16
Motorola (MOT): -$109.82
Hewlett Packard (HPQ): -$126.21
Walmart (WMT): -$164.48
Home Depot (HD): -$395.51

What a crazy day it was today.

First we had Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD) report before the open, which made for some great trading in the morning. Within the first 10 minutes of trade I had made a quick $350+ net.

But then it happened. I started thinking about money again. I started thinking about how much I could make after a good start to the trading day. For some reason, everytime I start thinking about money, no matter how subtle, my trading suffers.

Even if I think about it during the weekends or before I get into the office, I somehow lose money. I don't know what's wrong with me - the more I think about the money, the more I tend to lose.

Anyways, from there it was a combination of this thinking and some very very poor timing made on my part that led to a mental breakdown.

By 10AM, I had lost everything I had made. It seemed like no matter how good a setup was or how perfectly a stock met my trading criteria, I just couldn't seem to bag a winner.

At that point, I started adopting an "I Don't Care" attitude. I found myself thinking "Ummm...this doesn't look like a good trade to get into, but since nothing else seems to be working.....ahhh I don't care....let me just get in to see what happens".

This mentality came about, not from anger, but from more of a "I give up" kind of thinking. My mind just didn't care any more and because it seemed like no matter how hard I tried to be careful and how picky I was about a trade, I ended up losing.

I even put on several trades that were the exact opposite of what I'd normally do...this was done on the basis that since previous trades that had a great setup ended up as losers, the opposite of what I think is right should be a winner.

You think this worked?

Obviously not...

I would continue to lose money until I was down almost $600 net and had a loss from top of close to $900.

I just remember sitting there for a few minutes, not believing that I did this to myself. I sat there not believing that I allowed myself to let my mind slip like that.

Just then, the markets offered an opportunity for me to get myself out of a jam - it started ripping up like crazy at around 2:30PM.

Within 30 minutes, I made it all back and more - I was up $300 net by 3PM!

Unfortunately I kept trading as though the markets were still moving, but as you can see, during the last hour of trade we didn't really move anywhere and I slowly gave back all my agains (again).

When the day was said and done, I had to catch my breath - it was a rollercoaster of a ride today. I broke my record for number of shares traded today, but big deal...I wasn't able to do anything productive with it.

All in all, there were SIX bad trades and TWO good trades.

A patient trader would have done better. A trader with a sound mind would have done better. A smarter trader would have done better. An emotionless trader would have done better. A confident trader would have done better. A trader who had the strength to not trade would have done better.

Honestly? I have to pick it up a little if I want to continue to do this. I cannot keep having these poor performances and I don't think I can keep this up for much longer...

Good Trades
9:33:13AM - Home Depot (HD) opened and started moving up while the Futures had just opened. HD quickly made it's way to the $36 level and when it broke, I went long 2000 shares. I got out as follows: 7-cent winner (1000 shares), 20-cent winner (1000 shares) ($270 profit before fees ; Long 2000 shares @ $36.00 ; Out: 9:35:12)
2:44:02 - AT&T (T) was ripping up and so were the Futures. I went long 4000 shares when I had an opportunity and got out as follows: 4-cent winner (900 shares), 5-cent winner (3100 shares) ($191 profit before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $32.82 ; Out: 2:44:23)


Bad Trades
9:45:05 - AT&T (T) was up, but was at resistance while the Futures started to move down. The thought of money came into my mind and when the resistance level looked like it would break, I went long 4000 shares. All I saw was $ in my eyes, but this trade didn't work out. I got out as follows: 3-cent loser (2800 shares), 4-cent loser (1200 shares) ($132 loser before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $33.20 ; Out: 9:45:52)



10:51:15 - Hewlett Packard (HPQ) was uptrending while the Futures were flat. The Futures popped up briefly so I went long 3000 shares. The Futures quickly popped back down and so did HPQ. I got out as follows: 2-cent loser (1000 shares), 5-cent loser (2000 shares) ($120 loser before fees ; Long 3000 shares @ $40.15 ; Out: Did not record)


11:13:51 - Home Depot (HD) looked like it was moving back up to test it's intraday high while the Futures were flat. I don't know why, but I decided to go long 4000 shares. It didn't work out. Got out as follows: 2-cent loser (2000 shares), 6-cent loser (2000 shares) ($140 loser before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $36.15 ; Out: 11:15:52)


1:29:21 - Walmart (WMT) was uptrending, but flattening while the Future were flat. I didn't really care about whether this would work or not, so I went long 3000 shares. This quickly went against me, so I got out as follows: 2-cent loser (100 shares), 3-cent loser (300 shares), 4-cent loser (1900 shares), 5-cent loser (300 shares), 7-cent loser (400 shares) ($130 loser before fees ; Long 3000 shares @ $47.75 ; Out: 1:29:47)



2:18:40 - Home Depot (HD) was uptrending while the Futures were curving downwards. Decided to get long 4000 shares for no apparent reason...got out as follows: 3-cent loser (1200 shares), 4-cent loser (2800 shares) ($148 loser before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $37.30 ; Out: Did not record)


3:39:47 - Home Depot (HD) was moving up and so were the Futures. I went long 4000 shares, but just got chopped out. I got out as follows: 3-cent loser (2000 shares), 5-cent loser (2000 shares) ($160 loser before fees ; Long 4000 shares @ $37.85 ; Out: 3:40:11)