Same Mistakes

Opening balance £205

Closing balance £50

Day's trading loss £155

Before trading I tuned into bloomberg and caught up with the pre-trading report. Doom and gloom everywhere but no additional bad news.

I openened the day pinching a few points sensibly on an initial surge, in and out, rapier style. I then repeated my classic accidental trade execution as my finger grazed my laptop pad once more. Immediately I should have closed my trade, yet again however I let it ride and lost a big chunk of my account.

DON'T TRADE FROM MY LAPTOP.

Later in the morning I'm making rash decisions, jumping in and out of trades too easily. I'm playing £2 a point and can't get excited. By that I mean unless it has something riding on it that can hurt me I don't play properly. My minimum stake (for me) needs to be £5 a point. At that level it tends to sharpen my focus and I 'play' with the correct intensity.

I was the same when I played football, I was a good trainer with my physical fitness but when we played a 'match' at the end of the session I never gave my all because it was only practice. Come match day and I was as commited as anyone and played every second with intensity and at my max.

I can't recall individual trades just that I wasn't focused and ended up losing big points in positions that ran away from me.

CUT A LOSS EARLY, LIVE TO FIGHT ANOTHER TRADE.

I'm still enjoying this but I'm having a real problem focusing as I'm so busy with my day job I can't concentrate.

ONLY TRADE WHEN RESTED AND FULLY FOCUSED.

I've noticed most of my readings of the situation have been right but I've entered the trade too early (which means I've gone against the trend which is wrong in itself) AND I've taken profit too early when I could and should have allowed a position to run.

Overall a fantastic learning experience but I also have to be realistic and say my balance on Monday morning was £600 and £550 of that has gone.

I MUST READ MY VERY FIRST BLOG ENTRY EVERY DAY BEFORE TRADING, SOUND ADVICE!