I made two mistakes today.
The first was trading from my office. I simply cannot concentrate fully as there's just too much seeking my attention.
I knew the NFP was being announced at 1.30pm and I was still at home at midday, having succesfully scalped a few points.
I had planned to take the day off but by mid morning i realised there was too much happening not to go into the office. I knew it would be tight for me to get everything completed had I stayed to hear the figures at home so I made my way into the office by 1pm, immediately my workload increased.
That should have marked the end of my day's trading, regardless of how alluring the imminent opportunity of making a few quid and that is where things went wrong. I was too busy with my work to focus on trading.
Nevertheless trade I did and although I am naturally bearish I went long once the index plunged 20 points, thinking it would be a nice steady slow ride back to 5690.
I was right but temporarily wrong as the index continued it's descent to 5645 before retracing exactly back to close at 5690. I had so much going on that required my attention that not only did I make the wrong decision (it's never right to lose 30 points on a short term trade) but I neglected to put in my stop loss.
5662 was a key support level and it glided past it effortlessly. It flirted with the 50's before plunging to 5645. At this point I baled out, £200 lighter and made the impulsive decision to switch allegiances and immediately shorted in an effort to recover some funds.
Of course the index had other ideas and began to work its way back upward. Of course, having neglected my initial stop loss I made the exact same error again and so my account was wiped out.
How do I feel? Stupid, humbled (yet again) yet strangely very calm.
This wekend I will post my trading bible, everything I have learned (at a cost of £2000) these past 5 weeks and next week I will fund my account and trade as the scalper I am, from home, mornings only.
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