Trimming The Fat

I had a couple of decent trades today, in JRCC and ATW specifically. However, I want to focus on something that is definitely holding my P&L back... the shitty little losses I keep amassing.

In order to better focus on eliminating these shitty little trades, I'm going to start reporting my broken down P&L. I'll report my winners and losers as usual, and add up the total dollar amount of each.

Like, for example, I jumped the gun in AET, WCC and BG today. My three losses in those stocks added up to about $150. Nothing disasterous to be sure, but when I'm making $200 a good day, I have to figure out where all the headwinds are.

I've been over my inability to hold winners... that's been a recurring theme of this blog since, well... forever, and my most obvious failing. My other (within the current style I'm trading) is my trade selection. I'm just taking too many shitty trades still, without crystal clear entries and exits. I need to just stop that and focus on the 3 or 4 excellent trades that seem to present themselves each day.

Anyway, my best stock of the day was JRCC. It was my first trade in a 4-letter name with my new company and it was very satisfying. Mostly because it worked so quickly and easily. There was no retest of my entry or chop. It just cratered at my entry point. Of course, I covered it all too early.



My other decent trade came in ATW, another HCPG play. This was good just because once again, it worked right away. The reason I sold "early" instead of waiting for the $112 target was because the $OSX was so weak all day. I rather doubted the stock would reach the target, so I just took the easy money.



Anyway, I've been treading water the last few days with trading and my focus has been elsewhere. But I want to finish the month strong. There are 3 trading days left, and I'm setting the (sadly) ambitious goal of $300 a day average so I can hit the $2000 mark on the month.

With the Russell Rebalancing on Friday however, anything can happen. I'm still undecided about whether I should go at it lunatic style and take massive risk, or if I should play it close to my chest and take my small gains for the month... we'll see.

Here's the stats:
P&L, $225
Best, JRCC, $256
Worst, BG, -$51

4000 shares traded.
3 winners for $409.
6 losers for $188.