Day trading week 7

Total profits in 7 weeks: 18% of capital employed
Profit in week 7: 0% of total capital employed
No trading done

I didn't trade this week either. I sleep too late and always turn off the alarm before the market opens. 

Day trading week 6

Total profits in 6 weeks: 18% of capital employed
Profit in week 6: 0% of total capital employed
Rest week: No trading done

I didnt trade this week. Had a stressful work week and I saw last week how external stress creates a bad trading day. This is one of the few lessons that I really followed instead of just documenting.

Monday should be interesting as I cant wait to get back. The earnings seasons will also start kicking in and there would be a few volatile stocks waiting to be pounced upon!

Day trading week 5

Total profits in 5 weeks: 18% of capital employed
Profit in week 5: (3%) of total capital employed
Bad week: First week of loss

Perspectives on week 5:

Day 3 was that of a big loss. Put money in SAFM which delivered profits 3x of analyst estimates. You would think that a $42 stock would rise at least 10% with such great news. I put in money at around $45 thinking it would atleast go to $46 during the day. It ended up at $44. With no stop losses, I lost a big chunk there. I kept the stock overnight hoping (!) that it will jump the next day. It hardly jumped and stayed close to $44 at which point I decided to exit.

Day 4 was again a dissapointment but my mental state was also to blame. Some personal stress and trading suffers. Lost may 0.5% there.

Lessons learnt:

Companies like SAFM was "old school" (SAFM does business in poultry). Their stocks trade horizontally between big news events and big news events do not move them much either.

Learn to take losses and put stop losses. Day 4 was useful in that regards since for the first time I was ready to take a modest ($200) loss without hoping and waiting that the stock will rebound. I still hadnt put a stop loss but as soon as I realised that more losses may be ahead, I pushed myself to close the position.

Do not keep daily targets. The common theme in my mistakes has been the urge to get close to my daily target (~1% of capital). I am learning to remove this mental goal of that target. It was especially apparent when I took the first calculated loss (instead of hoping that the stock will turn around).

I also got upgraded to "Active Trader" status with my broker. Though I still dont have access to Level II qoutes, I have more technical analysis tools with me. Since I am accustomed to Google finance, I will have to break that habit and learn to move towards the tools provided by the broker. I will be able to momentum trade with information about bids and asks (though not as good as Level II quotes). Next trading session will be key as I will be prone to mistakes due to the new set-up with the active trader tools.