Long overdue update

I’ve been long overdue for an update, and I’m between meetings at work so here’s a brief update.

I started paper trading based on some principles learned in Andrew Aziz’s book mentioned in my last post.

Started with an opening balance of $25k. Over the course of 5 trading days I advanced the balance to $33k. Most would call this “a success” but I am not satisfied. The reason being is that I had a very poor plan, if any, on my biggest winners. I found myself chasing winners rather than a strategic entry. I wound up on the positive side of things but more out of luck than skill. This will not be repeatable consistently.

In addition to that, I got in front of the Facebook drama and ignorantly played around with Put options on FB, GOOG, and TWTR. I managed to pull out $7k in profits in two days. But again, this was purely speculative play on news without a good understanding of options. Will not be repeatable.

Lastly, I’ve picked up another book recommended to me: Mastering the Trade by John Carter. This book has greatly opened my eyes to the amount of learning I have ahead. Based on the first few chapters I’ve decided to hold off active trading longer until I can complete it. I learned of the “fake orgasm” strategy, scanned the market over the weekend for potential opportunities and came across ENR with the right setup. Paper traded it today on the short side. Entry price: $59.58, profit target of $56.61 based on Fibonacci extension (61.8%). Stuck to my plan, it followed my forecast and I executed my plan exactly as intended. I’m not sure if it’s the book or just evolving my trading maturity but closing this trade felt a hell of a lot better because I could tell you exactly why it moved the way it did.