Biggest red day since day trading live due to poor risk management

I realized that i didn't have a plan and just followed in a trade and as it bounced where strong stocks normally do (off a rising MA), i found myself "hoping" that it'd roll.  I agree with where i added but feel i should have cut out early and taken a quick -.75 loss on AAPL instead of letting it rise to where my next short was.  Great lesson on why not to get in a trade unless i have a PLAN!  


AAPL - Followed short into rising 8MA and paid dearly for it

LULU - Papered long as looked good, great trade!

Ended day red as got chopped up

Took 2 real trades and took losses on both, papered 3 others and killed it off 1.  So ended up going 2 for 3 but due to being able to stick to plan while papering, i'm proving to myself that i need to stick to original plan in order to become a better trader and not re-evaluate mid trade.

VRTX - Great reason why to utilize stops

PANL - Looked strong but faked me out

NKTR - Looked like B/O but fake out

GMCR - Great B/O pattern but failed as well

PCYC - The trade that had the plan but only papered

Mainly paper and did great, the few live i butchered

Groundhog day...

THLD - Daily alert triggered but too slow on pullin trigger

ORLY - Huge haircut and faded the gap

CSTR - Daily alert triggered, great entry, terrible exit

NFLX - Bounce off previous day low....terrible risk mngmnt trade, got LUCKY

PANL - Need to learn to anticipate these entries

Back to mainly paper as i'm not letting winners run

There is a huge psychological difference for me between live trading (take off as soon as it turns green), and paper trading (let it get to target or stop me out but stay out of trades way).

ZNGA - Long off breakout and took off flat

APOL - 2 Longs

AMZN - Short into MA and long off of MA

SINA - Short the weakness

LVS - Great long pattern

Hindsight showed to short market leaders on and rip

Hindsight shows easy day to short all major movers.  Instead i tried to knife catch both market leaders.  What stocks lead in strength...lead in weakness.  LEARN!


NFLX - Long bounce and fail

AAPL - Bounce catch fail

Ended day green as i get more in touch with my issues

CF - Followed Goat long, need to study chart

BIDU - Short on failed 50MA test and was wrong but good stop moved to B/E

AMZN - Followed Goat long at L/T support, didn't illustrate the patience he did

PANL - Great lesson in pullbacks

LNKD - Short on rollover but turned out to be natural pullback

R - Great short setup

ARNA - Huge short of failed bounce that was stalking but missed

Sat on hands and only papered today

..And watched others kill it.  Still learning consistency

RHT - Huge sell off so looked to fade the gap, right idea, limit missed and didn't chase

AMZN - At previous highs so anticipated break and paid, missed the gapfill though

BIDU - Chased the false breakout and got popped

HINDSIGHT LESSONS:

FFIV - Great short lesson

UA - Great short lesson on gapdown

LVS - Memorize this shorting pattern

NFLX - Memorize this shorting pattern

FSLR - Memorize this shorting pattern