Oct 31, Nov 3 & 4

Oct 31st - You know those days when what ever you pick is the wrong pick, that's what Oct 31st felt like. Did one bad short on 200 CMI at 26.50 covered at 26.91 for $100 odd loss within 10 mins (broke my rule, if it doesn't quickly go in you favor get out).

Anxious to make up my loss made another bad short on 1k shares of CI at 12.81 covered 5 mins later at 12.90 for another loss of about $100. Not good, not good at all. I should have stepped back and looked at my blunders but of course I didn't.

Next came the afternoon close, shorted 1k shares of XL at 9.35 covered at 9.53 for a loss again, again that took 10 mins, waaaay too long. Finally shorted 1k CI again at 16.02 covered for a loss at 16.20 (avg) and again that took 12 mins.

So ended up giving up about $600 on Oct 31, what a day. It was two weeks to the day since I stared trading and I was up about 1k and in trying to be greedy and end the month on high(er) note, ended up screwing it up.

Stick to the plan. My objective is 1-2% per month and I was comfortable there and I go and give up $600 in one day. So in the end my Oct ended with me being up 1.24%

Nov 3 - Did just one short trade of 100 shares on SPG at 63 for a quick scalp of of $60 in 2 mins and got out. That was it for Nov 3 and actually that was a good trade coz the lod was somewhere close to where I got out and the stock just started to go up after that.

Nov 4 - Another disastrous day. First trade tried to short LVS and of course tda did not have shares to short, however it did not move in the direction I thought it would, even thought it did later on in the day. I honestly feel LVS will drop further, coz if you think about it logically people don't have money to for basic necessities why on earth would they the likes of LVS be making money and this goes for MGM too. I will look to short this probably for a swing trade, lets see.

Now for the loosing trades. Shorted 300 HIG at 16.92 covered a loss of $100, and then shorted 300 AMT at 32.57 and covered for a loss of $150 something.

So what are the common denominators in all mentioned above

1) still just shorting

2) market has been moving up

3) hanging around too long in a position when it doesn't go in my favour

4) this is a unique one, let me try to explain. So this is my personal observation from trading earlier on in the year as well and is true even today, may be someone else can validate too. Here goes, I watch the time and sales very very closely on the stock I am preparing to enter. Now, what I have observed is when a stock is trending down and then there is greens coming thru in the time and sales, squeezing the shorts and confusing the heck out of those intending to short the stock, this is the best time to jump in short. I know this sounds crazy but its true, however watch the 10 day sma too closely on a 5 min chart.

So my November not off to a great start my I am trying to remain optimistic and hopefully make some money going loooong