Losses prevent profits

Friday's excuse. A couple of initial losses changed what could have been a great day trading day.

Nifty M3 Price Action Chart

The open action was just above/near the previous day high. The volume action was not great, but only the fact that price was above range, and looking like it would come down, tempted me to go short - twice. If the action was in the previous day's range, I would have sat on my hands.

The small Stop Losses on those trades resulted in losses, and prevented me from going short again. Thinking about it, a wider Stop Loss would have resulted in a smaller loss than the total losses in those 2 losing trades.

When later, the price broke down with volume, I was not sure of which way it would turn, but just to avoid being left out of a down move, I placed a short at the low of the day. That trade cleared my losses, but my exit was bad. I was anxious to lock in some profit after the initial losses. Then, placed another short at low of the day to catch further momentum, if any. Another loss, and I was back in red.

The price was popping up, but I was patient and waited for a consolidation. And when the consolidation happened, I was not so patient and took a short instead of a long.

At this point, I had 4 losses in 5 trades, on a very good day trading day. To top it, the last 2 trades were even wrong directionally. So, I switched to mechanical trading and managed to recoup losses. I do not intend to post mechanical trades. I believe that I should have stuck to discretionary trading, and tried to make in work. I plan to trade discretionary again this week, and hopefully my resolve will hold this time...... depends on the results.