Trading Self-Analysis

I took a look at some of my recent trades, and boy, do they look messy! First problem is that my losses are all over the place. I've got anywhere from $1 loss to $200 loss. Clearly I need to improve on how I manage risk - think twice about selecting position size and stop loss points. My gut feel says to limit losses to $50 until I increase my equity again.
Second thing that I notice is after that blow up on Google options, my win rate has gone downhill. I think this is a combination of poor trade selection and poor risk management.
So, the second thing to focus on is trade selection - I need to be constantly vigilant about stalking only the best setups.
The third thing that I've noticed in my trading in general is that I haven't held longer than 2 days on most of my trades. I would love to hold a stock for a month and am always on the lookout for a stock that is making a run like how AKAM did back in Sept, or AAPL for the last 2Q's of 2005. However, my trades are suggesting otherwise. Sometimes I feel like I am a scalper, but on the hourly timeframe. I don't know, is there a technique that would allow me to capture all of AKAM's run in Sept? Or all of STEC's run in Aug-Sep? There were plenty of shake-outs as each stock grinded its way higher. With the way I have been trading for the past month or two, I would have surely gotten stopped out of these kinds of run-ups. It goes back to the burning question that I have asked in previous posts - focus on the trade/setup/process, or protect profit with tight stops ? Just some things to ponder, I guess, as I endeavour to find my own answer that works for me.

One other thing that I noticed with my trades - they are all longs ! Just like how traderZBS is comfortable with anti-trend plays, in all honesty, I have a natural preference to be in a long position instead of a short position. Case in point was this morning when SU presented a nice juciy short scalping opportunity:


Obviously I need to start learning how to short and short profitably if I am at all serious about eventually doing this trading for a living. So much to learn and so little time...... Fortunately, I enjoy learning (but not the paying tuition part of course!), and still am determined to learn to do this well.