Thursday's Trading Results

Dear Trading Journal,

Thank you for teaching me the concept of a portfolio stop today.

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Ran into another bout of overtrading today.
I was unable to resist the temptation of TZOO, and paid the price for that mistake.
With CLF, I learned that if the stock is not yet at resistance, and it is behaving sloppy, then exit no questions asked. I probably had no business being in CLF in the first place.
Picked up NMX Mar07 140 calls @1.35.
Sold GS calls, and then bought them again @2.45.
Picked up FM.to @68.21, WIN.to @7.40, LAM.to@12.79

There's trading the chart, and trading defensively to preserve your account equity. I think that trading the chart as a rule of thumb works 90% of the time, but there are certain circumstances where it must take second place to preserving account equity. In other words, having a "portfolio stop" is sometimes in conflict with the rule of trading by the chart. I came across such a circumstance today.

My trading account equity value was at its highest in the morning, and then slid down for the rest of the day. It even dropped below a key psychological "support" level, and I had to fight hard with some scalping to keep it above that support level. Some of the scalping led to bad results (like CLF and TZOO). It was really a waste of effort, as I should have sold everything this morning and just call it a day.

I think when the next time my account equity is in danger of falling below a key psychological support level, I will sell/exit EVERYTHING, no questions asked, and do a post-mortem afterwards.