I've been going over my trade logs to see if I can pin point why my success rate has been declining so much. It's gone from a 68% success rate to 52%. I've been going through a 6 trade losing streak over the last couple weeks, with minimal loses but that's not the point.
I found out why I haven't been trading so well. My average holding period for a stock during my peak success rate was 2 days. My average holding time for a stock during my losing streak was about 10 minutes. I obviously can't day trade. I don't have the resources to make it happen and I need to realize it and stop wasting my time and money forcing something that won't work.
I'm going back to my old plan of swing trading. This is a classic example of how greed takes control and the losses take over. I've been thinking about this a lot this morning after that bad trade I had and I was swing trading very well back in June, July, and August and then this mortgage crisis came into play and that's when I changed my plan. I started changing my trading time frame from swing trading to day trading to try and capitalize on the new market conditions. I shouldn't of done that. I should of stuck to my plan/trading style instead of modifying it for the current conditions. If I couldn't find any opportunities, then I shouldn't of traded. Simple as that.
This is a pretty big breaking point for me as far as my personal development as a trader goes. I'm glad I've gone through this experience. I needed this to help me realize my goals and to not deviate from the master plan! I'm going to do what I can to learn from this last months experience and make sure it doesn't happen again.
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