Hi everyone! Since my trades haven't cleared from last week, I was left with no money available to invest today. Sad for me, BUT! I figured I'd give paper trading a try. I chose to check out $PULM because it's the stock I'm most familiar with and because I was pretty sure it would have a small morning spike. As most of you know, PULM's stock price dropped about a dollar Friday the 17th afterhours. PULM's been having some issues lately, so I was reasonably confident that there would have been more short sellers than buyers. I was pretty sure that it would have a morning spike because those short sellers would want to cash in on their profits as soon as possible, which means they would have to buy to cover, probably right at market open, which would lead inevitably to a spike. 

The stock opened today at $2.71 (it says $2.70 now though... strange), but anyways, I bought $500 worth of stock (paper trading) and waited for the spike. Not even a minute later, the stock prices started to go up. I was at work so I kept half an eye on it while I worked on some of the designs I had to do, and after a bit of time seeing how the price was moving, I figured it was close if not at the top of it's spike. I sold right away at $2.92 and collected my profits. The highest point of the morning spike was at $2.95, so I sold very near the top. All in all, it was very well executed. 

But here's the thing... my actions were cold, almost surgical. I didn't have any real money on the line, and so I had nothing to lose. My stomach didn't drop out like it does when a stock price dips (or downright falls), and my heart didn't start beating faster when I was calculating in my head how much profit I was currently at. Paper trading is cold, calculated, and ultimately (in my opinion) rather empty.

After this experience, it made me glad that I chose to start investing actual money right away to go through the myriad emotions that come with trading and risking real money. I am glad, however, that I did this because it proved to myself that I am getting better at predicting stock movements and I can execute trades with precision.

The trick seems to be being able to do these things while risking real money and still executing with precision.

The trade came to a total profit of $23.38 after fees were accounted for and overall about a 7.5% profit.

Not a bad day even if no actual money was made.