Hey traders. (Check out & Follow Simply_Stock_Trading .. thats my Instagram 👍😁)

My profit chart has gone to all time highs. Since October 14th 2024 I have made about $3,500 in paper trading profits!

Everything before that is real money trading.

Soon I'll go back to real $

This period however, apart from a couple of early hiccups, has been a beneficial one.

I have reached a new level of calmness. Ok ok I know, its paper money, and it doesnt compare to having real money on the line. 

But I would challenge that common assertion a little bit. I think after a number of years trading like I've been, and the pain of screwing up so many times, I am treating paper trading with just as much care and seriousness as if it were real money.

I am to complete about 66 days, Tai Lopez talks about 66 days being an average period it takes to form a new behaviour.

I'll take my time. Also, I have to ensure that I'm trading with enough money (maybe a minimum of 2k but preferably 5k and ideally 30k!) . Also important to ensure that the money is not 'sacred money' .. i.e.  money I need for bills and living expenses as trading with that money is scared money.. and thus jinxed, damned, cursed etc and likely to lead to losses.

The market providing lots of opportunities (as usual), a little quieter this week and maybe quiet for another little while. I can't recall falling into a revenge trading mindset once, so I hope to focus on keeping up this discipline.

I'm holding one long term swing idea. NVDA ! Bought the dip at $120, will risk off $110. Its bobbing up and down in the $120s now and I'm regretting not 'playing the range' where I could be taking off some shares close to $130, banking some profits and then maybe reloading at the apparent support in and around $118-$120. It's a long term hold idea and maybe by the time I'm back with real money I'll still be able to get it at a good price for a long term hold.

 

One other insight into my trading has been at times I tend to get anxious about my account not growing fast enough, I start to see my profits slowing down a bit after a good run and I will be tempted to size up. I can fall into feeling like something is wrong, my progress is not happening fast enough. I caught myself beginning to think like this a couple of weeks ago, about mid January when the sector names started to stall out a bit. I managed to catch myself, and told myself 'THERE IS NOTHING WRONG' , just keep doing what you are doing and STAY PATIENT. In the past when this would happen I would take a ridiculously large position on a less than ideal setup, or I would start revenge trading a name on too much size. I have avoided all of that so far since this little paper trading series began on Oct 14th. I need to remember that my P/L will be limited by the stage of a market cycle we are in and the time of year etc. The AI and Quantum names have been on a tear since mid/late 2024, it's only natural now for these names to be backside of those runs and thus less opportunity. Although I could have had some swing short positions on which would be looking quite rosy right now. But I'm not there yet and not sure I should go there in earnest just yet until I've built up a large account size.

 

I am swinging FNMA overnight from $5.52, hoping it can crack $5 and I can begin covering in the $4s. I don't usually have the courage to short sell overnight but there are opportunities and I want to try and take advantage. I would have preferred if I took a swing position when it was bouncing in the $6s $7s but oh well, I didn't. I'm hoping it can have that support crack day sometime next week, which I may add to my position. But FNMA could show solid support here and start making for the highs, so I'll only risk about $200/$250 on it. 

 One thing I've improved on is that I don't get overly biased in a position. Always key to have that healthy respect fro those taking the other side of the trade. I'm ready to bail if my risk is hit, without much emotion attached to it. I will say that NVDA is bugging me a little bit, I'm suprised it hasn't been able to hold the mid $120s area better. I heard on a live Twitter discord someone saying that maybe the institutions are deciding to take their profits on NVDA and could stay out of the name & focus on other opportunities.

For me, it's always good to hear that perspective, something which could prove to be true, so if my stop is hit at $110 I'll suck it up and take the loss. Nothig worse than falling into the mindset 'Ah its Nvidia, it has to recover' and then see the stock fall back to $60 and lose 2 grand.

I will stay open minded, nimble and flexible in how I trade. I will keep my finger on the pulse of the market as much as possible, and just try to take advantage of patterns I am familiar with and try to branch out my strategies a bit more to capitalise on swing trades, and also try to bring my damn long win rate up !!