Today is Friday, September 10th, 2010 and we saw the Dow up 47 points and the S&P December Futures up +7.25 points.

We continue to slowly move higher as today was a very quiet trading day. We saw most futures traders in the financials switch to the next front month as I mentioned in my blog yesterday. Traders need to be aware of these days as it could end up costing them money. Mark your calenders and know when that day is coming so you won’t be surprised.

Today’s trading was pretty uneventful for me. I wasn’t even going to trade, but late in the session I did decide to engage. I had only a few trades and picked up a small sum. I did not pressure myself with hitting my daily goal, because of the slow low volume day. I missed all of the early session and started to watch things during the slow time of day. Later on, it did pick up, but only a touch. Anyway, I have a video of the whole session showing the turning points and the new contract month for the S&P, ESZ10.

Their is not a whole lot as far as direction and trend that I have not already said in recent days. I do see some competing area’s of leadership when compared to the Dow and the S&P. The S&P has cleared some overhead resistance that it needed to get over and it has done that the last two days, while the Dow has not. About 80 Dow points higher their is some invisible resistance to overcome, so we will see on Monday if we trade to that area and then take a breather.

It was good to see the market close near the highs of the session, a bonus for Mondays open. The closing days position has a lot to do with future direction as it relates to the daily and even the weekly charts. Depending on the previous price action, a close near the highs of the day, will tend to have bullish tones for the next session. Many traders take their Que from this type of closing position and will have orders pending the open of the next session. That leads to buying and often times, buying begets more buying, (short covering and regular interest).

Going forward, I do believe the bias will be to the upside. I really should not get to caught up into figuring out every twist and turn in the daily and weekly charts. I do that because I know many people follow it and it does give me something to write about. It is very interesting to do so, but as day traders, we are really most concerned with the turns inside each day. Every day is a fresh start with no baggage before it. We need to leave yesterdays gains and or losses behind us and focus on what is in front of us. If any trader gets to preoccupied with past history, whether it is good or bad, it can be harmful to your current fresh start day.

Traders need not get giddy with large gains or depressed with losses. If you do, you will be working against yourself. Everyone is different and your excess emotions will get played out negatively against you. How do we guard ourselves against this emotion?  Decide now that you are a professional and then act in accord with what you feel this image best represents yourself.  Controlling trading emotions should be at the top of the list.

Next, I could think of bragging about one’s new title as “Day Trader”. It is an admired profession, but most people know that this is a very hard thing to master. By releasing the controllable emotion of excitement and hope for your new future to others, you work against yourself in ever realizing those dreams. The energy that gets released in the form of loosely sharing with others, takes power and energy away from you. One of the reasons and their are many, is, you create an image for yourself that may be hard to live up to. If things take longer or don’t work out the way you plan, you may find yourself  fibbing about your progress to keep up the image you created by loosely sharing and that creates a whole new set of problems.  In addition, the emotional high of sharing and releasing this emotion is in itself a form of gratification, which then reduces your resolve to make it all a reality.  It is sad to say, but that is the truth. This makes it ever so much more difficult to reaching those sought after goals. So decide now that you will keep your new venture close to the vest.

Emotion come in many forms. The ones I mentioned above are not easily identified by ourselves when we do it. It sometimes takes an outsider to point it out to us, because as mentioned, its not easy to see.

We are much more akin to hearing about the emotions of  “Fear & Greed”.  One can never over state those two. They make traders do things that they never thought they could do in a rational world, but once those two emotions latch on to you, watch out. If you can identify it ahead of time and that is what I am trying to do here today, we should just stop trading. That may be even if you are up on the day and especially down for the day. Usually, our trading only gets worst when you let these emotions out of the bag. Rather than go into it now, I need more time to better address those two. I have wrote about it before, but many months ago I am sure. My perspective has likely changed a little as I have a lot more input to add against the topic.

To recap, all successful traders need to see themselves as they want to be. “A professional Day Trader who earns his living or supplements is living from the financial markets”.  Maybe it would be a good idea to write down a few things that you need to change so that you can mold yourself into that description. It is different for everyone, but if we take this one step forward towards that end, we will be making progress and isn’t that what it is all about. We are all on this journey together, so you are not alone. I have many things I need to change to better meet that description myself. Even if financial goals are met, often, their are other area’s of self improvement that we know we should be addressing and that is progress one day at a time.

Good Trading to all and have a great weekend, Vince

P.S.  Do something fun before the weather changes !

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