So I went online and added the live market data for $19.50 per month. I then logged into the live account and indeed saw that the data was live now. Then I took a look at $TLRY, a stock we have been paper trading for a month now. I saw a setup, and I clicked the buy button. I was in the stock and as soon as I was, a tab flipped up and blocked my view of the buy and sell buttons!!!
46 heart pounding seconds later, I figured out how to get rid of the damn tab and close the position. I could have made about $150 in those forty or so seconds, but I ended up banking $53. What's worse, I could have easily lost $150 too, but I got lucky.
After the trade I sat there shaking because of the frantic attempt to find my buttons again. I asked myself how much of that physical reaction was honestly due to the panic of not finding the buttons, and even now hours later, I'd say almost all of it. I did my best to rationalize what I was doing and stay zoomed out. At the end of the day I have been doing this profitably for 18 days straight now, and overall, I have several hundred trades under my belt that prove to me I know how to do this. It is so important to make it my mantra, that keeping losses small is the real strategy. As long as I am trading volatile stocks, buying on dips for the most part, and cutting losers, the winners will more than pay for them. Not only does it help to remember that, but it also helps to remember that I have plenty of money in the account, more waiting on the sidelines, and even more that I can save to refund this operation should the worst happen. But, I am not going to let the worst happen because I am in control of this. The only way I should be losing any large amounts of money is if my broker fails, which is highly unlikely.
After I was finished with the trade, I went into my spreadsheet to input it and was surprised to find out that the last real money trade I took was one year ago yesterday.
It's just kind of interesting to me. Anyhow, as I am writing this I am spending some quality time with the Trader Work Station platform (From Interactive Brokers) so that come Monday I am hopefully familiar enough and have my hotkeys workings correctly. It seems that I have it mostly figured out now.
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