How to lose (paper) money Like A Champ!

DAY 0

Instruments and method of trading
Buying 1-3 Options contracts and selling them for a profit. I'll be looking at SPY, QQQ, IWM, AAPL, FB, TWTR, YHOO, JPM, C, TLT, and TBT. No spreads and no selling of premium. My goal is to buy a Call or a Put and sell it for a higher price.

Software
OptionsHouse/TradeMonster for the trading. ThinkOrSwim PaperMoney and FreeStockCharts for charting.

Proof
I won't be posting in real time, all my posts will be at the end of the night due to my schedule. Sure, this means it's completely based on an honor system, but at the end of the day it's about proving things to myself to improve my trading. The paper account will be way bigger than my real money account, which is why the contract size is so small, so I'll show percentage gains/losses.

Strategy
I'm not sure exactly what my strategy is. This isn't my first time trading, but it is my first time being completely serious about it. I've seen different strategies and read different things...etc, etc, etc...but I still feel like I'm missing things. Those things I'm missing are preventing me from being a profitable trader, and I hope I learn them through this journal.

I don't use any indicators or read news or anything like that, just candlesticks for me. The only thing I take into account is Earnings or QE type of events, in which case I won't trade the securities during those days. My goal is to trade in the morning and close the position by noon. No holding anything overnight. I also don't want to make more than 3 trades a day, ideally my first trade is profitable and I'm done for the day.

I'll post charts with lines for entry, exit, and stop-loss. I'll explain how I came to that position and show the progress of the chart "over time" throughout the day. I'll also post my percentage gain loss for the day...and my percentage gain/loss at the end of the week. And like I said earlier, I can't post in real time, so you'll have to take my word for it.

I'm going to use the Previous Day Low, Previous Day High, Current Day Low, Current Day High, and trend channels to find these points. What I've noticed in the past is that when I just draw lines without making any trades (paper or real), they seem to work just fine, but when I actually do trade it gets all messed up. So I'm obviously doing something wrong.


I guess that's all, hope this works out.