Yeah, and if they were real trades I'd have covered my losses from yesterday.
However, I should probably sit and take more signals, however I will obey my rules as thought I was trading real money (isn't that the point). I'll stop with the first losing trade after my profit target. So I can keep on taking signals until I lose once. I can lose 20 pips before I bugger up my profit target, so the riskiest trade I can take is 20 pips SL with target of 40 pips or higher.
I love paper trading - no stress (except the fear of being wrong, and with sensible stops and targets that doesn't bother me). I still have a temptation to take profits early, but I resisted that for +20 and +30.
The only thing I am doing differently is setting breakeven stops at +10 on a trade. This seems sensible enough. I take profits out of fear at this stage, so a BE stop removes fear of loss and my worst case scenario becomes a scratched trade. With my SB bookies I can't do this so soon (although possibly with CMC at around +15, but they aren't my preference - cash prices only and I rely on my otFeed / NT charting).
To simulate this in real SB trading, I could place the stop mentally (in addition to my hard stop which is placed on entry) and hover over executing a "cover at market" order which I hit the minute the trade nears breakeven. This would prevent me walking away from the trade however...
Thoughts?
Since I am journalling here, I'll stick some of my observations in.
I am setting sensible stops and targets, and ignoring "signals" which don't conform. I am not very stressed which is to be expected. I feel no compulsion whatsoever to over trade, and I obviously can't chase losses on paper, so I am not concerned with past performance. These are attitudes I need to replicate in live trading.