FEB/11 NDX Iron Butterfly Day-by-day Review

Positive results:
FEB/11) Got real good use of my feeling/well being assessment: Identified I needed to increase well being, reduced my caffeine intake and got in morning workouts to ensure a resilience "reserve" built up. JAN was an busy month at work, with the wife pregnant and we're expecting a baby, so I needed to increase the resilience reserves.

FEB/11) Reduced caffeine intake was a great thing. Got a lot of tea in the day, reduced stress due to coffee and had reserve to evening green tea to increase focus while making evening assessment and setting up contingent orders.

Lessons Learned:
FEB/11) I much prefer entering the full position. I get trigger shy if want to scale and end up not loading the total amount of capital I want to allocate.

FEB/11) When setting up contingent orders, to avoid miss-fire I need a checklist to verify the levels. Will have one ready next month (pilot checklist style).

FEB/11) Avoid relaxing tea in the evening while setting up contingent orders. Use a light-caffeine Green Tea.

Trade results:

1/19 Daily Summary : Started the position, only filled 3 out of 5 lots, was planning on adding extra lots the next day.

1/20 Daily Summary : NDX hit my down-side contingent order, I've held on to the 2 extra lots thinking if things get worse I'll jump in.

1/21 Daily Summary : Had a very busy day at work, did not add contracts to the trade. Didn't feel it was needed.

1/24 Daily Summary : By now I have already gotten a good P/L on the current position, questioned the idea of adding to the trade. Reason why I avoid scaling: Getting trigger shy after the first lot is in place.

1/25 Daily Summary : Decided my best option was to get out, cash out with ~10% ROI in just a few days.

1/26 Daily Summary : Closed the trade early AM, had a contingent order miss-fire due to mistake setting it up the night before (was sleepy perhaps). 7% ROI, not bad for a few days of fun.