Not my charts, LOL. (though with my constant fiddling, I'm getting very near it).

September balances:
9/01/04: $5000
9/30/04: $4680.40

Down 6.39% for the month. Not quite how one envisions a month of "paper" trading. :) Well, it's onto better times and results in October. For the month, I can't say I've found the consistency I'm striving for (as to charts, narrowing down my specific setups, feeling confident with my front-end executions, etc) but I did develop the first framework for my new trading plan. I have determined to limit my number of trades, which I've been accomplishing the past couple weeks. I'm still fluid as to ideal target/stop loss numbers, whether to concentrate on the ER or YM or both (I've been trading both this week), how to breakdown my market screen time more efficiently, and there's always the constant battle with the charts (which indicators, which setups, etc) that is always the sign of underlying confusion and lack of confidence in any concrete thing.

That said, today was my best paper day: 11 trades (4-0-0 on the YM for +$55, -$16.48 comm) and (7-0-0 on the ER for $280, -38.40 comm). The problem with the runner getting taken out for less than the quick scalp target continues. Many in the chatroom have shifted gears and gone to an "all in-all out" scalp. I finally did get a runner to run on my final ER trade, and it paid off more than my 6 other winners combined.

My paper results have been pretty good. My win ratio is also decent, but it's been mostly small wins. The key, of course, is to start translating these results to real trades. Paper trading serves the purpose of testing (testing setups, testing executions, testing intratrade skills and psychology) and hopefully to build confidence. It's not real trading anymore than batting practice isn't stepping into the box in a real game situation, but to get the most of it, you need to make it seem real in your mind. In August and the beginning of September, I didn't have my real game face on and the results showed it. I've found more consistency now. The confidence is building. It's still baby steps and a lot of 2 steps forward, 1 step back, but it's definite progress now.