My month to date results for April 2007:

 # closed winning trades : 1

# closed losing trades : 1  <= Manually closed

Net monthly profit (loss)% :  4.1%

Okay, this is a “manual override” report.  The system had entered a short yesterday afternoon;  I closed it this morning at a small loss.  The size of the order was abnormally high due to the constricted volatility in the cable over the past 48 hours.  This post serves as a journal entry of the decision.  My last major drawdown occurred during the 3rd full trading week of February, which was shortened in the US by the President’s day holiday.  I’m very nervous ahead of the Bank of England rate decision tomorrow and the employment report in the US on Friday, which will, cursiously enough, be released on a day that the US stock market is closed.  So perhaps I am just paranoid about this “holiday shortened” week as well.

 Though I have attempted to continually remind myself not to tinker with the system’s signals, in this case I could not resist.  I believe that the system was taking too much risk ahead of these events.  By the end of the week, we will know whether this decision helped or hurt the results for April.  My recent record of manual overrides has been quite good, but I’m keenly aware that watching the market like a hawk and obsessing over every little wiggle negates some of the benefit of having an automated system.Â