We got a weak bounce today as the Dow gained 56 points on expiration Friday. Volume was average and the advance/declines were positive. The OEX trade was a disaster. I had a chance to cut the loss at 50% and I canceled the order to give it some more time. Mistake. It ended up being a 95% loss and broke one of the risk parameter rules set in place at the beginning of the year. I did not have the discipline to execute the correct moves under pressure. This is an amateur mistake. There are no excuses, I just wasn't good enough. So that was 2 horrible short term trades within a week. I am no good at short term deals. I should not even attempt them. Getting back to the markets, I'm about to change my mind on new recovery highs. The summation index continues lower and we should have had a decent bounce by now. It hasn't happened. GE was higher early and closed little changed. Volume was average. No trades in the works there. Gold was up 14 bucks to a new all time high. However the XAU fell 1/2. ABX, GG and NEM had slight fractional moves one way or the other on light volume. The dollar gained a bit today. Not sure why the gold shares couldn't follow gold today. It is something to keep an eye on. I would like to try the May gold share calls but after this week I'll probably be on the sidelines for a while. Mentally I'm discouraged. Both of my trades this week were losers from the start. Obviously that isn't good. The fact that I didn't take small losses when I should have just compounds the negatives. The money matters but not as much as the confidence factor. If you can't perform when necessary, you don't have a chance. So now I'll be gun shy for a while since I certainly don't have a handle on what the market is doing at the moment. Lousy trades just don't do anything for you at this point. It's April and although the year started out very positive for me, it seems like I am back to square one. I'll check the charts over the weekend and try to get my head together. It won't be easy. For now it's Friday afternoon and time for a break.