Just not focused

Was I just not focused today or was I trying to sabotage my own actions?

At least I got some sleep, which is good because my body really needed it, yet on the other hand it set me up for a nervous start. I awoke 4 hours after schedule. At the very least I would be late into the office which is not good.

I checked the usual sources of information and did a quick pre-match prep. Perhaps too vague, but it was already 12pm. Put some trades on all with the direction of the previous day, which overall was to gain lost ground. Unfortunately no directional move occured. Market remaind still awaiting the US to take a stance. The only small move did go where expected, but did so long after I thought, from 116.32 to 116.26.

Then things got out of hand for me, caught the release of empoyment figure way at the high of the spike and lost attempting to scramble out. Made 2 out of 3 more bad trades on the settling after the figure. This was the biggest mistake of the day. I made a mental note not to trade like this.

Then the last figure of the day was out (ISM). I pressed the wrong button, partly because the figure were release in stages, and althought these weren't even out line, the market made me pay for my mistake.

At 47 ticks down, i decide to stay out for the day.

My trading manager tells me I should improve the measure of risk spread amongst trades. He could not understand how I go from taking 1 tick profits to sustaining 4 tick losses on subsequent bad trades.

He also reminded me that I should specify what-if scecnarios on my prematch prepsheet. Still, I think these are pretty obvious, at least in the format that my collegues write them. But to make them happy I must still make the effort.

I have also gone through some 30 pages of Trading for a Living by A. Elder.

I've also been thinking it could be a good idea to a positive trendline to manage my trading account, e.g. in order not let it go below a level.