So it wasn't just me... "[CL] would've worked out REALLY well if I put on the first trade and then closed my eyes for an hour. But I have this irrational compelling urge to watch my trades and today was not a "watch your CL trade" kind of day. All watching did was make me take a tiny profit, watch price run further without me, chase a new entry, take a tiny profit, watch the trade run further without me, chase a new entry. There was one clean move leading into the capitulation low, but by the time I finished banging my head against wall, half the move had already gone and I was chewing on my nails over shorting so low."
As for me, I always say "it could have been a lot worse." It keeps me from falling into the netherworld of negative psychology. One day at a time. Tomorrow will be a whole new ball game. You asked in the past about having big stops. Today I had three fairly large losers with an average of 30-ticks. No doubt, I messed up. I should have stuck with my original plan, which was that the market was bottoming. Of course, my timing was lousy to begin with and I wasn't planning on sticking around to find out what the outcome will be. On that note, it's worth mentioning that stops, however large, is useless when you're trading without a game plan. Rather, I've come to learn that the loss is usually commensurate with one's stupidity.
As far as sticking to the plan, I will be (for the most part) bullish for the next few days and trade accordingly from the long side. However, I expect some pullback before kicking higher tomorrow. By how much, well, your guess is as good mine.