That was very clear and helpful James.
Luckily I don't chase, and I don't emotionalize hard stops.
What I do is panic at the fear of giving back paper profit and have issues letting the runners do their thing. As a rookie I would have been very profitable in 07 if I didn't have this mental tick. I may actually just move back to scalping since I was profitable at that and try to tame the emotions with stocks or a non leveraged instrument with less to lose. Swing trading has the potential to create alot of money for me so I feel I have to learn to tame these feelings. Hell if not for the money for my own satisfaction. I have 70 stock trades and 55 future trades live so it's no wonder I haven't worked out the kinks yet. I need to keep reminding myself being only a year in and with limited trades I'm at least in the average group if not much higher up on the totem pole.
I'm undercapped too...I have $5k so futures are like all my eggs in one basket which exasperates my emotional tick. I'm dialing in though...this should be a profitable year for me...I'm confident of that.
Thanks for the input.