you have to learn to love to be wrong more than right,knowing when your wrong and getting out will keep you in the game so you are still alive to collect when you are right,learning to like being wrong is unnatural and is the reason so many lose at trading in the beginning, handle captured not learning it, perfectly ,in his post above,compare it to keeping your fingers away from the blade on a table saw
+33. For 13 minutes, I followed step 2. It was such a promising set up, so perfect, but it didn't work out.
There is light at end of tunnel, all the loses the 95% commit and brokerages too, but you can't just look at a chart and say ooooo it going up, I am going to buy based on emotions. Have to quickly identify what price is screaming most of the time. If one looks at 3 minute ES today, by 6-7 minutes after open, you can see a megaphone form, to me that means no trend trades and selling highs. buying lows until prices thrusts out of that pattern. But most won't see that cause they have had losses and it is killing them.
+95. I followed step 2, which is a great leap forward. But the regret is that I didn't quite follow step 1, leaving a lot of money on the table. I want to add that following step 2 is very rare. In my trading career, I only followed it four times, including yesterday (about 13 minutes). OK, three times (excluding yesterday).
OK, here is what happened to me today. I did some research on API number of last week and the Department of Energy number of the same week, and the numbers of the week before. I reached a conclusion that API was more conservative. So if it said 6 million build up on Tuesday, the Department of Energy build up must be above 6 million on Wednesday, which is today. Last week, I thought of shorting minutes before the inventory came out on Wednesday, but I didn't, and missed the sell off. So this week, which is today, I decided to GRASP the wonderful opportunity of shorting crude oil. At 9:28am CT, I blissfully entered a short position at 101.70. I anticipated a sell off to 100.70. So I set the target at 100.70. Remembering that I need a stoploss, I set it at 102.70. That is 1 dollar gain vs. 1 dollar risk. The next thing was to wait for money to come to me. Money money.... As expected, at 9:30am CT, it dropped. I didn't have TV on, some guru on ET said nobody should trade with CNBC on, I took his advice very seriously. So I didn't know the numbers. Anyway it doesn't matter, what matters is that the price has just dropped. Money money...... But one minute later, the price reversed, and went UP. What the hell is happening? I said to myself. It can't be true! They cannot just used up all that amount of oil at that high gas price, can they? It must be a build up. It will come down, I said to myself. But it didn't. It gradually moved up, and up, killing me softly with its up movement, killing me softly, with its up movement...... I don't why, the word "killing" and the tune just popped up in my mind. Then eventually I got stopped out, killing me softly with its up movement, telling my whole trading life with these losses, killing me softly with his song....... Maybe I would be better off without the stoploss, maybe I should have held until the weekend..... Maybe I would not have been killed without the stoploss.... I seriously doubt the necessity of a stoploss.
Someone told me to follow the trend, and stay in the trend. So I turned on the computer and looked for a trend this morning. at 7:30 am CT, the trend showed up, it was a down trend. I noticed the market sell off after the initial claims number came out. Someone also told me to wait for a pullback, so I waited a little more time. Then I entered a short position at 102.90. But it soon went up against me. I stayed in it, remembering the words of staying in a trend. But after it went above 103, it didn't even look back and went all the way up to 104. Then I panicked and covered with a big loss. Then it came down close to 103, but I was not in it anymore. So another big loss day. Did they say disasters come in three?
cl is trading a normal market on crack,you should sit out or find extreme supp and res and trade that,you will know right away if wrong and use a tight stop, you can't ride the swings in the middle,it trades thin and there are 6 major players,so the manipulation in the mid pays off big,trouble is ,you are the other side of the trade ...find something to watch,trade sim until you are reading it profitably,free tuition or ,ivy league tuition,///////////////
Everything that happened today is a blur. I can't remember what exactly happened, but something like the following: I took someone's advice to use tighter stop (I used to use 1 dollar stop) and started to use 30 cents stop. This brought out a hell of whipsawing today. Sometime in the early morning, I shorted, after pit open it shot up, triggered my 30 cent stop. I remembered some guru on CL redux thread said one should reverse instantly, so I went long, but it immediately dropped, and triggered my 30 cent stop, again. I went short immediately, but it went back up and triggered my 30 cent stop. At this point, I began to think I was watched by other traders or the broker. How did they know my stop so well? Anyway, tired of being stopped out, I went long and removed the miserable 30 cent stop, but it just kept going down in the afternoon, never came back up again. Did they say Friday afternoon always sees an up movement in crude oil? Obviously not today. I went to the yahoo board and spread the rumor that Iran would be bombed during the weekend. I tried to scare the shorts to cover, but nothing happened. So I sold at another loss before market closed. If held it for the weekend, I would have 2 or 3 sleepless nights. I think I need some sleep. And that's the first use of 30 cent stop, and probably the last. OK, who told me to use a tighter stop? beaulinsky?
I am still waiting for my money to be wired into the account. So no trading today. I don't know how long it will take to get the money into the account, they told me it was 5 business days, the weekend days are not counted.
Got the money wired in and lost the money in one hour. Here is what happened: I was told to be patient, so I waited for the inventory number to come out. I got up really early and waited for hours until 9:30 am CT. My mentor told me to see the direction after the number. I watch the first couple of minutes, the price went down and up, then it went down...... I jumped in, shorted at 103.60, but it went up and triggered my stop (35 cents). I remember that the oil manipulators can push up the price even though it is a build up of inventory. So I changed direction and went long. I don't want to be stopped out again, so I removed the stop. I was anticipating a squeeze to 105 or 106. I remember what the President said about oil speculators yesterday: they are bad people, they push up the price to unrealistically high levels. So I was feeling comfortable that I went long. What I need to do is to wait for them push the price up. I think the President is right, they will push the price up. I sincerely believed I made a good decision, which was supported by the President of the United States. I was feeling so confident that I even walked away for a coffee. But when I came back from the coffee break, I looked at the screen and my heart suddenly sank. Seriously I could almost feel my heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. If not for my strong stomach, my heart would have fallen out of my asshole. The price dropped!!!! And I was long!!!! I sold in disgust. Is that bad luck? or just blind confidence in the President of United States? Didn't he say, yesterday, on TV, that the oil speculators would push up the price? Anyway, the money I wired in is gone, again.