Been through ups and downs in my trading, started with low capital and I still have a low amount of capital compared to others. Want to start this journal to keep track of my backtrades(trades that I go back in time to do not bar by bar, but second by second) and real trades. I've been interested in markets since October 2017, when I graduated high school and currently am still in college with some amount of capital. Net PnL over my entire trading career is negative and I wish to change that by actually keeping track of a journal since I never could do it before. I didn't trade the entire 3 years I was trading maybe only around 1.5 years. Took some time off and on for school. My Career: I started in penny land and made around $1.5k on $2k until I lost it all then started to day trade some tech stocks. Kept losing, and am still losing. Types of trading and trading instruments I have done are: daytrading, scalping, options, swingtrading, coins. Trades I take I wouldn't know how to categorize but I wish to categorize, if I were to try to categorize them at this point in time it would trend following scalps, although I wish to aim for longer term daytrades(holding for more then one leg), but trading longer term daytrades cause me to question my position too much because I do not know if it is a counter trend or not when price moves against me. I do not have a basic strategy like double bottom, I purely trade on my experience watching markets for 3 years(price action? although I do hope to consolidate how I trade). Although I am all over the place I plan to try to consolidate myself and my plan in the upcoming trading year. This is for my personal self improvement, but questions and comments are appreciated. Backtrades will start from The first day of 2010 I will attempt to do one everyday each backtrade session will be at 3x speed. Real trades will be everyday unless I have test for my classes or problems that are more important than trading or more urgent. The type of security I will trade is the SPY ETF. I will trade options in my real trades(because I can bypass PDT with my cash account), but for backtrades I will just trade 1 share to test my trading skills. I know that options are more volatile and are leveraged but I am just doing it because of the PDT, and backtrades the trade should be what matters not the type of instrument I trade unless both are illiquid. TLDR: I am net negative in trading over my career, I trade intraday, and do scalps that follow the trend(most of the time). I am using this place to learn and consolidate how I trade and my trading plan in general.
01/15/2021: REAL TRADING SESSION TRADES: 2(LONG) + 1(SHORT) Winners: 2 Losers: 1 LEGEND: BLUE IS LONG & PINK IS SHORT Trade #1, is a long, Entered based on support coming in, support kept holding until break out, sold for a profit. Trade #2, was a long, although it looks like I made a profit I actually lost because I market sold my options into volatility(although I didn't lose much). Trade #3, was a short, I really chased this one expecting a move continuing further, but I held onto it when it started tending higher, but not high enough for my stop, sold based on large option selling on puts, continued further but made a gain.
I am not sure if overall it is a profit or loss. You missed catching the juicy yummy delicious meat ( see the hilited portion). Where were you when the market was moving decisively? Were you sleeping or what? You were basically trading in the messy chaotic part of the day where all the juicy meat was gone except for the worthless bones and insides. You can draw blue and magenta lines here and there but It is very difficult to profit from trading in this region. You need to understand why - you missed the juicy part - you traded in the messy chaotic part of the day
First of all: There are only three ways to make money: you're faster, you're smarter or you cheat. Cheating and being faster is out of the question, so being smarter is the only thing you've working for you. This leads to the following: - STOP TRADING GIANT LIQUID MARKETS! Why on earth would you trade the SPY? The entire world watches it and when it's out of whack you 100% won't be the guy to make the trade first. - Find a niche market that you can thrive in and you are the expert. Take less liquid ones nobody trades. No momentum microcaps, no blue chips, in short stay away from the crap the streamers and youtubers promote plus the shit that is talked about in the trading books. - Learn to price things in relation to other assets to find good trades and to get an understanding of what's going on. Is GDX too expensive or too cheap? Well I don't know but it looks like getting long GDX and short GLD might be a good swing. - Find other ways to structure trades. Getting into a trade with a stop attached isn't the only way. There are spreads and pairstrades. - Look for cheap convexity instead of maximising win%. Derivatives wont hurt...and always remember: A futures contract is not a delta1 product. - Do not scalp or daytrade on a retail commission structure, you'll bleed to death. - with your account size, mid term risk arbs are the way to go until you hit the liquidity ceiling. Look into DeFi, there is tons of opportunity each day for small accounts -
Looking forward to reading your thoughts and see what happens. IMHO if you're a student be a student. Read a tremendous about of books about options and trading and choose a strategy that is appropriate for your capital. If you're in a small scale account I don't think scalping day trading is the right fit as you'll bleed to death on commissions and you need the time to be focused on the trading and with classes and other you'll be distracted. I traded as a college student but it was monthly plays in grain spreads and putting on spec positions in the softs (coffee, cocoa, cotton). I'm old (mid 40's) so this was before smart phones and you had to call the floor to put in a trade and wait like an idiot to hear the ridiculous slippage you were afforded. But these small hold positions fit with being a college student. Scary to think If I was there now with the apps I don't think I would have went to class. Not saying any of this to discourage you. If you're 20 and learning and reading now you'll have a leg up. Looking forward to see how you do.
Who is to say when the market will make a juicy move? I don't know if it will be when I make my first trade of the day or my 5th. I try to swing for large leg day trades(who doesn't), but I don't get them most of the time. I know the morning period is when trends are created but it is just as easy for a trend to reverse, I tried many times to catch volatile trends but it causes me to over trade, I am now just trying to lower the amount of trades I make because of overtrading is a real problem for me. I know I also chase, which is quite bad sometimes, but when I chase I exit when the market isn't doing what I think it should be doing like trade #2 where I expected explosive moves, but it got stunted easily twice. But maybe you do have a point, now that I think about it maybe large moves might have certain characteristics and I could possible trade them with a tight stop like how I do with my chasers. Thanks for the feedback.
I am trying to expand outside daytrading, I have swung a couple positions on the first week of the year and made a profit these stocks were low liquidity, I will most likely continue to do so if I see possible plays. Also I am also learning options and other strategies. Thanks I appreciated it, I do enjoy what I am learning which is mathematics and statistics so I do time manage both trading and school. I need to learn more about options for a bit, maybe test some waters with some strategies before I can start seeing the market in a options trader way, but that may take some time.
No I do not, that is what I am trying to do, I do have some basic plans. Maybe I am too greedy and that is why I do not try following them. Now that I think about it I might be searching to be correct or a holy grail, I know that is not possible and I cannot be correct all the time. Maybe I am impatient. I know I can either change the market(switch to different instruments or similarly trading multiple instruments) or adapt to the market conditions(trade /es, spy, etc). I do not know which one is better. In all I am not making a excuse to not have a plan, but whenever I put on a trade I do have a exit and potential target.