Hitman, Trading the cash indices (e.g. QQQ) is totally a game of technical analysis. Trading NYSE stocks is more a game of reading the orderflow. Two different skills sets are involved. In trading cash indices, stochastics are nice. Look for moves off extreme readings, which often is indicative of exhaustion of the move that you are fading. With cash indices, you should be looking for secular moves if possible, not just scalps. I found Tuesday to be significantly more tradeable than Monday... Monday was a disaster. For insights on my volatility range contraction explanation on difficult trading conditions, please refer to my thread. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=1845&pagenumber=13
HITMAN and all others Have enjoyed your posts my style of trading is similar to yours but I trade nasdaq stocks only.I keep a list of my biggest dangers next to me while trading. Being tired Not exiting a trade that doesnt work quickly if it is still at my entry price. Continuing to trade if my 1st 3 trades are losers.{obviously I am on the wrong side of the mkt or just not seeing things correctly.} Recognizing when environment is trending, and when it is choppy and I am better off stopping for the day. Breaking any of my trading rules.Even if I adhere to my rule and close a trade and it goes in my direction the majority of the time my rules will keep me out of trouble
A much needed small victory as I prevented myself from slipping further into the abyss. Any time you are losing, the most important piece of the puzzle is to get a stop, you can not make others bleed until you stop bleeding yourself. 4 of 7 shooting on 5600 shares, +294 before commissions, +93 after, 1 bullet . . . Pre-Market: Another batch of SOX downgrades, but those are a dime a dozen in those days, sometimes they go up and sometimes they go down, can't play this with news anymore. U big upgrade from Hold->Buy, XAL strength. 9:30: Saw some CEX sell-off. PPG opened unchanged, unfortunately I could not get a good fill and ended up losing 5 cents on the trade as the index reversed. It looked really weak but the market reversed and eventually pulled up everything. Saw some energy buying and took EPG, lost 6 cents, those morning energy pops just don't last anymore, sellers galore in those stocks. 9:43: Took some DAL on big XAL reversal (expected because of morning news), unfortunately it did not have the legs to run up and I only got a dime out of the trade. The best trade of the day was CAL which had a market seller in him, XAL was going straight up and he was selling off on day trader volume (100, 200, 300), and then I saw a print of 3400 shares and BID showed up, the seller was done and I market ordered 500 shares and when I saw XAL made another leg, DPed for another 500. For whatever the reason the DP order was filled first, and I cancelled my market order as the specialist pulled the offer. Wish I had 1000 shares in this, it was a 40 cents move, and as sick as it is, it was my biggest winner of the day. 10:00: RLX strength, took some BBY and lost 10 cents, this specialist is really tough, but I bought again near intraday support as RLX made another leg to the upside, he wasn't doing anything so I offered it out for a 25 cents profit and I had a stop in. The bottomline, never ever offer something out above the current offer, if the stock takes the current offer and fills your order at a higher price, it is going higher and you are going to miss the move, he will never fill your order at a good price unless he is going higher . . . I missed almost a full point move there which could have made my day. 10:17: Played FMC on CEX strength, big offer and market ran out of steam, today I am doing what I should have done yesterday, rebate my bullet and go home . . . Well now I am home, and looks like I missed a lot! There is always tommorrow however, every day there is an opportunity in the stock market . . .
Hitman, Have you considered stepping up your size. Your discipline is good, so stepping up share size should not be regarded as a risky proposition.
Solid game today as I finally nailed that bullet on a gift trade. Back in the black for the month and while it is only $200, psychologically this is huge for me with 4 games left during the first half. 3600 shares on 2 of 2 shooting, +1024 before commissions, +800 after, 2 bullets. It is summer time and having one or two quality ideas and hit them with size is far better than going for a basket of plays and spread myself out. Did a lot of work on my watch list today and cleaned it up further, that said, I think I will always be going to my sentimental favorites. My top-down approach is great off the open, but I think I need to find some bottom-up approaches that starts from specific stocks, preferably stocks that don't move with the futures/indexes, to round my game out . . . Pre-Market: Massive broker downgrades 9:30: Saw BSC/AGE opened unchanged while every other brokers opened down 1 point. Put up the bullet on BSC immediately but it was right off the open, a lot of other people are putting up bullets (this is why many traders put up their bullets before the market even opens, while I prefer to put it up only when I see something happens). It took 10 seconds to confirm, instead of the instant confirmation I am used to. There were 1000 shares at 58.40 and unfortunately I didn't grab it in time. Me, Mrs. D., and another trader on my team all got .10 cents (a good feeling that they took my call). I was getting a little nervous because it was the equivalent of chasing a stock 30 cents. 1000 shares was too big of a hot potato for me and as soon as he hit .10 I covered half of my position at .10. The fact that he didn't spread me with some serious slippage told me this is probably a good trade. XBD looked really weak, as soon as the offer showed up at 58.10 I sold 500 shares at 58.04. 9:40: Haven't had this good of a feeling about a trade in a while, the offer stepped down to 58.04 x 100, and the BID at 57.99 was just x 18. I sold rest of my bullet for the full 1500 shares position, but I had 500 shares ready to be DPed to 58.04 as futures started to squeeze, fortunately it was a silky smooth trade for the next a few prints, the offer stepped down taking out BID's with authority. Whenever I pyramid I keep a very very close mental stop typically at the current BID/ASK, I never pyramid without something to lean onto, especially off the open . . . 9:46: B 57.50 A 57.81 5x200, the greatest feeling in the world. This would have been a much much bigger trade if the futures didn't rip straight up just then. Just as the stock was about to be destroyed, futures hit a new high and I covered everything at .50. Stock squeezed to .70, XBD was so weak it didn't even make any serious bounce during that entire futures run-up, as soon as futures came back in and offer re-appeared in BSC I DPed again, unfortunately, I only got 200 shares filled. Still a wonderful trade as I took an average of 45 cents out of my 1500 shares and almost half a point on the 200 shares . . . My AGE trade did not work well, while the stock fell a point there never was any real size on the offer so I pared in and out, still managed to pull out 30 cents on 900 shares . . . Mrs. D. was short 2500 shares and pyramided into the squeeze to .70 for a monster trade . . . She even told me "do not cover", and like an idiot I was shaking in my boots as the futures made a new high. She told me "who cares, XBD is still going lower", and I covered anyway, too happy with that $600, pure blue collar stupidity. She was also short DNA. Feel ashamed of myself for being only 3 months short in term of experience and plays like a total amatuer compared to her . . . I think emotionally I am quite a bit more relaxed today compared to earlier in the week, when the anticipation of seeing my sister certainly put a ripple in my heart. There was a high degree of anxiety and I lost focus before I even knew it. It is very, very important to stay focused, I won't be able to fulfill the wishes of my loved ones until I am strong myself . . .
All you can eat buffet and I left hungry, but if this is any indication of the way market will be rest of the month heading into September then I am truely in love. 9900 shares on 8 of 13 shooting, +827 before commissions, +455 after, 2 bullets. Managed to mount a comeback after two abysmal games and squeezed the week out +$350. Holding on to a $550 profit for the month with 3 games left in first pay period. While this will probably be no where near the numbers I did first half back in July, if I can pull myself together and make a few good plays, I can certainly see myself making it respectable going into September. Pre-Market: Bush did some negative comments on biotech stuff. GD big upgrade but market tanked so aerospace longs didn't work. 9:30: Energy rally, took AHC for a quick 55 cents pop on OIX strength. Really thin stock, really hard to get out . . . 9:50: Took VTS and pyramided but OSX reversed, and this stock simply doesn't move as much as it used to before it got killed by a batch of downgrades. It may have to go off my watch list. What a shame, I really enjoyed trading him, like a good friend. Took WLP, it was treading waters while HMO shot straight up, I saw a 10K print followed by a BID, took it for a 30 cents move but got out when the entire market tanked. Missed a 1 point move. Took BMY on DRG pop and got out flat. 10:20: Horrendous play there that doomed my day, I hesitated to put up bullets when the market sold-off, then I chased it by putting up two osx bullets at precisely the low of the day! Fortunately I started my positions small, CAM I lost 5 cents, NE I actually made up the bullet cost as it had a hidden seller at 29.85 earlier in the day and I shorted by leaning on him for small 20 cents profit. What those two bullets did was that they killed my rthyme. I was up $450 and all I needed was just one solid play to blow the game open . . . Two bad positions and I was up just $200. 10:38: Anticipated SOX double bottom, took CY and AMD but got out flat, missed CY when it finally broke resistance, also missed AMD. IRF was a great position that I should not have waited for the BID when SOX ripped from double bottom, could have got 60 cents there . . . 1:00: BKX rally, took PVN for a 10 cents move, left 40 cents on the table thanks to the shakeout. A little more room would have helped. Took EPG/NBL for 25 cents moves on XNG strength, but WFT/KMI turned out to be flat. Energy rally was wonderful but it ran out of steam. Afternoon looked choppy, time to stop . . .
Some nice plays there Hitman. And, equally importantly, some great emotional discipline. I am enjoying watching your development as a trader. Your developing skillset will stand you in good stead to have a very profitable September, when the volume finally returns. Congratulations on your work to date, you are made of the right stuff to eventually be a big hitter.
TraderX, Do you have a problem with reading about the progression of a trader, or is 'oh please' some kind of agreement with my sentiment?
It is very important to keep the composure on days like today, as I did not have a single winning trade above $100 after commissions . . . A total shutdown in offense but fortunately I played rock solid defense to keep myself out of trouble. 5600 shares on 5 of 10 shooting, +176 before commissions, +42 after . . . 2 bullets (another trader transferred them to me because his share limit is 500 and minimum bullet size is 1500). Up $700 with 2 games left in the pay period, McDonald-like performance, hope I can put together two solid games to make it respectable . . . Pre-Market: GS upgraded SOX sector. 9:30: As soon as I saw the futures index opened I realized this is going to be a crappy day. SOX had a minor pop, TER opened unchanged, low risk trade and I got 10 cents out of the thing before SOX violently reversed. Took a little TDW on OSX pop move and lost 10 cents as the index reversed. Took NE on OSX reboung and made 10 cents. Finally got EPG on XNG pop and made 22 cents which was my biggest winner of the day. Talk about a total shut down! 11:30: Used my friend's bullet on APA and sold a little, covered for flat as XNG squeezed. 1:30: Program buy, every single index poped from SOX to TOB and nothing had volume, took NSM on SOX move and lost 10 cents. 3:00: Another program buy, this time on better volume, took IRF and made 10 cents, took MU and got out flat. Sorted a little FD and lost 5 cents . . . Very frustrating game indeed, seems like whatever little momentum we had toward the end of last week is gone, back to grinding . . .