Best of Trades, Worst of Trades, Some of the Others too

A) Hesitant, perhaps for multiple reasons, perhaps simply because Kymar is a pathetic monstrosity, he misses his intended entry (10.06);
B) Reflecting some fear about showing losses on a wiggle back to where he would have preferred to have entered, and also some confusion already entering his plans– is he scalping for pennies or intraday-swinging for market-supported re-tests of higher price levels? – Kymar adjusts his trade size, dialing down from 5000 to 2000 shares;
C) With only 2000 shares, the open profits on a wiggle toward 10.13 from the actual entry of 10.08 appear humiliatingly trivial, especially after having been adjusted for commissions;
D) Unsure whether meager open profits are worth taking, least of all as a scale out, and still awaiting signs of the expected re-test higher in the NQs, Kymar fails to take scalp profits even to "pay for the trade" and reduce exposure, and, by the time he’s decided to scratch the trade, it’s already a loser;
E) By the time he’s decided to take the loss, it’s already pushed his account below PDT minimums: If he closes the trade, then he’s done trading for the day, and will have to go to the bank to have an account-replenishing wire sent out. (The rat-man has been meaning to do so anyway, but he’s been lazily hoping that a lucky trade or two would obviate the necessity.)
F) The dead rat in the form of a half-dead man decides to sit with the trade, though his nervousness, anxiety, and self-loathing are increasing even as NXTL, the futures, and all the major indices recede. His trading software will not allow him to take other trades while he’s waiting for NXTL to bounce back to an area near breakeven, and the perception that he’s missing other opportunities makes him feel even worse. To the tune of “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” he begins to sing “I hate myself, I hate myself, I really hate myself” to himself.
G) At this point, he realizes just how stupid it was to dance around near PDT account minimums when he’s FULLY CAPABLE of funding his account adequately – AS IF A ZOMBIE-RAT CAN STAND ADDITIONAL HANDICAPS!
H) Doesn’t help the skittish, sniveling zombie that Tradestation Level 1 and Level 2 quotes have been undependable of late, or that news is breaking on the sudden death of Sen. Wellstone (RIP) in a plane crash: Kymar is feeling terribly uncertain. Also, he happens to hate himself.
I) Unsure how long it will take for NXTL to recover even if it does recover, losing all hope for the trade, seeing the indices appearing to deteriorate internally, wanting just to get to the bank and wire money to his account before East Coast wire departments start closing down, and, as it happens, rather hating himself, Kymar leans towards closing the trade ASAP – but he’s temporarily hypnotized by rather obviously erroneous spreads that appear to indicate no one between 9.95 and 10.20 (!).
J) A ridiculously tight consolidation (not shown) ca. 9.92 finally breaks down, and passes through the (trivial) intermediate low ca. 9.89. Taking no signs of hope from tone in the larger market, Kymar closes the trade – willfully ignoring the facts that NXTL hasn’t broken the intermediate low of 9.81 (the reasonable stop reference for the intraday swing trade scenario), and that ALL the major indices are merely testing, not breaking, price support established earlier in the day. True, breadth appears negative (as shown in the red “paintbars” on the NQ charts), but the raw numbers (not shown) underlying do not show severe weakness, especially relative to the time of day.
K) Kymar immediately feels regret over closing the trade at just about his maximum loss level, but heads off to the bank.
L) When Kymar returns home, prepares lunch, and turns on CNN to watch Wellstone tributes, he sees that the market, unsentimental as it is, has rallied strongly. Kymar doesn’t even have to bring up his charting program to know that NXTL has very likely rallied at least to his original targets, and quite possibly beyond them
M) He truly does hate himself.

 

It has finally happened: Kymar's self-hatred has reached critical anti-mass...

Kymar forms a black hole of self-directed hatred that spontaneously collapses upon itself, terminating Kymar’s rat-zombie pseudo-existence. The freed KymarFye - the anti-Kymar, Kymar's self-hatred in its redemptive anti-aspect, but also the positive super-Kymarian synthesis that appears to have been supplanted by the monstrosity for some billions of subjective years - is ejected from the rat-zombie collapsar at nearly the speed of light.

 

I feel as if I know you since birth (from the SI Daytrading thread),
but I certainly don't want to be here at the end.

I am a little baffled by your last post....are you through trading or
was your "rip" signoff just the end of the "kymarfye" handle?

 

I think NXTL is going to 3 1/2.

 

Kymar the zombie rat (who, it appears, had usurped the trans-spatial super-Kymarian ego-structure) can now rest in peace, perhaps in another universe. KymarFye, whose shell self had been confined for billions of subjective years to Silicon Investor, hidden behind endless, infinitely repetitive pop-up ads, has regained multi-dimensionality, and has marked the epochal event by starting a journal on Elite Trader.

May Kymar the Zombie-Rat rest in peace!

Long live the anti-Kymar, KymarFye!

 

KMF (does that sound right? the full name is so long, gimme a nickname), a few quick questions:

On SMTC, very nice trade, gotta love catching that sweet gap. However, from what i can see, in catching that gap you entered directly in front of an earnings report (SMTC reported on Aug 27th after market close). Curious as to whether you were aware of the earnings report and intentionally took the upside squeeze risk as part of your plan, or were earnings not part of your considerations?

Regarding the NXTL scalp, how much of your account were you willing to risk on the trade initially in percentage terms? Mind shedding some light on your basic money management algorithm? Have you found a way to 'psychology proof' it so that your risk curve fits your peace of mind curve?

Last but not least, holding for days and scalping for a quick hit represent two vastly different strategies. Strategies so different, in fact, that I would wager the odds are low that a single trading personality could encompass them both with comfort. Have you compared your psychological profile on different trades with the hope of determining which better suits you? On a side note, I went through a similar process. My original plan was to implement three strategies simultaneously: short term (daytrading), intermediate (swing), and longer term (macro trend). But over time I found myself drifting toward a single core competency that best suits my personal mix of strengths and desires.

 

I'm still a little baffled, but I want to share some thoughts.
Your story is by no means unique, that's for sure. I had been in a similar situation. I was profitiable during the bull market, gave it back in 01 and became profitable again in 02.

I was very close to shutting down as a trader and felt bad about myself as well. Prior to becoming a trader I ran my own business for over 20 years. I knew all about risk, stress, you name it. What I also knew was that my life and future was in my hands and no one elses. I wanted to succeed as a trader as I enjoy the challeneges trading presents. What I will tell you is that the money was always secondary. I believe that with any endeavor, you cannot make money the primary objective.
Do the right thing and money will come.

One thing I did was narrow my focus to only a few stocks. 95% of all my trades are MSFT. Good daily range, very liquid.
My feeling was, if I can't get to know one stock and trade it profitably, why trade others? I can remember in '99 having about 7 pages of stocks that I would watch every day and then I would wonder at the end of every day, after seeing the moves on these stocks, why I wasn't making at least $5000.00 a day.

I tried earnings plays, and all different strategies until I came back to something I always tried to instill on my employess.....
K.I.S.S......keep it simple stupid.

In my "comeback" as a trader, I introduced simplicity into my plans. I only watch and trade a few stocks. That way I can get to know their characteristics as to how they trade. I also reduced my position size dramatically.
I knew I needed to not only heal mentally, but I had to stop the bleeding in my account.
I did away with many technical indicators as they seemed to just make it harder to "react" to what was happening in the market.
Let's face it, timing is everything. Vadym (threei) says it best...
"Trade what you see, not what you think"

I use a 5 and 15 period MA crossover as well as Key reversal up and Key reversal down indicators on T.S.
On my other computer I will have charts of the NDX and SPX
as well as another chart of MSFT (if that is what I am trading at the time) running on eASCtrend. The paintbars on T.S. along with the MA crossover (or under for shorting ) have proved accurate enough to put the probabilities in my favor. By a smaller position size I have removed a lot of the psycological pressures that go with big positions. It allows me to enter a trade when the signals meet my criteria, I put a stop in place as soon as I enter the trade, and if I get stopped out, I just wait for the next signal.
Like a ballplayer. You can't strike out and then be all f**ked up when you're up at bat again. That's what seperates winners from losers. Smaller position size (less risk) means less pressure (need to be right) and it allows you to have a clearer head to follow your plan.

Almost every day there is a least one opportunity to catch a good trend in MSFT and other stocks, and all I need is one good trade per day. By being patient and only trading on a signal (as opposed to an opinion) I have reduced stress, drawdown and increased profits.

The very first thing you must do though, is not be down on yourself. Forget all that rat talk and such. It tends to plant seeds of negativity inside your head. I look forward to continued
correspondence. Good luck

Scott

 

Um, you find " Oh, great anti-Kymar, KymarFye!" a bit cumbersome? Whatever works for you is fine, I guess. Have no problem with KMF or KF, for instance.

I think you're reading the chart wrong... It was purely a day trade, and took place on October 2, 2002.

More generally, I do look at fundamental or pseudo-fundamental (news reactions) factors, but only when they happen to be affecting a stock that's on my trading last for technical reasons - when, e.g., a strong reaction to a report has created the possibility for a tradable counter-reaction...

1% of my account is usually plenty: KymarFye rarely enters any individual trade or set of trades that sustain a total 1% or greater normal risk (i.e., excluding "out-of-the-blue" price shocks).

As a daytrader, I find it more practical to establish parameters and trade within them, rather than to employ the kind of complex position-sizing techniques that system-traders frequently turn to. In Vince-ian terms, wherever "f" would be, I'm usually trading far below it (er, to the left of it?), especially when my total available funds (rather than my trading account per se) are considered.

As for the NXTL trade specifically... Well, it was rather a train wreck, very typically Kymarian. There was a scalp "train" that should have gone for just a few cents on 5000 shares or more, with .02 adverse movement acceptable; and then there were other train trips with different itineraries that might have made for sustainable, though probably too marginal set-ups, and that confused poor ol' moldering-in-the-transdimensional-grave Kymar (RIP).

One option when facing multiple convergent set-ups is to trade in big size, scale out of the scalp on its own terms, and keep the remnant for the "intraday swing" or even "swings."

Yes, I have figured out what seems to suit me. I like action, I like distraction, I like sitting with my trading partner Annie in my lap flipping from one chart to another, and I like being "done" at the end of of the day. I hate having a position out there overnight while I'm trying to sleep, and staring at me moodily in the morning before I'm even fully awake.

I do imagine getting over this at some point - at present, however, daytrading gets ALL of my focus.

By the way, you're more than welcome to post one of your own best, worst, or other trades here...

 

Hey, Kymar. You're prolly too much into the whole multiple personality thing (it makes for a hard read too) But anyhow, is the new 'you' or whatever, consistently profitable? And if so, for how long?

 

Oooops- for some reason I took the screenshot to be a daily, uncanny resemblance to the late August - late Sep action. Maybe it was a freudian slip...