BK's Journal of Mistakes

Discussion in 'Journals' started by BostonKiller, Nov 12, 2008.

  1. To Whoever is Looking:

    My goal is to get comfortable trading and become profitable with 100-share positions in the next 3-4 months. I would trade in the morning (9:30-11:00 ET), go to work and trade in the afternoon (12:00PM onwards)

    I expected an initial struggle and lack of stable (good) results, but reality has been more discouraging that I have anticipated.

    So, I decided to keep a journal of EVERY trade I make, good or bad and post chart with explanations as to why I made particular trades and why I failed.

    Today, I was not able to trade in the morning (work-related) and made 3 poor trades in the afternoon. Charts will be posted below.

    ADBE: Saw a clear S/R channel and traded on the breakout upwards around 12:40. Set a Trailing Stop at $0.40. Got Stopped Out at around 1:30PM. Flat trade, but lost on comissions (I pay $8 one way)

    LRCX: Same S/R channel, same breakout. In at 12:50PM, Trailing Stop of $0.20 initiated at 1:20PM. $0.01/share loser.

    MET Agian, the same setup. S/R, breakout, but this time an even more marginal one. In at 12:40PM, Stopped out at 1:45PM. $0.033/share loser.

    I fully welcome your comments/suggestions/nasty remarks.
     
  2. ADBE chart
     
  3. LRCX Chart
     
  4. MET chart
     
  5. Best of luck to you BK.
     
  6. Thank you.
    Long way to go though. Loooong way...


    Among mistakes of the day (besides not trading in the morning), I should mention not reacting on reversals after my initial trades failed. I should have jumped on them in the other direction.

    Yes, yes, yes: shoulda, woulda, coulda...
     
  7. No trades today. I've had a 3-day losing streak, so decided to cool off a bit.

    Will try tomorrow.
     
  8. Made more mistakes this morning. In fact, last (calendar) month I've done nothing but make maistakes. Not suprisingly, the last positive day I've had was on 10/10/2008 (I disregard a +$2.18 day on 11/6, due to it being well, pathetic).

    My losses were far from catastrophic (ranging from $50 to $80 per day), but not having a winning day in over a month is definately a cause for some serious concern. Today was a much bigger losing day (-$245), but while I can write it off finance-wise, phychologically it is extremely tough to wether this barrage of failures.

    In the month of November my trading record on 100-share positions was 5-14 (5 being winners). The biggest winner I've had was a laughable $11. The biggest loser was -$161 (but on a 200-share position).

    I will be taking a break to regroup and analyze my mistakes. My MANY mistakes.

    I will be posting my observations and conclusions here. Not sure if anyone will be interested, but in order to keep sane I need to write my thoughts down.
     
  9. Nothing wrong with LEARNING from your mistakes and limiting your losses. you'll get it back.
     
  10. Agree. But today got me thinking. And what I came away with was that there is a lot to be done around myself most of all.

    So, I'll concentrate on the most important part of trading - the trader...
     
    #10     Nov 15, 2008