Greetings! Iâm a daytrader looking to improve my discipline, and I think a public journal would be the best way to hold me accountable to my rules. I trade intraday, momentum stocks with unusual vols. These are the guidelines that I must follow: 1. (3 points ) Only trade with the trend, no top or bottom calling. 2. Find the trend; wait for pullback and NR bars. Enter on break of the bar. 3. No revenge trading. Wrong 2 times on a stock, quit trading that stock. 4. No size increase after losing trades. 5. No widening of the stops, or moving stops until 1st target is reached. (Exceptions allowed if it goes no where for more than 1 hr.) 6. When starting to get emotional, quit trading for 30 mins. 7. Limit the frequency of trades, no more than 10 trades a day. Iâll score each trading day. Every rule gets 1 point if followed, except the first rule. It gets 3 points, because looking over my past disaster trades, they inevitably would start with a knife catching or top calling trade and snowballs out of control as I revenge trade. I must get rid of counter trend trading cold turkey, no matter how enticing it looks. Iâll be posting the reasons for entries and exits, hopefully the shame of public humiliation will keep the impulse trades to a minimum. Thanks for reading, all advices are welcome! KIS
9/19/11 2 trades 1 loser 1 winner BreakEven Daily score: 9 The scanner wasnât up and running this morning, so I missed a lot of setups. Made 2 trades around noon time, short FSLR and Long REGN FSLR was weak in the morning, after it retraced back to the 20 EMA I was looking to short. It made a small pop around 1 pm and I shorted at the low of that bar. It never went much in my direction and I was stopped out at 82.50 A couple of similar setups that worked were IVN and IR. Compared to them FSLR was going sideways for much too long, that couldâve been a hint that thereâs not much selling pressure anymore. Also, the bounce from the bottom for FSLR was a bit stronger and faster. REGN had a huge run in the morning, I didnât see it in time but there was a great long setup at 10 am, long above 61.42 with a 40 cent stop. Thatâs a 4 to 7 R trade depending where you exit. After the sideways action around noon time, I bought it above 64.22 and exited it near 65. Normally I would try to go for at least 2 R on a trade, but the huge run it had in the morning and the previous resistance at 65 made me decide to get out. Made a little over 1 R on it. Today I followed all my rules, so a pat on the back and a score 9 for the day. There were a few tempting counter trend setups, REGN ATHN WYNN. But I fought the urge and passed on them.
9/20/11 4 trades 2 loser 1 winner 1 BE +0.5 R on the day Daily score: 8 Deducting 1 point for moving stops before target is reached. There were many big movers today, but most didnât give me a chance to get in. I was looking at MCP in the morning and it just kept going and going. If I switched to a 2 min chart, there were a few entry opportunities but Iâm hesitant to trade off of 2 min charts. Took a short on HLS, this is a similar trade to FSLR yesterday with similar results. I realized that the chart was going no where as soon as I got in, but was caught between wanting to bail or stick to my stops. Ended up getting out but was tempted back in again and lost again. I need to watch out for these kinds of setups in the future, be patient getting back in. In fact HLS and FSLR yesterday after the bounce off the bottom, the trend then should be qualified as up. The bottoms were V shaped with big volume, once it tried to push back down again but couldnât, thatâs a long setup. Bought SINA midday. Even though the overall trend was down, I didnât consider my long a counter trend. First, there was a huge bounce off the bottom. Second, I was watching for a short if it broke the midday range, but it never did. Bought it when it broke above the range and sold for a quick 1.5 R gain. I shouldâve shorted after it went back down below the midday range again. Bought ADS midday. Got out BE after it went nowhere for hrs. But in the end it did go up 2 R from entry. Shouldâve held on. The movers with strength today(MCP, CELG, NEM) never retraced much for me to comfortably jump in, but I guess thatâs why they are strong.
9/21/11 4 trades 2 losers 2 winners +1.5 R Daily score 6 Shorted NSC right after 10 AM, didnât have the order ready in time, got in a little later than I wouldâve liked. Out at 63 for a 1.5 R gain. Saw ROVI potentially setting up for a second push up, jumped the gun on the entry and got stopped out. First buy was at 10:35 right after the dip, shouldâve waited for the price to calm down a little. After the first 1 R loss stop out, got back in again but bailed very soon for a 0.5 R loss. My rule says if lost twice on the same stock, stop trading that stock, but I had a pretty good conviction that this will go up to at least 46.20. Also because I shouldnât have got out of my second trade, I got back in again, and made back 1.5 R, all the losses I had on this stock. If I waited a bit more on this setup, it wouldâve been a 2 R winner, but instead I ended up BE on 3 trades. Had family over in the afternoon, no trades.
9/22/11 8 Trades 1 winner 7 losers -5R Daily score 3 The day started out good. With the huge gap down combined with yesterdayâs drop, I was weary of shorting. So I went looking for a strong stock to buy when the mkt bounces. I spotted CPT. It went straight up from the open, and when it paused, I got in. Was hoping for 2 R, but got shaken out with a 1 R gain. From that point on, I lost on every single trade. The bounce of the general mkt combined with the V like bottom SINA made, convinced me that the down trend was over. I bought SINA 3 times and took 3 full losers. I shorted FCX a few times, getting out before it hit my stop. Then I bought it thinking since that the shorts werenât working, it must be heading higher. It reached 1 R on the long, but eventually it came back down, got out BE on the long. Took another trade in CPT in the afternoon and got stopped out for a 1 R loss. I made too many impatient trades today, especially in SINA. After the bounce, it never really made a serious second run. The downward trendline never got broken. Also, this kind of âcheck markâ setup is not the type of setups I want to trade. Right now I need to just focus on one thing, which is the continuation of the primary trend. There were many of those today, BIDU, SLW, RIO. Letâs just get one setup down pat, donât need to keep looking for so many different things. Keep things simple. One thing that Iâm rather satisfied with today was that as soon as I realized Iâm doing many things wrong, I stopped. I didnât use bigger shares or revenge trade. Didnât get emotional and make things even worse.