Bit: I meant "along" not "a long". I think that is what confused you. I did go long on a 2day pullback but I got stopped out. I shorted the big rally on Friday. I'm short at 1242.75 with a stop at 1252.75.
One of my major problem has been the inability to determine the profit target. Usually when a position is going my way instead of taking a profit I add to it. But if there is any pullback I get scared and exit the position. In the past I have let 1 winner turn into 2 breakeven positions. I do not know for sure. I'll like to stay with the trend but do not want to give up my profits either. How do you guys do it? What would you suggest?
quick and dirty way... look at the last 3 to 5 major trades you have had that made you significant profits OR would have made you profits if you would have stuck to your rules. Insert and roughly optimize an indicator for exiting those trades. You may try: Parabolic SAR, Detrended Price Oscill., TRIX... Then use those indicators for the next trade. Always reoptimizing the last few good trades. This should keep you in the markets, albeit not 'perfectly' but good enough to make your psyche happy and your account growing. A thought.
Thanks protrader. I'll certainly look into your suggestions even though I feel that I do not want to use any technical indicators. Pretty decent day. The market was down pretty much all the day except the last 10 mins. Nothing to do except sit tight and hold on to those positions. Even on a down day like today we had twice as many call volume as the put volume. This shows that most of the players do not believe that this new downtrend is for real.
What a beautiful day. I knew this was coming so I was pretty happy when it did. This is the first time in many months that most of the patterns that I trade have taken place. First we had a break in the Friday to Monday follow-through. Friday was a big up day but Monday was a down day. Today's action can be considered an upside-down V-bottom reversal with a heavy selling in the last hour. If you are not already short this is another opportunity. The ratio of bullish advisors to bearish advisors is about 2:1 and the put call ratio is .678, which shows that many people still believe that we are in a bull market. With so many people already long, I do not know who will want to buy when they want to sell. 1200 is the next target but I think we are headed lower, a lot lower!!!!!
Good on you D. Don't get too excited we may not get to 1200, never mind taking it out. But if that happens and the DIA breaks below 10000 we could really tank.
I think we'll get to 1200 sonner than later. We'll take 1225 tomorrow. Although I'll have to admit that I was excited this afternoon, I have learnt to control it and get off the high horses. I do not kick myself for losing and I do not reward myself for winning. It's just another day.