February Trading Journals

I stopped by the Wordco booth, saw a nice chick there sitting on her butt... working hard huh???

I was at the Expo yesterday afternoon and thought that Echotrade had the cutest girls by far. In fact I only recognized Robert Tharp by the huge grin.

 

That's a good question. I wish I had a good answer.

 

"There is no victory without defeat. You don't know what is sweet until you know what is bitter."------Hitman


Well said Hitman well said.

 

Hitman,

Most successful traders needed several years to fine tune their trading. Why burden yourself with managing a team of rookies this early in your career? This is the time you should be thinking for yourself only. My suggestion to you would be to dissolve the team and go back to devoting 100% of your time and efforts on yourself.

I'm sure being the "youngest team leader in the firm" can be impressive and fancy looking and all, but there will always be a time for that down the road.

Just my perspective.

Trey

 

Blown lay-ups late in the game cost me what should have easily been my best game of the month. 24900 shares each way on 11 of 16 shooting, +1467 before commissions, +745 after, 3 bullets.

Pre-Market: Positive news on Chemicals but I was all about shorting this morning. Weaker oil price.

9:30: BTK went through the roof off the open and caught DNA, out for flat.

9:45: Missed a huge home builder sell-off but did spot that Nasdaq appeared to be weaker than Dow, went bullet LXK, DOX and got half a bullet in CCU. Also had a LM bullet but it was a total waste as I ended up even in him. DOX was a great bullet but I was not totally confident about it even when it appeared to be weak, got just $212 out after commissions, churning 3400 shares each way. LXK would have been my best bullet of the day, great daily chart, great everything, but 12:18 some brokerage gave the stock positive comments and it squeezed 50 cents in my face before I could do anything about it. Churned 4800 shares each way on that and endd up dead even after commissions. Did score 30 cents on CCU as I caught it late in the gap and trap.

1:30: Tried SII long on OSX rebound, out for flat. Shorted DIA and damn the fills are horrible, lost 10 cents despite of the fact that I was in the money 15, I thought the thing is liquid but those AMEX guys are worse than specialists.

2:00: Seriously, I didn't expect this rally. I mean, I know the market has been oversold, but I thought the market didn't sell-off enough in the morning for this kind of a bounce. Still went on a shopping spree as I bought LAB, AGE, CCU, CY, SPF, BJ, WB, RSH at various point of the rally. Made decent money on LAB/AGE, got quarter point out of CCU, 20 cents out of CY, 10 cents from SPF, flat in WB/BJ, but RSH was a huge miss as I was shaken out right before the last 30 minute rip and it was my biggest position of the bunch. What happened was my P&L went to $1100 and all of a sudden futures came in and I was up just $700 something (and trust me I had decent stops to lock stuff in).

3:00: The move that cost me the game, went short LXK and while it did make a new low it was impossible to cover there as it was just one print, then a hard squeeze I lost 20 cents on a tiny position, and perhaps more importantly, did not get back into RSH in time, and a few other banks.

Still, can't complain as I am up for the week again and I definitely need to go on a winning streak here with just six games left.

After work, I went to Walter's office and he poured me some hard liquor. Apparently someone from the expo passed some good words for me, and while I told him I don't drink at all, he made me sip it. Some really strong stuff I have to admit.

Looks like I will finally see a substantial cut in my commissions, and he revealed some very early plans to launch a potential branch in Canada. All I can say is he sure knows how to push buttons, I mean he had this vision of having a branch in Hong Kong within six years and I will be the one spear heading some of the operation.

Finally got my admin console, will start doing some real management starting tommorrow. Starting today I am going to keep track of my team's numbers as well as my own.

As a team of 7, we combined for:

104000 shares each way on 42 of 75 shooting (56%)

+6059 before commissions
+3598 after commissions

Top 3 stocks (net): PRX, CI, AOL
Bottom 3 stocks (net): DYN, SLM, BJS

Of course, the only individual stat you will get is mine, as I completely respect the privacy of individuals.

 

Interesting vision expanding offices in a contracting market. Selecting you for spear heading Hong Kong makes alot of sense also. Good Luck

 

Hitman,
First off... I was in your office today filling out my application...I spoke for a while to a really nice guy named Lew...older man...sits on the aisle, right in front of the offices. Really nice guy. Answered alot of my questions. I'm going to trade in the Mellville office, beginning in a few months.
Anyway, all the stocks that you went long in durring the 2:00 rally look sick on their daily charts...all below the 200 day ma. Obviously you made $ and that's the point, but you might consider going in to each day with a watch list of stocks set up long/short on the daily charts, so that if the market really runs in either direction you're ready. I'm just going on the premice that when the market is rallying up, the easier money is made on uptrending/strong stocks and the reverse for sell-offs.
Good game today!

 

As you can see from my team's numbers, it was a good trading day, and I had an average performance.

As for the daily charts, I look at them mainly to see how many days they have been down in a row and look for reversals. The overall daily trend doesn't mean much as these squeezes will kill you regardless of how good the daily charts look.

I would much rather short a stock on an uptrend than a stock on a downtrend but down 3 day's in a row and look stretched. The second day of a big move is usually the golden opportunity however, you have to be lucky to get the first day, and you have to be really careful to short the third day . . .

Look at the home builders for example, best morning bullets in a long long time, and they have been THE strongest group in this market. The other day I shorted HI, the stock looked weak as hell, and I lost $1200 on it in literally one tick.

It is ok, once you start trading you will learn to leave a lot of the baggage (the 200 day MA in day trading, lol) at the door. Most of the popular swing trading formations are useless in day trading, that's why it took me a really long time to incorporate them into my game.

 

well there are so many ways to make money after all.
My style is to trade 2 time frames at the same time. A mid term where traditional indicators have their place (well kinda.. indicators are overstated imho).
But 2/3 of my gains come from the intraday trades. these are directionless trades and there, indicators are really useless.
However, I would not trade without the mid term. This gives a very good reference point when scalping intraday. Also, it allows me, from time to time, to keep a position overnight for a better profit the next day (which would not be allowed in pure daytrading).

like I said, there are many ways. Also, I trade only one set of stocks, always the same. So I get to know how the specialists move them. I like this style of trading much better than futures. It is less intensive but also much less stress. I sleep very well indeed (OK, sometimes, I miss the action of the eminis). I still think it is one of the best trading instrument (maybe the best). Currencies look very nice too.
Anyway, trading a set of stocks, being specialists surrogates is good and the style I am most confortable with (I did try several things the past 3 years). That's the most consistent style I ever used. really nice.

Well, this is hitman's journal. So I will stop now. I just wanted to remind him that there are many ways to make money even with the kind of stocks hitman trades.

tntneo