Great followup. Thanks for sharing. Sorry for being a bit harsh on you before. Keep up the great trading.
Silk, What is the $ risk you are taking on your trades... i.e. how many $ loss is your pain threshold on a given trade... Reward is proportional to risk, so if you are risking say $2000 per trade (where $2000 is what you lose if you get stopped out), then a $10k can actually be achieved through good fortune. Moreover, a $10k loss can easily be achieved through bad fortune. But if you are only risking $500 a trade, then a $10k day is less likely to be achieved through good fortune and more likely to be achieved through skill. It would be helpful if you would highlight your most profitable trade/s on Friday i.e. the trade/s that were pivotal to you achieving a number 1 ranking on your firm's Top 30 list ... please give entry price, exit price and number of shares. Candle
Curious, Hitman, without the .22's (bullets) would you be out here with the rest of us selling candied peanuts at ball games?
Hey, I'm not selling peanuts at ball games! Seriously, I think bullets are definitely more a factor when trading listed, as the rules are different. Listed requires either an uptick, or same-tick after an uptick, so the specialist can easily prevent normal shorting by simply not upticking. In the Nas you don't need an uptick, simply an upbid (whether or not a print goes thru) which is a lot easier to get. In either case, and bullet or no bullet, there still has to be a buyer that you can sell (short) to.
silk, I am impressed by your ability to hang onto winners, which Hitman admits is his weakness ( and for sure he's not alone in that regard). How do you handle the inevitable pullback after a trade has moved in your favor? Do you keep the original stop/exit or do you go to B/E? How much initial heat will you take?
I agree, shorting is easy on the NASD liquid stocks. A few cents slippage on AMAT, KLAC, etc. is a bad fill, I usually get filled at or above the best bid, even when things are moving. Occasionally on illiquid NASD stocks you can ride them down for 10 minutes and not get a fill with a market order (until the bottom of course).
Dave, Occasionally on illiquid NASD stocks you can ride them down for 10 minutes and not get a fill with a market order (until the bottom of course). I realize you're probably taking the perspective of a swingtrader but from an intraday point-of-view I would never short an illiquid stock with a market order. That's too dangerous for my blood. Recommend, instead, a limit order below the bid up to whatever your tolerance level is (and how badly you want in). Sure, it may not fill, but at least if it does it was you who set the parameters. Anway, if it doesn't fill then move on to the next opportunity!
No, I was making the point that they are not as necessary on reasonably liquid NASD stocks. I don't see much difference in slippage going short, in comparison to going long, on the mid-high volume NASD stocks.
Last night I did not get sufficient sleep (went to bed at 1:30AM) and fatigue definitely took its toll on me this morning. I have to make a hard rule for myself that I shall not go to bed later than midnight before games. I was too slow off the open and went with a pathetic long biase until 10:15, by then I already missed most of the morning move and I was in the same boat of "do I put up bullets when the market is already down 150 points?". Fortunately I barely avoided a back-to-back loss to start the month but quite honestly, I choked this one. There was absolutely no excuse for the inability to execute and every bullet I had they went down at least 1 point from where I had them. The mental block was the fact that I knew I was late to the party and the best I could hope for was make myself a cold sandwich with the left over's. Instead of 30 minute charts I linked a daily chart to my 5 minute so I can take a quick look at the overall trend. The 30 minute chart was more or less a failed experiment for me, just too slow for my taste, but the daily's seems to be a little bit more helpful. 17600 shares on 5 of 8 shooting, +536 before commissions, +37.21 after, 2 bullets + 1 shared. Pre-Market: TYC got destroyed, and the market could not hold up under that kind of pressure, too bad it took me 45 minutes to figure that out. 9:30: GE gapped down and I went long looked for a gap-fill and after 3 failed attempts even with just 300-500 share a pop it turned out to be my worst loser of the day as I lost 10 cents or so each attempt. My brain literally paralyzed for 15 minutes as I did not go for any bullets and watched the sell-off. 9:50: Went long in LEN and it was the weakest stock in the strongest sector, what else, home builders, really tempted to bullet those but glad I passed. Churned a lot of LEN and pulled just $50 out. Tried a little SPF and left 70 cents on the table. Futures tanked hard and I got out without total disregard to the tape. 10:15: Way too slow as I identified TER as a gap and trap but didn't put up the bullet until now. He went into a little range and I knew I was chasing so I had absolutely no endurance for his nasty shake out's. Besides I knew SOX was strong in the morning so I had no conviction. Not a bad bullet, but I just felt uncomfortable with it the second it went up. Stock closed 1 point lower from where I had the bullet and I ended up down $156 after commissions after churning more than 2500 shares each way. Same thing with LM, although his shakeout's were a lot less forgiving I made just $50 when the stock fell 75 cents from where I had the bullet after churning 4500 shares each way. He even had nice offer's just not enough sellers to push it down fast and it turned out to be a grind-it-down hold which is a huge weakness in my game as I can never hold through something that just slowly trends without showing BID/ASK's. Again, if I was up in the morning I would have milked those so much better. Given that I was already down I had no endurance. 10:30: Got the CCU bullet from a friend and milked 5200 shares each way to score $270 after commissions. The daily looked incredible, the stock felt weak, but I could not hold that thing all the way through like what I must do if I want to be a legit contender. Chemicals did a quick rally and I went long FMC and stopped out for 5 cents loss. 2:30: Other than milking morning bullets all I did was a bottom pick in COF which I got barely 10 cents out. For me to be milking a bullet I need to see offers, and sometimes the specialist just won't give you nice offers to lean on. So many times I swore CCU was weak and will go down another quarter yet I only had 300 shares or so because I could not go for 1000 when he had no offer's. That said I will make sure that any time I get a good winner going, whether long or short, I will milk it rest of the game. CAL saved my day on Friday thanks to proper milking, and CCU carried my day today. I have been playing very defensive, there is a lack of confidence and I need to pick up the pace. As of today I am finally leading my team in YTD P&L, and that's a disturbing thing given the way I have played. I have no idea what the future will bring, but I will give it my 100% effort.