I'm getting a lot out of my system. I've been to the salad bar and bought a little of this and a little of that with no real plan. I guess the glamour of being able to trade anything was alluring me to dabble in a little of this and a little of that. I've gotten a lot of great PM's, especially from Tech Analysis and INANDLONG. It is good to see that there are still genuinely good people out there who care about others. I've also gotten a lot of support from others in PM's and also on the boards, and I do thank you all. There is a lot I need to do and this is what I've decided on doing: 1) Select a combination of 5 stocks / futures and only trade them. 2) Define a strategy / plan and only trade that plan for my stocks / futures. 3) Do not trade outside of my boundaries. 4) Slow down. 5) Stop giving some of the real assholes on ET more fodder to chew on (and you know who you are -- I'm sure it runs in the family).
I am trying to learn how to trade as well. I am sticking to DIA, and I am going to swing trade to stay outside of PDT rule. I am recording my thoughts each night here: http://members.shaw.ca/marketwatcher/ peace.
Why is it so wrong that alphie short it here, a pull back is eminient, we just dont know the exact day. But what concern me is that, Alphie, are you daytrader or swingtrader? Hard to make money if you cannot decide your profession.
True. Once the SEC rule kicks in and after realizing I wasn't really following any plan with futures trading, I guess I figured I could make some back with those IBM options. I went against the trend totally -- had I purchased calls instead of puts, I'd have doubled whatever money I put into those options. Out of all the cute trading axioms I've heard, the most truthful is, "The trend is your friend" and the biggest lie is "Nobody ever went broke taking profits."
. . . especially when they're being offset by bigger losses Traders CAN go broke taking small profits. You need the occasional big winners to offset the small stop-outs that are inevitable. It's a tough urge not to book that 1 or 2-point ES profit just to "get a winning trade in the journal" or "I'm afraid I'll lose it". Then the damn thing keeps running without you and by the time you fiddle over whether you should get in, you enter at a higher price only to get stopped out at the end. That was the single hardest thing for me at least to correct, and the best way I improved my trading this year. But if you have confidence in your plan you'll let it take you out of the trade the way it was designed to.
"Never short stocks rising in price, or buy ones on the way down. You never know how high is high or how low they'll go. " - ancient trader's proverb