Goodpunk, I got to compliment you for your determination and your will. If it was me I would of burnt out on month number 2. Realize that all the time you spent trading will not make you more valuable to the real job market nor to any employer. Its more of time spent for your own personal belief system and fantasy dreams of becoming a pro trader. Remember 95% of those that go your route will fail... and if you have no real edge dont waste your time. Edges come from experience and study, it normally takes years to develop. Staring at a screen all day and looking at CSCO, NT, LU... is a losers game because everyone knows there is no edge daytrading those stocks by tape reading or playing the penny spreads. You need to reevaluate and get a real edge then come back with fire power. In my opinion right now u are just wasting your time and making your prop shop boss some nice consistent loot. --MIKE
Trend Fader, Thank you for complimenting my perseverance. As only 6 months have passed since the beginning of my trading career, I feel more determined than ever to succeed. So many of you will see how determined I really am. You say an edge takes years to develop. Well, I have all the time and money in the world to do so. I don't trade my own money,.....or at least not yet. Perhaps I am making some nice money for my boss. But I have the advantage of trading his money and not mine. We all learn from mistakes and I'd much rather lose his dough than mine. Anyway, I feel well rested and alert. I'll be in class today learning more about trading ORCL. Good Trading! So what stocks do you trade? What do some of your P&L's look like? Who's your broker?
I'll make sure I read it everyday. Since you started your journal yesterday, I can be sure to follow it from the beginning. Well, I was in class today trading ORCL, JDSU, and CSCO. I have to say, I REALLY like trading these stocks. They move way more than LU and NT do, and they're fun! I lost $55 and spent $20 losing it. I had 19 buy fills, 28 sell fills, and 38,000 shares traded. Tomorrow will be a better day!
Hey guys! I'm in the middle of my routine right now. So I'm concentrated and ready to trade some more ORCL and CSCO. I'm going to be watching these stocks closely and develop a good analysis. I'll post my thoughts here when I'm done. Good trading!
Hi Goodpunk, I have a question about your approach. I have a feeling you maybe doing something I did when I was trading INTC regularily. I have been a position trader for sometime and about 2 years ago I made a slow transition into intraday. I thought at the time that I wanted to trade this highly liquid stock (INTC) and scalp it for 5-10 cents at a time (this was my idea of intraday trading). Essentially, it turned out I was in INTC all the time, trying to capture those moves maybe winning 55-57% of the time. The truth to that strategy was that it was a gross wiinner and a net loser due to all the commissions - while overall I was a bit over BE on that stock overall I simply didn't have the volume x commission advantage to take any real money out. Also, I was competing with the most senior/well trained MM's on that stock. The only times I made real money on that stock was picking trending days and holding 1-3 days for ~.75-1.00. What I am asking is if you are "in" all the time? How many trades per day and what it criteria for entry exit? At this time in my development I hardly ever trade INTC unless it is forming a straight trend line down or up. There is a world of other stocks out there that trade well at given times and IMO that's where the real money is to be made. Mike Mike
Punk why do you trade low priced stocks all the time? You pay the same for the tickets so why not trade something that moves more? The higher price stocks are not going to churn you as much.
I try to be in as much as possible. I'm a spread scalper. Yes I do try to make more than just one cent at a clip. Trades per day? Well I'm in a number of different positions throughout the day. When NT and LU were rockin with volume I could have been in up to 20 positions a day. Now a days, NT and LU are dead, so I barely make trades in those stocks anymore. Today was the first day that I traded ORCL and CSCO all session long. I was in a total of 31 positions today. Criteria? Well, first I look for a trend or range. If the stock is in a trend then I wait for a pullback and trade in the direction of the trend. If the stock is in a range, then I get long at the bottom of the range or short the top. I bid in front of support and I offer out in front of resistance. I'll normally risk 3 cents to try and make 3. That's it in a nutshell
Because I don't trade my own money. I can only trade a certain type of stock. Hell, even if I was trading my own money, I'd probably be trading these stocks anyway.
Wow. Well, keyboard errors suck. They cost me $150 today. Whatever. But I have to say that today was incredible. The markets went through major numbers of support and then reversed. Good stuff. I lost $160 and made about $30 losing it. I get $2 per thousand for adding liquidity on all ecns for Nadaq stocks. So I got some good rebates. (Yes, I made $30 losing it) I dove into NT today and regretted it. That stock is so dead I felt like I was in a prison. I had 58 buy fills, 49 sell fills, and 132,600 shares traded.