Grinding it out, day after day

Discussion in 'Journals' started by lescor, Jan 9, 2010.

  1. actually the more vague the answer, the closer I think I am to finding my own truths.
     
    #861     May 13, 2010
  2. boba15

    boba15

    Lescor, can you comment on your TIVO trading today?

    Especially determining scale in/out levels. Tivo drop was so large, there was potentially no support/resistance around. How did you navigate then?
     
    #862     May 14, 2010
  3. gnom

    gnom

    Lescor,

    At this level of trading is your trading plan all very strict and have specific rules that you follow during the day (something like buy when MA cross sell 3 bars later, example of course) or is your plan at this point mostly consist of grey areas and you make your decisions as you go? In other words are you executing your trading plan like a computer or is there a lot discretion in it?
     
    #863     May 14, 2010
  4. lescor

    lescor

    Sorry to disappoint, but it was pikerville for me today on that stock. Looked too dangerous considering the news and the history of the stock. I waited and went really small, just dabbling. Never saw anything that made me want to go in with some size.

    + SLD 500 TIVO 10.820 SMART 12:06:40 2.94
    BOT 100 TIVO 10.68 SMART 11:17:02 0.72
    BOT 400 TIVO 11.10 ISLAND 11:09:53 0.48
     
    #864     May 14, 2010
  5. lescor

    lescor

    It's some of both. Some strategies have strict rules covering entry and exit and I try to execute the same way all the time. Other ones are just gut feel, intuition, analyzing the situation on the fly. But in both types of situations I have gotten pretty good at just going through the motions and pulling the trigger regardless of how things are playing out. Not many 'deer in the headlights' situations.
     
    #865     May 15, 2010
  6. lescor

    lescor

    +$18,000 for the week, 1,131,000 shares traded. Daily p/l +5, +22, +2, -2, -9.

    Monday with the huge gap up was by far my highest volume day of the year (not including my fat finger day). Things were very active but it didn't actually go well even though I finished green. I was as high as +25 but positioned very short and things just wouldn't drop. The market rallied into the close and lopped a good 7k off my pl in the last 20 minutes. Everything clicked on Tuesday, I was even on the right side of some grinding uptrends, a nice change from always being short them. The rest of the week things felt back to summer trading, pretty dull. Got clipped on Friday by being long a stock off the open that gapped and crapped, then just went in a flat line all day, no chance to get out without damage.
     
    #866     May 15, 2010
  7. boba15

    boba15

    What made you feel TiVO was too dangerous? The news about court decision was published only after the stock has already made the move.

    And it started as, as you call it, puking out: a big price spike on high unusual volume...
     
    #867     May 15, 2010
  8. Congrats on your performance, Lescor... The more impressive part was that you traded 1.1 million shares. Considering you mentioned that you trade many lower liquidity stocks and do not trade more than a few thousand shares per stock per trade, I imagine that most of those 1.1. million shares were traded through an automated system (bot).

    Currently, I'm looking for an automated API order entry/managment system. Most of the folks I've contacted to design the two strategies are requesting quite a few thousand dollars. Do you have any advise to offer someone who's looking for a coder to design an automated (black or gray box) system?

    thanks,

    Walt
     
    #868     May 15, 2010
  9. Yep. I agree. Letting $25,000 (more money than the masses make in a year) turn into $5,000 is not a good day. That can't be part of your strategy. Override that computer and lock in some profit. :D
     
    #869     May 15, 2010
  10. RedRat

    RedRat

    Hi Lescor. Did you look into the news on 6th of May before buying stocks?
     
    #870     May 15, 2010