Half way through life and not close to being consistent

Another gruel trading week coming to an end (I'm glad this one is over). Down 11 days in a row now, and -17k7 for the week. That's about 6 month in mortgage payments, so I'm glad I could put the money to good use !!! Obviously nothing is working although at least the last two days I'm losing less. Going on a trip early next week, maybe things will get better if I don't stare at my screen all day long.

Here are today's results:
Auto Trades: 778
Everything else: -1026

 

Hmmm... that's got to hurt.

I absolutely HATE to have a losing day trading, but a losing week is pretty much a disaster for me. Fortunately I haven't had one this year (yet).

And thankfully I have no mortgage to worry about.

 

When it says "here are today's results", those are daily P&L changes. And yes, they're very real. I also post the weekly ones on Fridays
1k = 1000, so this week was down 17700 USD.

 

Mo, I assume you don't keep positions overnight?

 

No, I will often carry positions for several days, weeks even.

I attribute my high win rate to a couple of factors:

1 I trade a very small list of shares (about 6 regular tickers actually). Most of these I have traded hundreds of times. So I sort of get to know them, how they move.

2 I use very wide stops, but I will close a trade if the picture changes, rather than wait until I get stopped out. I can always have another go later in the move. I have in the past tried trading index futures with tight stops, but IMO that is a mug's game, just get chopped to bits over the long run.

3 I have a rule - no trade entries for the first 30 min after the market opens. I think this saves me from poor/hasty entries. Instead I watch and plan my entries based on what I am seeing.

On the last one, I really think every trader can benefit from analysing what works and what does not. It will be different for every trader, but for me, those early entries led to some terrible days. So I binned 'em. Sometimes I see a really nice trade before the 30 mins, and I'm really tempted, but for well over a year now, I have resisted the urge. Which I think is the right thing to do.

 

Results for 2014 Intraday vs overnight:

 

Why are you still trading or attempting to trade? Are you masochistic? Have you considered quitting trading and rather invest your money?

 

Most traders don't have the mental fortitude to short low or buy high in a consistent manner.

 

This doesn't make any sense to me. Aren't you supposed to buy low and sell high? not vice versa

 

Trust me the last 18 month I'm asking myself the same question. Didn't cross my mind the years before though.