How does it feel............

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by MadBulgarian, Nov 18, 2006.

  1. I agree with Old School. It is just plain irresponsible for you to be trading NMX with your little experience. I see too many new traders gravitating towards the volitile issues w/o having shown consistent success in the less volitile issues. Dont get drawn to the "idea" of making a fortune trading these stocks. You arent prepared yet.

    I suggest you pick a couple avg volitility stocks that do some decent volume 1-3 mil/day and learn them like the back of your hand. You will most likely find a lot more consistent success than jumping around from day to day trying to trade whats really moving. Once you get consistent, then by all means try and trade some crazy stocks.
     
    #11     Nov 18, 2006
  2. you say,
    When I was your age, I didn't give a shit about anything but trading. I gave up everything for it. There were many years not going out with friends and instead looking over charts and other info. My walls were plastered with charts and data. I'm no Einstein, I had to devote EVERYTHING to learn this art of trading. Others were smart and born lucky. I'm not even lucky enough to be born smart. I had to work, and work hard.

    You must do what your heart tells you.

    But wtf do I know? Every trader must face their own demons.
     
    #12     Nov 18, 2006
  3. Don't give up on dating...find some cool chicks who like you and don't care. Women who need to be wined and dined are worthless anyway. At your age, you don't need money to have an abundance of chicks. Hell, I'm quite a bit older than you, and I can still baffle em' with bullshit :D
     
    #13     Nov 18, 2006
  4. if you really like trading stocks stay with it. get the night job and keep trading. forget about that guy, he is not going to give you his edge, he'd be a dummy if he did. intraday trading is not rocket science, it's tougher than that, at first. study charts, dozens of charts everyday until you see how they consistently move the price of stocks, and you'll find entry points that pay money.
     
    #14     Nov 18, 2006
  5. john99

    john99

    Steve, that is good advice.

    MD--
    These are questions I would ask myself to help learn what I was doing wrong or right.

    For every trade do you use predetermined stops? (why or why not)

    Can you define what you did right on your profitable trades and what you did wrong on your losing trades?

    Do you average down?
    How long do you hold your positions on average?
    What trade setups do you use?(ei ma cross over, breakouts, flags)

    Do you have a plan on position size for particular trades?

    Do you find yourself saying, " I can't taking it anymore, I'm exiting this piece of junk"

    When you have a trade go your way do you trail your profit with a stop or do you scale out?

    When you are down for the day, do you try doubling up on trades to try to get back to even?

    How many trades do you make per day? How many were actually profitable?

    How many positions do you hold at a time?

    Does holding more than X amount of positions affect your profitability?

    Find a method, perfect it, and repeat.
     
    #15     Nov 19, 2006
  6. intraday traders 99% of the time wont give away their edges because the profitability of their system relies on getting a good fill.

    Position traders will probably give away some of their edge adn so would swing traders, fills arnt as important to these types of trading as scalping/intraday
     
    #16     Nov 19, 2006
  7. I know how you feel. I've been there and can tell you that you're on the right track. What I did when I was near broke was to find a day job. I got into a good union job working at a bank that paid a nice hourly wage and I was able to save up and continue my tuition to trader's university. Paying the bills wasn't a problem. I did that for two and a half years.

    Just keep at it. You will get it if you continue.
     
    #17     Nov 19, 2006
  8. the problem with beta stocks is that it takes soo much money and time to get it right and it may never happen if u are undercapitalized and pressurized to deliver; controllin' your losses and target your profits is the harder part...u cant use tight stops all the time otherwise u get stopped out 9 times out of 10 and even if u let 'em loose u still may have to take losses too often. let them too loose and u end up havin' huge winners and huge losers, breakin' even at best. there's a reason why volumes explode on these issues: they can be the most rewardin' and competition is absolutely fierce. so i tend to agree with u here; still, the guy can trade volatile stocks but not shite like mnx and nyx, somethin' more orderly and less competitive, news stocks maybe after report but not crap that is all over the place, look for clean charts that print higher/lower highs/lows with short bars and gyrate with some predictability...if u see humongous shadows and tails say fuck it, it aint worth it. those patterns can kill u in an instant.

    by the way, there's somethin' at odd with your mentor...u said many of his apprentices failed. maybe there's somethin' really wrong with the guy, dont ya think.
     
    #18     Nov 19, 2006
  9. yeah but this guy has been mentored as well when he joined, nobody pretends he gives away the egde he found by himslef, but he has a duty to teach him the ropes and make him profitable the way he was taught.
     
    #19     Nov 19, 2006
  10. #1 & #2 are not mutually exclusive...
     
    #20     Nov 19, 2006