and swing it for a 5 points move looks good on paper, but you have no control over the results. What if IBM got caught in a scandal and opened down 10 points lower and you are long 100,000? That's a million dollar loss!!! If I want to gamble, I would go to Atlantic City not Wall Street. I don't know how long you have been trading, but if you have limited capital, long / short 100,000 shares IBM for a 10 point swing is just a pipe dream. (Unless if you have deep pockets, or are trading for institutions) Someone told me today that less than 10% of traders ever make a decent living and 1% of that 10% makes all the money. But you know what, think the imaginable and achieve the impossible!! Only then will you achieve excellence. To say that only 1% makes it, thus it is ok if I don't is all bull, I don't want to settle for anything, I don't want to get comfortable, I don't want to get complacent and I want to always push myself to the next level. If I am not moving forward, I are moving backward. People told me to have realistic expectations, don't aim too high, so that you won't get disappointed. I don't believe in that kinda of thinking. The people who succeed the most also failed the most, babe Ruth had the most home runs, but he also had the most strike outs than anybody. My reply to that, don't be afraid to fail as long as you learn something from your mistakes. Will you tell Michael Jordan to quit after he had won the NBA championship? after all he had achieved the highest honor. Who would have blamed him, if never win another championship ever again. But he wanted to make a 3 peat, then another 3 peat!! Is that impossible? Is that reasonable? Is that having realistic expectations? Only you can demand more from yourself than anyone else, it is up to you to make it. Dream big, achieve the impossible and don't live a mediocre life.
stockbroker wrote: "and swing it for a 5 points move looks good on paper, but you have no control over the results. What if IBM got caught in a scandal and opened down 10 points lower and you are long 100,000? That's a million dollar loss!!! If I want to gamble, I would go to Atlantic City not Wall Street. " That's NOT gambling. It's called institutional investing. If you are managing $500M-$1B fund, you CAN'T (I repeat CAN'T) scalp for 5 cents or even $1. By definition, you have to put on size and hold for bigger moves. And $1B dollar fund is just "medium" size for institutions. For heaven sakes, Fidelity Magellan by itself is like clsoe to hundred billion. And the entire Fidelity complex is close to $800B. B stands for billion in this case. I was with a $1B institutional fund with my old company and we are considered small-to-medium sized. And a typical position is 1% which in this case works out to be 1% of $1B is $10M. So, for a hundred dollars stocks that's about 100,000 shares. This is typical. Obviously for a $100M fund, 1% is only $1M so that's only 10,000 shares for a hundred dollar stocks. But institutions don't think ,"Oh geez! The stock is up 10pts. We are up a $1M. whoohoo!" It's NOT like that at all! They think in terms of PERCENTAGE(%). So for a $100 stock, $10 move is merely 10%. Which is good, but not all that impressive. Institutions DON"T think in dollar terms. Just remember that. And even if a scandal or whatever you say causes a $100 stock to drop 10pts in 1 day then that's just a 10% loss. It's big but nothing that dramatic. But what really happens in real life is with just a 100,000 shares lot(which is NOT that big) they can probably get out through a block trading desk with probably only a few points(2pts) loss in 5mins flat or less. And this is what I'm driving at here. If you read my other posts earlier, that's why I said it's very very difficult to get to $1M/yr with this intraday trading unless you can hold winners longer like for 40-50cents moves or the occasionally $1 move. I would imagine it would be extremely difficult to scalp your way from nickels to $1m/yr though probably not impossible. So, if you goal is $1m/yr then you have to start thinking bigger: 1) go for the bigger moves 2) cut your losses my 2cents, trader99
After taxes still 6 figures. I do believe in one thing. Taking stops at will. Short?Long trend player. I dont favor either side? Any other trades?
you are trading for institutions, but I have seen people do it day trading, taking 50c or sometimes a couple of points off of a couple of good trades a day, couple of thousands shares, that adds up. Sure it is difficult but I see people do it day in and day out.
Stressful when you 1. Do not keep to your discipline. 2. Fighting the market. When nothing is going on or going your way, trade less. But when you had a stressful day, what can you do to alleviate the stress? I go out drinking sometimes, but too much drinking is bad for you. Just wondering if any of you have some ideas as to what to do to relax and unwind after a hard trading day.
stokk- i do the same thing...I go out for some pints...and try to find someone who is willing to lose $ on the dart board. Then I feel much better. Hitting the crap outta a bucket of golf balls is fun too
StockBroker, The best is some good SEX with a sexy lady... At least that works for me. The day after I usually trade much better.