Write it down, have a set plan on what you are going to do tommorrow. so that we all can see it and tell you whats wrong with it.
Here's how I determine how much I can afford to lose: I'll take the past 20 days of data and: win % * ave win per day + loss % * X = 0 X is the amount I can afford to lose and still break even. Right now: To just break even, if average profit is 77.02 on winning days And the percentage of winning days is 20% Then a loss more than $(19.25) on any day cannot be afforded I just figured this out last Friday, unfortunately knowledge don't mean shit - got to execute it.
First Chew I donât like your stock selection. You are trading things you canât handle. A new guy should not be trading any of those stocks. AAPL and EBAY are big boy terrain and there are guys trading a few years who still wonât touch them. X and NEM are very tough ones also a lot of fake bids and offers. I made 200 net on X today and he made me earn it the hard way. You should trade no more then 100 shares at a time. You should pick stocks that trade between 300k to 800k a day. Look for stocks in the 30 to 60 price range.
I would stop now, truth is - I have nothing better to do. All my friends work so I don't know what I would do with my time. I suppose I can research, backtest, ect. - but I'm not good at math, programming, computers/software, etc. Nor am I interested in that stuff. The brightest minds have tried and currently are trying to beat the market right now. I think gambling/trading is the #1 reason we've seen many of the advances in math, probability, statistics, etc. So I don't think I can find a workable strategy thru endless research - there is no holy grail out there. I don't want to enter or exit a trade just because my 'system' tells me so. If I want to trade like that then might as well build a robot to trade for me like a lot of funds out there. I want to enter and exit trades based on pattern recognition, backed up by sound money/risk management plan (still working on that). Robots built by guys with three PHDs now control over 70% of the volume out there. There's no way I can beat them with a 'systematic' approach. But maybe by developing a 'feel' for the market I may have a chance cause no robot can beat a human central nervous system when it comes to pattern recognition. The problem is that often emotions, stress hormones, biases, ego often gets in the way - so that's my biggest problem now.
Scalping requires a strategy as well. I would not expect you'll have a much different outcome if you're trying to trade off the cuff. There's a book called "High Probability Trading" by a guy named Marcel Link (http://www.elitetrader.com/bo/index.cfm?action=view&B_ID=92&CatID=6). I think his coverage of multiple timeframe decision making (similar to Dr. Elder's) could be very helpful. Regards,
1-60 days: Yeah the first 60 days or so I pretty much just traded the QQQQs most of the time, occasionally some Naqdaq stocks. My average volume during this period was in the 2-6k a day range. 100 share lots. 60th day-Now Now I'm still trading 100 share lots, but I'll build a position up to 300-500 shares. I started trading listed stocks. Sometimes I'll go crazy and build a 500+ share position like today in AAPL...gotta stop that. Now my daily volume is 10k a day.
Forgot to mention I was short the Qs from last week @ 37.8 in my IB account. Covered at 36.56 in the pre-market for like a $125 profit...all down hill from there.
You're right about AAPL and EBAY. I've tried low volume stocks - but the spread and liquidity risk scares the hell out of me.
Anyway tommorow's plan is to not get knocked out out in the first round (1st hour). I can only afford to lose 20 bucks so I'll be trading light. I'll give breakouts and scalping a try.