chewbacca, I did not follow your journals every day, but excellent work so far. Don't let the draw down affect your analysis. Keep good sleep to prevent the tiredness attacking you. It is nearly half way through the month just like it were half way of a marathon. If you only post the EOD results no comments might put less stress on yourself. It is a brave and hard work. Wish you win!
13-Jul Gross 204 Volume 3800 Win% 68% Ave Win 18 Ave Loss -5 Net 182 ADBE -12 EBAY 133 NEM 83 At yesterday's low point I was down about -250. Took some long positions and they went my way so I starting adding to a riding my winners and I made all my money back gross. Today I followed the same strategy, add to/ride winners - and don't give losers any breathing room or space to grow. I really needed this day. Its about 1:00, I'm going to the gym. and In my swing trade acct. I'm LONG 100 NEM 38.04. July is now gross positive, net negative in my DT acct.
14-Jul Disaster Avoided Gross 50 Volume 6000 Win% 38 Ave Win 15 Ave Loss -6 Net 7.79 AAPL -68 EBAY 32 NEM 102 QQQQ -16 Another disaster avoided today, at the low point I was down over 100 today. Sloppy trading, reinforcing a lot of bad habits (fading huge moves, not cutting losses). I was dumb enough to fade AAPL at the open todayâ¦wild - I'm gonna try to avoid stocks that are going crazy like that - I can't handled that level of volitility yet. Would've been happier with a small loss today rather than getting lucky with bad trading. Got stoped out of my Long NEM trade yesterday for small profit, shorted it today but held a big loss before it droped and turned things around for me.
You are right, the market isn't random, but are the entries you've taken better than random entries? That's where research comes in. Research-- not equal to backtesting, not equal to reading books on trading, not equal to automated trading... Anyway, that's what I had to do to start making money (and it took me two years to figure that out).
For what it is worth here are my thoughts. I am a profitable daytrader and position trader but I do not read or post often but saw Chewbaccas posts. You seem to struggle very hard and that is good, but I believe you need to take a break and consider why you are trading and what you are trying to achieve. Some commentaries on one advice and something you said: "Don't give up...remember if you had done the opposite on those trades it would be $5,000 positive, so IMO is just a matter of working your style and strategy." That is just not true. I have done serious backtesting of more than 500 systems and traded many systems, and just because you have a negative balance it does not mean that you would have a positive where you to trade again being on the other side. That was one of the first things I tested and tried to found out to work and it does not. I would put money on that you would still be negative and also that you do not have an edge with your current trading. And it will not change just by changing side. "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." This is not a good enough reason to trade. You should trade because you love it and because you really want it. Not to escape from boreness or have nothing else to do. Psychologically you will come into trading in bad shape with empty feelings. And you will not be prepared to take losses nor wins. Would you still trade if you knew for sure you would be down another 5000 in 1 month or would you stop right away? Think a little about that. What is your edge if not backtesting, statistics etc? What feelings do you have before the trading day starts? What feelings do you get when you trade? And what feelings do you get after the trading day is over? Do you have a serious trading plan? I would start looking at your motives for trading if I were you and be very clear about them. When you are clear about them you can start working clearly towards a trading plan setting your edges or what you think them to be or even want them to be. Create your rules. What trades to take, when to take entries, exits, losses and profits. And I would stop trading until I had that very clear to me. I have been in the searching phase and it is tough. There is no holy grail. It is only about you and how you can deal with risk-taking, betting and general psychology. And statistics to create your edges. All the best and good trading!
To be a good trader, you need to be a good scientist (unless some will spoonfeed you a proven edge - not gonna happen!). And for many of us research is boring, tedious, frustrating because for 30 tries, you get maybe 1 that looks promising. But there's no other way.
15-Jul Scary Gross -147.41 Volume 16600 Win% 25 Ave Win 6 Ave Loss -5 Net -258.92 AAPL -35 EBAY 25 NEM -96 X -22 XOM -19 I got to get away from the "quit while your ahead" and "never quit when your down" mentality. Had a never quit attitude today and everything I traded was in a pretty narrow trading range once I started trading it - took small losses all day long, rarely took wins. Whatever, I respond to the other posts later but for now its time to get drunk.