Here is what you do that will help you immensely. Get off of the messageboard and find some people who are in the game in real life. All you will find is insensitive fools and boobs on elitetrader and only a very few saints. Find a local trading group, network and see how they are doing it. www.meetup.com will have a list of such trading groups. Right now, although the index prices appear in an uptrend and are making new highs there is a divergence that is invisible if you just followed CNBC...there are a lot more declining issues right now then advancing. NYSE AMEX NASDAQ BB Advancing Issues 1,173 (35%) 475 (35%) 1,134 (36%) 619 (31%) Declining Issues 2,024 (61%) 768 (57%) 1,894 (60%) 859 (44%) Unchanged Issues 128 (4%) 111 (8%) 138 (4%) 496 (25%) Total Issues 3,325 1,354 3,166 1,974 New Highs 122 42 107 219 New Lows 186 40 189 226 Up Volume 1,361,823,564 (37%) 176,605,090 (22%) 743,934,093 (33%) 1,615,917,669 (60%) Down Volume 2,222,729,377 (61%) 615,807,752 (77%) 1,503,459,280 (66%) 564,411,867 (21%) Unchanged Volume 64,048,390 (2%) 4,323,800 (1%) 25,916,137 (1%) 505,134,573 (19%) Total Volume 3,648,601,3311 796,736,6421 2,273,309,5101 2,685,464,1091 I do have a good tip for you. DEC 07 7.50 CALLS
Whenever I am in a slump I look for small victories and build upon that. Limit your trading. If you are a daytrader and make 20 trades a day lower it to 5. If you are at 5 lower it to 1. Find a setup that doesn't occur very often, but when it does it has a high probablity for success. Remove every indicator you have on your charts including volume. Locate nearest support and resistance. Look at price action only, and use a candlestick chart. Study each pivot point. Don't just note that you see a hammer or shooting star. Note other characteristcs like was it a new high or low for the day? Note how many points would you have gotten if you entered at the high of the low(long) or the low of the high(short) so you can set realistic targets. Recently I found a setup that only occurs once or twice a day. It's a pain to wait for it, but when it occurs you can get at least 1.5 points per contract with a 74% win rate on the es. I don't know how long it will last but its been working great for the last two weeks. I have manually backtested it and it and it looks like the false signals are few and far between and my percentage win rate should actually increase.
Right on with that one. Theres nothing worse than making a little hole into an abyss and this can happen very easily if your not on your game and you continue to push forward without any course correction. Sometimes your just slightly out of sync and you just need to slow it down a little to catch the groove again. Its amazing how when I hit slumps, making money is so difficult, even when im in good stocks. Its all in your head. Ive found if I take my share size down and lock in a few up days even if there below my average, the momentum changes and then making money becomes effortless again. Worse thing you can do is continue is the wrong direction. trading requires constant adjustments and self evaluation. Also, make an active effort to stay positive!!!!