nah man its cool. I dont need the income from trading at this point in my life, even though it'd be nice to have a couple hundred dollars extra, I dont worry too much about it .
I first want to say that I appreciate all the posts people have given me so far. I dont think its so bad that I dont have a trading plan right now because I'm new at this, and second, there are many forms of not just trading styles, but strategies as well. Playing gaps, earnings, breakouts, breakdown, ranges, play the 1st hour, or play the last hour?.. hold over night, not to hold over night?.. etc etc.. I need to find out what I like best, and then after I have the answer to that, then form a plan. There is money on every branch and I want to see which dollar is within reach. I know that until I make up my mind, I will lose money. I'm ready for that. Again, please dont feel like I'm ignoring what you guys have said, because I haven't. As always, your thoughts are welcome If you'd like, please tell me how you came across your trading style?..How long did it take you to make up your mind, and why did you choose that particular style. - nathan
No, this is just a mix of factors; they don't represent full choices. You are not being serious and you may never be serious enough for trading. You have to subject your chosen market (eg YM) to an accurate methodology. This should utilize the whole market day and it means a coherent, tightly worked out system. So then what is the approach? Aside from determination and fitness of mind, the task is to make a pile of money from the market such that you set yourself up and are not dependent on an some endless treadmill of 'trading for a living'.
u dont have to find what u like best; if u are serious about bein' consistent 1 single strategy or approach on 1 single instrument doesn't do in this mkt...u need to find diff ways of exploitin' inefficiencies and broaden your view of the mkt to try take advantage of anythin' that can add to u bottom line...i started goin long gaps only...then added shortin' gaps...then scalpin'...after that buyin' the close on strong sectors...also take advantage of sectors dependent on the underlyin' commodities and their relations...also trade futs [asia sgx me fav] and currencies...the list goes on and on and on. practically am on the lookout for anythin' that offers opportunities. just observe and try figure out what tactics can squeeze the most out of mkts and u'll go far...nuthin' works forever and u have to keep re-inventin' uself and your tradin'. it's hard work but it is possible to make money every day, its just up to ya...full points are there for the takin' every day...figure out where, when and how and u'll do well. keep at it man, the more u stay alive the better u chances of success.
These guys are making good points -- it's not a matter of what you like best, but what works now. At this stage, what you like and are comfortable with will most likely be the opposite of what you need to do to make money. As bitstream said, there are inefficiencies to exploit each and every day, and you don't have to become a master of a market predicting bottoms and selling tops in order to make a very good living.
let me chime in. I am new to trading, a few months as well, and am discovering all of the important concepts such as: 1) having a set of tools, ie trading strategies to work with to exploit different situations. 2) working hard to have a strong understanding of the underlying economies to get a general sense of inter-day direction and market psychology. This teaches how the market reacts to news. 3) don't fight the market. but also see the patterns and utilize them in your scalps. if you see selloffs (or buying) always hitting resistance, its likely all of those short scalpers looking for a quick buck (which explains immediate rebuying). 4) have an understanding of all of the tools out there and all of their quirks. 5) be very careful to attempt to understand your psychology while in trading and before. If you feel like you made a trade on an impulse and without any real systematic or fundamental guidance, get out and save yourself. Its happened to me where I've held optimistically, and it usually doesn't end well. Its very easy for a new trader to do this, especially if your past results don't result from this. 6) most important - manage your money and trade size properly. This seems obvious, but its really BOTTOM LINE the MOST IMPORTANT concept. Not only does it allow you to stay in the game, but it prevents 1 impulsive wrong trade ruining all of your other good results (that may have been more deliberate and well thought out). I am too developing a system, based off of news reaction, momentum following, and fundamental market analysis. I'm trying to do a combination of short term (5 minute to all day) scalps on index futures and some key stocks that react to news predictably, using indicators like tick, volume, etc. Also I do some interday positions, moreso in options than stocks. (although my options activity is geared more towards selling premium than just buying lately. study hard and understand your risk before you do this) I'm finding that while I like a quick profit from a scalp, its difficult to compete against the noise in the market. And to make money doing this, higher leverage (that I'm not comfortable carrying overnight) is required. My fault is I don't like to be wrong, and maybe yours too. Overtrading is another weakness of mine. Yesterday's GDP news was a perfect buy signal. I bought ES before market open, as I saw all of my stocks were in blue (green for IB). Too bad I got out too early, but I'm still happy to profit. All the market wants is a stop to rate increases. This, and commodity (particularly energy) prices, are entirely driving the market right now. If the fed doesn't raise short term rate or signals a stop to doing it, that means we have a temporary bull run. But eventually the enthusiasm wears off, and either a shrinking GDP starts killing earnings, or a continuation of rising GDP does the opposite and once again stimulates fed raising (and thus bearish periods). Try thinking about these things. They will help... but don't go too far think the markets care about this on a 1 minute basis. The concept: don't be the guy trying to short every pause and dip when oil is going through the roof if Iran cut off oil shipments to spite the west. Yes, it can be done, but most likely you'll lose most of the time. This is a perfect example of how fundamental analysis and short term technical analysis need to intersect. They are NOT entirely different planets, like some will have you believe. The long term fundamentals eventually seep in to prices, and when they do, its usually pretty sudden. So be careful resisting breakouts. There's a whole strategy of buying at breakouts that exists, and your contrarian approach is weak in comparison. Look at AAPL. Perfect example no clear signal to short it from its runup - as its earnings were the driving force. Don't fight the news. Doing well on good earnings, but if we have a recession, its down to 40. If we don't and oil comes down, we're up to 90. Don't just study charts - study underlyings. If you want to short runups (or the opposite), then look for ones with absolutely no fundamental reason, no news, and no market correlation, no rhyme or reason. Lastly - spend some time and try to exploit your psychological weaknesses (which it appears you are trying to do). Magnify them and conquer them one by one. Its the only way to go. Go to gamblers anonymous if thats what it takes. Otherwise you might be better off playing blackjack. Be proud of figuring out and solving whats wrong with you, and destroying that compulsive self destructive side of your personality. Think of it as therapy that earns you money. Here's a good article on overtrading I just read. http://partners.futuresource.com/fbm/2006/0718.htm
If I had wrote a post like this, people would just say "Cashmoney, you're not being serious about your trading, you dont have a plan, blah blah..get a real job etc etc.." i started goin long gaps only...then added shortin' gaps...then scalpin'...after that buyin' the close on strong sectors...also take advantage of sectors dependent on the underlyin' commodities and their relations...also trade futs [asia sgx me fav] and currencies...the list goes on and on and on. practically am on the lookout for anythin' that offers opportunities. It seems that the way you trade is very similar to how i'd like to trade....try a little bit of everything. However i dont want to trade futures, I'd wipe out so fast!. . As far as a plan goes, I need a plan like yours thats FLEXABLE.. I dont think a rock solid trading plan is going to work for me, or at least not very well.
The difference between what he was saying and what you're doing is that he started with one strategy only, worked it to profitability, and then slowly added on new strategies.