here, ill give you some new people to insult.. "Now, I am not suggesting that we dont need some form of market analysis or methodology to define opportunities and allow us to recognize them; we certainly do. However, market analysis is not the path to consistent results. It will not solve the trading problems created by lack of confidence, lack of discipline, or improper focus. When you operate from the assumption that more or better analysis will create consistency, you will be driven to gather as many market variables as possible into your trading arsenal of trading tools. But what happens then? You are still disappointed and betrayed by the markets time and again, because of something you didn't see or give enough consideration to. It will feel like you can't trust the markets; but the reality is, you can't trust yourself." - Mark Douglas author of Trading in the Zone "So winning trades are due largely to the power of positive thinking? ..Focus and concentration are critical...When im not doing well, one thing that helps me out of my rut is I get smaller and take one trade at a time. I try to get the pendulum back in my direction, looking to make just one winning trade. When you get frustrated, you need to take a step back....I trade smaller positions, and I take my profits. Then I'm not losing money anymore, I'm making it." -Randy Guttenberg, interview taken from Electronic Day Traders Secrets "After practicing psychiatry for many years, I became convinced that most failures in life are due to self-sabotage. We fail in our professional, personal, and business affairs not because of stupidity or incompetence, but to fulfill an unconscious wish to fail... ..You need to be aware of your tendency to sabotage yourself."-Dr. Alexander Elder, author of Trading for a Living "It is naturally very difficult to press forward in the face of frequent trading losses and failures. It is even tougher to see or accept the notion that in the midst of these losses, progress and growth as a trader are taking place underneath. But just like the flower that first grows below the surface before it shows its splendor to the world above, traders first develop from within. Their outer circumstances and P&L statements may seem in dire straits for a time, but all the while, hidden underneath, the wheels of progress are busily at work. But it must be known that this wonderful event only takes place for traders who properly handle this period. This law of hidden progress only works for traders who are determined to rise each time they fall, who face each successive challenge with ever increasing resolve. Those who learn to do this will find, often times in retrospect, that the purpose of every lost round in their fight against failure is to help them prepare for the next. That every seeming knockout is only a knock down, is only to show them that the greatest act one can accomplis is to rise after every fall."-Oliver Velez, author The Master Day Trader -qwik
HITMAN has the techniques and overall discipline,what he lacks is staying consistent with his mind-set and not enough market battles.Your post hit it right on the head for traders like Hitman ,they just need to know the market gives and takes no matter what trading system you use.After so many battles it becomes so much easier to deal with.
While it could have been better, it was very important for me to snap a 3 games losing streak so an up day was pretty much all I could ask for. I haven't traded so light since my newbie days, but I was very passive with the inclusion of 30 minute charts. 5600 shares each way on 6 of 8 shooting, +428 before commissions, +302 after, no bullets. It will take some fine tuning to gel the 30 minute charts with my tape game, but I do feel better about the shots I took today. What killed me was the lack of any short position until very late in the game. It is quite a bit more relaxing to look at a longer term time frame chart, support and resistance levels are a lot more meaningful on those charts, hopefully I will be a little bit more aggressive tommorrow. Pre-Market: I was thinking gap and trap, but I thought it would go up a little before it craters, everything pretty much came straight in and I missed a few fills on the way down. Home Builder earnings beaters, big rise in oil price, etc . . . Had some problem with my charts as I was missing yesterday's data on half of my stocks until after the open so it did have an impact in my trading. 9:30: Went long TSG for half a point (best trade of the day looked good on 30 minute), had TXT and DHR got very little before they came in. Tried ACF and got out after the failed breakout but missed the breakout late in the day. Had BJ off the open on RLX strength and gapdown but the thing did a nasty shakeout before the move-up. 10:30: IPG was a nice breakout but futures came in too hard and I could not get much out of it. Tried to bottom UAL and stopped out for a very minor loss. 3:00: Shorted ABI for a quarter on BTK sell-off and did a very quick scalp on JBL 15 minutes before the closing bell (old habits die hard) . . .
Nice trading Hitman... Entry and exit prices, plus number of shares involved per transaction would make your posts even more informative than they already are. I am happy to hear that you got a positive game... its very important after a losing streak.
Candle: With the exception of the TSG trade I didn't have anything more than $50 today either way. I did no more than 500 shares on any one position.
Thanks... henceforth, while reading your trades, I will assume 500 share positions in your journals... congrats again, on a good turnaround day.
After a small victory I tried to up my size a little bit, and heaven forbid today was actually a huge day in my top two sectors, energy and home builders. And I finished the day down, I just realized some shocking facts: 1) Of my personal top 10 stocks in past six months, I have not made any real money in any one of them in January. 2) My short game is absolutely abysmal, ESPECIALLY on gap and trap situations. I most definitely favor the long side over the short side, and that weakness was not fully exploited when the market always packed some hard squeezes that felt like rallies during the Oct-Dec run. When futures gapped up I went long anyway on laggers, futures back then held at least held 15-20 minutes before crapping, and if it did crap right away I would still get some rally in energy stuff. Lately the market has been short, short and short some more, my performance has been abysmal as a result. 3) I can't short naturally as I can not take the initial pain that will come inevitably when the specialist fills you on an uptick. I have been trying to short into squeezes but it still doesn't work for me. When I am down on the day I hesitate too much about bullets and when I miss my bullets with the bullet cost it can really hurt when you are trying to make a few hundred dollars a day. 21000 shares each way (after an abysmal open I just went back to spray and pray mode again) on 7 of 19 shooting, +173 before commissions, -407 after, two bullets. Last night I did chart work for even more stocks, many of them I don't even trade, and it really backfired as I had too much crap on my hands and I could not concentrate my effort. Also the 5 minute chart must remain my primary decision making tool, I relied too much on 30 minute today and chased a few trades. Pre-Market: Positive news on energy, I have been burnt too many times before so I passed but it was choppy as hell until about 11:30 when it finally took off for a huge move. Positive news on Chemicals and I didn't take any. Home builders smashed earnings and it turned out to be a tremendous gap and trap and they ran it all the way back up as smooth as you can hope for, and I lost money in the sector. 9:30: BTK opened up and tried CRA again as I thought he was oversold, out for flat. Thought futures was weak, went short TER, ITW, WSM. Got a quarter out of WSM, flat in ITW, but lost 40 cents in TER. Considering I shorted near the peak of the morning futures move, that was abysmal. Tried CCU on a bottom pick and lost 10 cents. 10:00: What hell was I looking at, home builders had offers and stepped down with authority, and I missed them completely, only to put up two bullets (DHI/TOL) when they already went down 70 cents a piece. Yes, they went down 30-50 cents more before squeezing, but the second I had the bullets up I knew I was chasing, and as soon as the offers were hit I got out and chopped. Between those two stocks I churned 10K shares each way and lost $300 across them after all commissions, and I completely missed the upswing on those two stocks during the dead zone. 10:30: When futures ran I went long S/BJ/MAY/MXT, all would have turned out to be solid winners (except S) as I got them all near the low of the day, and I ended up flat on them. Thought energy looked ok and took SGY, flat again. 11:00: XAL rally, caught CAL/AMR, got 15 cents out of AMR and lost 5 cents in CAL. XAL hit unchanged and I thought it will bounce off, it did but I did not get the second leg. 1:00: Missed the home builder rally as I was disgusted and had to take a break. Did get SPF for 50 cents as a lagger play, but even when I came back there were some excellent double bottoms but I went for the safest one. Had DHR too for a quarter. When futures broke out, given the oversold nature of the market I went long as IBM took out a huge 109 offer, I went long and was in the money by a quarter instantly, stopped out for a 15 cents loss. I hate that stock will not trade again. 2:30: Tried NSM (SOX couldn't give me another leg) and actually took SOME SPY. Made 20 cents on SPY as the final hour rally didn't come through, lost 15 cents on NSM so it was a wash. I am down $1700 for the month, 6 games left, I have talked about what I must do for too many times, let's see if I can do better tommorrow.
The lone spark after the close was when I have finally inked my name on that contract. Within a couple of weeks I will get full control of everything from commission rates to share limits, I will probably come up with clearly defined rules such as "if you trade this much volume you will get this commission rate" (I will look over Don's commission schedule and make sure I beat it) and "a new trader starting with no capital, paying $3 a ticket, will get an automatic reduction in ticket charge after his first net positive week", etc . . . I have a lot of ideas for the team I run, but my focus would be to keep everything under clearly defined rules so everyone know exactly what they need to do to get what they want. I want to keep personal favors, hidden agendas, special case scenarios to a minimum. My business card will now say "Managing Director". Let's just say until my team starts to perform better (actually, this week so farhas been solid for everyone except myself), and I actually see some black ink on my P&L for 2002, the title is a joke, for now. When I have 30-40 traders under my control like some of the bigger names at my firm do, I can probably tell people I am a managing director, until then I have a lot of catch-up to do, and while the card may be useful to impress someone in a club, those that know me well probably understand why it will never be used in such a fashion. When the firm makes an announcement of a new "managing director" we are allowed to put up one quote of our choice, back then when I was red hot I thought about all kind of quotes, but now the one I came with was "The firm will have my 100% effort". It may sound corny, but given my current state of performance, that's the best I can do, and success or failure, do or die, millionaire or hot dog vendor, the firm and those that work with me for that matter will get nothing less, hence it was the most proper message to send for the time being. That said, over the last a few weeks, the actual signing had always been something that carried some weights in my heart, as until my name was on the contract there was still uncertainty in what was undoubtly one of my biggest decisions. With hopefully some sort of reduced rate coming my way (very useful if I am taking so many shots, sure helps reducing the damage), and the new announcement, will this be the added pressure that break my spirit, or the much needed morale boost that will get me out of this slump? Final stretch of the month will tell the full story.