Ok Mr. BB ..its on... you better have that money you owe me from poker the other day or ill be stealing your gold teeth when you are sleeping.
9-03-03 Well....what can i say...you guys all traded today. It was a whippy, boring day. IMO i overtraded today and it shows through on my PnL but i keep it in the green. I had internet troubles right at the open after i got into 2 positions. I got long CCMP at 66.87 and ended up getting out at 67.13. I also got short BAC at @78.70 and got out at 78.20. Got lucky and made some good money right at the open, but i was stubborn and should of just called the trade desk an dumped my positions because my internet went down. A mistakle that i got lucky on. I guess i though i was hedged, and they were good setups so i should be fine, and i was. a got short KLAC at around 1 CST time @ 56.95. It is obviosuly the leading stock in the SOX,and the SOX was the weakest major sector. It was forming a nice base and when it broke the base i took it. The futs ended up poping a bit and stopped me out at 57.13....and well you know how it goes it fell the rest of the day. Thats what you get trading a whippy market i guess. I took COGN long at 1:15cst @ 33.60. Another nice base broken, but the whippy market stopped me out at 33.49. Overall a OK day...traded 1600 shares and grossed +33.50 Tonight if i have time im going to work on a written Money Managment plan , and risk managment plan. Then add it to my Trading plan. This is just like a business more and more everyday....aways gotta redo plans until they work really good consitentaly.
9-04-03 Well today wasn't anything special thats for sure. Started the day out good with a long in FDRY a little into the open at 22.10. It had a nice base and a gap up that stayed filled. Got out half at 21.80 and out the other half at 22.00. It was a text book play in my books and had a textbook return. Little later a good trader friend of mine (you know how you are) said he was shorting BHS. Figured it would keep the downtrend, and didnt seem very strong, also at the time the market was looking weaker. Took it short at 132.93, stopped out at .48, took it short again at 133.16, stopped again at .45. Just didnt want to go our way. Broke alot of rules of mine, but i figured the risk to reward was good, and i havnet had a nice gamble in awhile, plus i was up on the day allready, but ended up giving all my profits back. It happens, just gotta face it and move on After lunch i took FDRY long again after it broke out of its base. Got long at 22.10, sold half at .18, and the other half at .40. Nice scalp, and very good setup. A little after 2 CST i took QLGC long on a bull flag type pattern at 50.94 and was stopped at .72. I guess thats what happnes in this consolidation crap. The way i see it all the sloppy trades and gambles i did, i got lucky i didnt hurt my account worse I also learned some things not to do anymore also. Dont break your rules, and no reason to trade a flat market, more than likely youll get stopped out. 1400 shares, +2.00 gross
9-05-03 Well I had my best day this week, and my worst day this week . I came into the trading day with kind of a revenge trading attitude. I thought to myslef "This week has sucked, ill make it a great week today" I had this thought that i was going to make a bunch of money this morning. found some nice charts scanning last night, everything seemed great. It never turns out that way My shorts went up, and my longs went down. I went long DHI after the open at 32.90. It had a nice 60 min base, and broke it. The trade just didnt pan out like it should have and stopped me out at 32.69. I took Peg short twice. Once at 42.49 and got stopped out at .65. Desided to try my luck at it again because it seemed very weak compared to the market. Took it short at 42.62 and was stopped out at .75. Overall i had my first gross down day in ahwile, it was bound to happen. -99.00 gross on 1200 shares. Im up 68.50 gross this week, and up a little bit net. This weekend i will write up a risk managment plan. I need something in writing because i broke to many rules this week. Next week im going to trade a little lighter until things pick up again. This range trading pretty much sucks. Obvioulsy im done tradingf or the day when its hour and half into the trading day and i have allready closed up shop
Since i quit early today....actually looks like i missed a little action, but i decided to claculates some stats of my trading. My average wining trade is +.31 pershare, my average loser is .15 per share. So i have a nice 1 to 2 risk to reward going. Id like to make it a little bit better though. Im shooting around 50/50 right now. Making money every week, but if i can get that percentage up on winners ill be doing much better. im shooting around .04 gain pershare traded, and .08 gain per trade. Could be better. I need to learn to cut my loses shorter and hold my winners longer. My largest loser was -.53 ( been trying to keep this under .40, but a few have gotten away from me) My largest winner was +1.18 (need a few more a month like this) Thses are all gross figures, i know, i know....need to do net, but until i have daily acess to my sheets its hard. I keep a rough idea in my head of what Net i do. Everything is fine right now.
Do you honestly think you can make a living with those kinds of small profits? When you start putting in some real size into the market like 500+ shares the slippage will get worse and your profits will come down. If you are trading 100 shares everything is still easy. Trying to put 1000 shares into the market to scalp 25cents is a dangerous game. If you want to make serious $ you will be forced to trade only the most liquid stocks or end up trading the futures like many others. --MIKE
Well Hello Mr. Positive: im doing 2-1 risk -reward, and still winning half of my trades....you dont have to win more than 50% of your trades if your risk to reward is good. you may have a good point, and i knew this before you told me...but you dont know me, so why bash? I have access to all trading instruments. Ill trade futs when i fell i need to, and fell more comfortable. This is my first month trading, im not suppose to have winning days yet How come i have a felling, just by reading other posts you have written (most being in a very unpositive way) that you dont make Chit in this market. And if you do, im sure your still a very sad man.
I am not trying to bash you. But making $50 for the week gross is not remotely close to making a living. In reality you will have to up your size to atleast a few houndred shares to make a decent living. Once you do that slippage and commisions start increasing. My point is... its not easy to fire a 1000 share short position into the market.. and expect to get a decent fill on your typical stock. --MIKE