Thanks for the kind words Sniper. I enjoy your posts as well. Perhaps we'll get a chance to meet sometime. I will be at the Anaheim show. JB
Bill, that's exactly the point I tried to make with my prior post. Given your experiences with AOL I can understand your aversion to NYSE trading. Are you sure you were using a direct SuperDOT connection at the time? I've never seen delays of that magnitude. Most of the time I find that response times for fills and cancellations are actually better on high volume stocks than on thin issues where a single specialist may be handling a dozen of them simultaneously. Dave
Dave, Yes, I was using the super dot system with Cyber and RealTick. AOL was jus one mean animal So was DIR and MU. JB, I digged hard into my memory and was able to find some folder (smile) from about two years ago. It has to do with a meeting at Daytraders of Orange County. There was a guy who gave a presentation there on direct access trading. And if my memory is correct (I am almost 100% sure), he uesed to trade AMAT exclusively. You don't happen to know this guy, do you? There is about 10% chance I will be able to make the Expo. Unfortunately, my sister (one of my business partners) is not feeling well, and most likely I will be leaving next week to Europe to take care of biz (since she can't do it). I hate Europe in the summer! Hopefully I will be able to come back in time for the Expo. Bill
Sniper: Keep in mind some of those prop. firms gives you trading capital and eat your losses while providing very reasonable payout / commission rates, a luxury most newbies don't have. Crazy Trader: True, but it doesn't mean the mm won't spread the stock a few points . . . Steven: If we are talking about day trading, it is not even a comparison, I don't care how big your account is, to make 5 million a year day trading is true super star material. Even for swing traders, bigger sizes takes far more skill to handle properly, the scale is different. Not to mention how much it takes (I am not talking inheritance) to get a chance to work with an account that size, few ever do . . . If you make 5 million a year TRADING, there is no one on this planet in his right mind would consider me a better trader under ANY circumstances. If I make 1000% with my small potato account and it is not luck, it should only be a matter of time before I convince someone to give me trading capital and eventually reach your level, until then, I am just not in your league, as simple as that.
Hitman, At least you can tell easily from Level II for wide spread stock. MM do spread the stock a few point, but with Level II it is easier to tell than a wide spread stock on NYSE.
On super light volume days, you can not afford to give up morning gains, even if it is just $500, take it home! This morning I had a fast start and was just about to pack my bags and take off to the gym and I made a bottompick play that basically ruined my entire day. The bottomfishing is the ULTIMATE test of discipline, patience and control. If you can keep your cool doing this type of trades, you will never ever lose it in any other situation. Unfortunately I made some uncharacteristic mistakes and gave up the third game of the month. It is absolutely critical that I show up for tommorrow's game. I need about $150 to make this a $7K month, which is $2K more than what I looked for before the month started. However, given the way I have played over the last a couple of games, looks like my winning streak momentum has escaped me, and I need to get that back ASAP especially considering August is often the toughest month of the year. Firm's overall performance seemed to have took another dip. Abysmal stats at the firm today, while there should never be any excuses for a losses, I have never seen the number one of the day finishing with $5100 before . . . With the exception of top 20 nobody at my firm made more than $1500 today. If this is what August has in store for us I am not looking forward to it. As for myself, I should have pulled the game out. +139 before commissions, -$68.52 after, 9200 shares on 3 of 8 shooting. Pre-Market: Very light on news, XBD downgrades. 9:30: Most brokers gapped down except LM which I should have shorted for nice gains. Missed energy reversal to the long side as well as SOX shorts. Took PGR for a dime move on IUX strength which quickly faded away with the futures. Took BRL on DRG strength for a 1.1 point move. It felt so good to land that shot but little did I know I would not have another winning trade until the final hour. 9:50: Took STM on SOX strength, stopped out for 5 cents loss. Tried bottomfish ANF and lost 5 and 1 cents on each attempt. Finally got the bottom but only got 200 shares filled, sold in disgust and watched it go up half a point. CEX fake move to the upside, lost 9 cents in DD long. I was up $400 on the day and this market looked abysmal in term of volume, really wanted to bail. 11:01: Then I saw a stock called CNO on the bottomfish list, ouch. It opened down 6 points to 10! I have no idea what hell happened. I handled ANF with precision and calmness. The CNO trade couldn't have been done by me. It made the first squeeze at 9.35 and I took 400 shares to chase it, filled at .7. I rarely if ever play this kind of gap down stock's, they are totally unpredictable, wait for the momentum to slow down! Now I got a crap fill and I should have got out immediately. Instead, I opted to use a mental stop and sure enough it fell back to .35 and I got out at .1. Losing 60 cents in a $10 stock is a slap on the face. I started to "get personal" with the stock and kept throwing 400 shares at it and before I knew it I lost $550 in the stock. 3:00: Composure, that's what I must have. Had I went as aggressively as I did the other day after the DST trade I would have been chopped to many pieces this afternoon. I realized that I could not come back no matter how hard I play when I lose my composure, only took two trades in the afternoon. Got a 15 cents scalp on REI when UTY made a pop and a flat on XL when IUX made a pop. There is always tommorrow. Giving up a game is bad, but getting hit for a few hundred is worse, it is summer time, keep the head cool . . .
Hitman, Excellent commentary. Do not feel too disheartened. To come out with a $500 loss on a supercrap day like yesterday is part of the game. You seem very competent and I am sure you have the dicipline and dedication to make trading a long-run career. The fact that you have recognised what you did wrong, increases the probability that you will not repeat your mistakes. Personally, I have not had a great time of late either. I will probably be cutting down on my trading for the next few weeks, in order to enjoy the summer doldrums sunbathing, drinking beer and spending more time with my family. As you will note, the ranges on the futures contracts are somewhat restrictive (on average) every summer. This is the perfect time of year to fulfill your holiday ambitions.
A finish as exciting as this summer market as I churned my way to a small victory into the finishing line. This morning I showed up 10 minutes late for work due to traffic delays and I missed a huge CEX rally in the early morning. Never got into the rthyme but in this market I would not mind taking those small up days while building up confidence and momentum. 5600 shares on 4 of 6 shooting, +533 before commissions, +330.99 after, 1 bullet. 9:40: OSX selling off, put up HP bullet just before it reversed. Thought I wasted a bullet and quickly went long in HP and VTS, 10-20 cents scalps as the rally quickly ran out of juice. Took RDN on IUX pop and lost 15 cents. Took LM on XBD pop and made 15 cents. Ironically, my biggest winner of the day came on the short side, on a day that show a broad market rally, made good use of that HP bullet and got 50 cents when OSX fell apart. It was amazing how quickly it fell apart, large offer stepped down and there was no BID anywhere, a very poorly executed bullet as my size wasn't there, and like a moron I put my stop on the offer which the specialist hit with 100 shares to take my shares. 3:00: Had a friend visiting, I showed him how quickly you can lose $20 by buying 200 shares of CAM on a fake OSX pop . . . Stay tuned for the August thread.
>Stay tuned for the August thread. Nice work Hitman. It's fun to read your dialog. I relate so much to your passion to improve and your energy. You and I both seem to be in similar situations...nicely profitable and attempting to consistantly move it to a new level. Keep it up and thanks for sharing. JB