************************************************************ Not just that, the RM guy said "I am going to teach you a lesson" and locked one of his 1500 shares position so he couldn't sell it and lost $1000." ************************************************************ Forgive me for saying so, but what kind of firm teaches people lessons by locking up their trades??? This doesn't sound very professional and is probably illegal. You can't just block someone's access to their trading account to "teach them a lesson". How pathetic... I certainly wouldn't want to trade in a firm with such clowns!
This is precisely why the owner flattened his account flattened, a $6000 "profit" in a day I would say that more than enough covers it. Our risk manager used to work as a specialist in several large caps, so he can be a little rude at times. He probably had a bad day . . .
Had an acceptable morning so I am going to take off right now. While I missed about a few dozen opportunities today I have to be happy with this number for now. 5 of 6 shooting on 2900 shares, +533 before commissions, +461 after . . . +$1000 for the month, +$800 for the pay period . . . can this pay period end up being respectable? Sure hope so . . . Pre-Market: ROH upgrade (CEX), BSC beat earnings (XBD), but a large batch of technology downgrades. 9:30: S&P futures started to take out resistance points one after the other. DD opened up 1 point and I immediately anticipated strong CEX action. Took PPG and got 80 cents out of the trade, took DOW but unfortunately got spreaded half a point on a bad fill so only made 10 cents . . . Can't believe I didn't take LEH, it opened down 90 cents (actually a lot of XBD stocks did) despite of strong earnings from BSC but I was a little jittery, didn't take the trade (in fact, almost shorted it on the first sign of futures weakness, thank God I didn't). 9:45: Everything is going up, took STT on BKX strength and happened to be a broken stock, got out for flat and watched COF/PVN going straight up. Had this been a couple of months ago I would have bought all 3 and made money anyway. Took MMM on CYC strength, MMM made a double bottom and I thought I would get at least a point out of this, but all of a sudden a 30000 ASK showed up and he was stepping down! Futures/Dow/CYC all going up and obviously other traders thought it was fake too, but it was stepping down and vanquished buyers so I had to get out for a 20 cents profit. Stock really went down. 10:00: OSX/XNG reversal, didn't want to chase anything and missed a huge move, took super lagger VTS and another broken stock as I took just 20 cents out of the trade. Took ADI on futures move but SOX was so weak this morning and only made 10 cents before I got stopped out. Somehow now at 11AM SOX finally took care of its sellers and I am not long any . . . Volume is slow, don't want no part of any churning so I am outta of here . . .
Sure hope I can keep this up. It has been a fun ride but my size and aggression is not there to make this the type of size day I used to have. Still, would gladly pack this in and go home . . . I absolutely hate low volume environments so I am not going to be a part of the churning. +635 before commissions. +$603.92 after, 2 of 3 shooting on 1200 shares. Finally, a respectable week, hope I can complete this week with a bang tommorrow. Pre-Market: MWD beat earnings, BSC did the same yesterday and a lot of brokers opened down on the day, I was a little nervous and missed a huge run-up. 9:30: Not today, took GS off the open, as soon as I was in the money a little I took BSC. Wish I was just a little more aggressive and took AGE and LEH too, it has been a while since I went basket on a sector so I was a little jittery, but with those positions in the money I should have took more. Got 1.2 point out of GS, 60 cents in BSC. When futures came in and XBD held it was a screaming sign that I should have bought those on pullbacks, as it is I missed 2.5 point on GS and 1.5 point on BSC. HMO going straight up, should have took TGH but for some reason I was happy with what I had and didn't take the trade, missed a 80 cents move. 10:00: SOX turned around, I thought the seller is done so I took TER, got out for flat. I wish I had the same aggression and explosiveness like I did back in March, but this brutal summer market took a lot of confidence out of me . . . Should have hit my first $1000 day in nearly 2 months, but as I said, an up day is better than a down day . . .
Today's market felt like an All-You-Can-Eat-Buffet, and I was trying to eat everything, and instead, I ended up losing my appetite and ate very little. While I am glad that I have won 4 games in a row and finally had a decent week (+$1800), I have missed too many opportunities last a couple of days to be happy. My size and aggression has not been there. I have played the opens very well and those half baked 400 share positions won't get it done. I think I am too content about $500-600 a day after going scoreless for a month and half, that's why I have underperformed because once I hit that number, psychologically I wanted to stop trading. It is almost as if I set a ceiling for myself, that once I see "decent money" I stopped. That said, it is pretty damn hard to make serious money trading 1200 shares a day, which is exactly what I did today. 2 of 3 shooting, +224 before commissions, +194.13 after . . . I MUST STEP UP MY SIZE . . . I have definitely been SUPER SELECTIVE about my positions, I am shooting 55% for the month which is higher than even my best months this year, yet I am making a fraction of the money I used to make. Why? Because I have been trigger shy, and when I do pull the trigger I don't use enough ammo. This MUST change. This summer market has a strange nature that it let me shoot the light out when I am trading 400-500 shares but punishes me hard whenever I decide go aggressive next day . . . But there is no alternative, if I want to play this game at a high level, I need to step up my size. I also must be willing to put up bullets on short days. This morning bad news plagued DRG sector and everyone on my team put up their bullets and shorted AGN (an awesome call by Mrs. D.), 2-3 points off even a minimum 1500 share bullet is a nice chunk of change, she told me to put it up this morning, why did I say no to a few thousand dollars? AGN is like her number 1 stock and she is RARELY wrong with it even on a choppy day. Fortunately, she will most likely be signing a 3 year contract with our firm as the head of a new trading desk. With less than a year's trading experience, this is incredible. She is among the very few traders at my firm who did not cut down their sizes in summer time and doing just fine. Now with her own desk, sky is the limit, and I am very happy that she asked me to work on her desk (which translates into getting my fourth monitor, a slightly higher payout and lower commissions), but perhaps more importantly, as a trading desk manager my performance will be of more importance to her and she will undoubtly be making more calls and tips . . . Hope it all works out and she signs the contract next week, and passes that S24 exam . . . EXCEPTIONAL, that's the only word I can use for her. Pre-Market: Wow, what a nice list of downgrades. AFL double downgrade (IUX), MRK big downgrade (open indication showed 5 points lower), and BA double downgrade (GD, NOC, PCP aerospace sector). The problem with the short side is that it is best done via bullets, and I don't understand why didn't I put up a few. 9:30: Couldn't get my shorts filled and really tried to do too much. Everything I anticipated before the open worked, yet I only got MRX filled (DRG), covered for a 25 cents profit. Early morning XNG rally and I caught EOG for a 30 cents profit. Had I focused on just a few stocks and sectors, I could have got more positions, but then I saw the Nasdaq rally and I took CLS but sold for flat just before it went up 1 point. There were so many opportunities today, I felt quite disoriented, had I sticked to my plan (Short DRG/IUX/Aerospace) and ignored all the noises I would have came out with a huge day. But all of the other sector moves I spotted would have worked very well too. I think there is still fear lingering in my heart and a total lack of confidence, if I see something I like, just take the damn shot. Emotionally I feel drained this week, so I called it quit after the first hour as usual when Mrs. D. and others left with a huge day . . .
Hitman, I want to thank you bunches for posting your journal...you might consider writing a book You know, after reading about your experience as a professional, licensed trader I'm starting to rethink my plan that includes the series 7 plus other exams and trading for a firm. I can see some real advantages to using my own capital...I only have one person to answer to: me. Risk management is a matter of pulling Tharp's book off the shelf and checking his information. Sure, I can't use bullets, and short on a downtick but IB has a way of dealing with the uptick rule and so far I have nothing bad to say...shorts get filled pretty fast if I enter my order correctly. And IB's commissions can't be beat! No, I can't get 10:1 margin either but in a couple of months IB will probably let me do 4:1, so that helps. There are some real advantages in being a pro--but being a retail trader is working for me and has a few advantages as well. Hitman, You're a good guy for writing about your experiences and I want you to know how much I appreciate it!!! Best regards, Jim
>I only have one person to answer to: me. Same here, personally I think if you are down some rediculous amount of money, having someone to tell you to stop is nice. I have never ever been called by risk management (then again, I trade very conservatively). >Sure, I can't use bullets, and short on a downtick but IB has a way of dealing with the uptick rule and so far I have nothing bad to say... I am not sure about Nasdaq, but on NYSE, having bullets in the event of a bad news sector is critical at open. You will NOT get the fill when the stock is guaranteed to tank. Bullets make shorting the sweetest thing in the world, you can never pyramid into a short position without one . . . and we know at larger positions pyramiding is absolutely critical. Bullet is too big of an advantage in my humble opinion, it is where number one trader at my firm made 85% of his money in 2000 . . . >And IB's commissions can't be beat! Actually there are traders at my firm getting less than 1 cent per share. And 100% payout . . . Not to mention, regardless of your connection, I can't see it being faster than a LAN on Wall Street, a lot closer to the NYSE . . . >But being a retail trader is working for me and has a few advantages as well. I may be biased, unless you have sufficient capital to play tremendous sizes, you will never ever be able to play on the same level of a top tier trader (guys with five digit daily swings regularly). Don't forget trading at a firm like WorldCo, very small portion of your own money is actually on the line, that's a huge advantage. Not to mention, while this doesn't happen to everyone, if you develop chemistry with a few quality traders at work, it is a HUGE edge. Playing with great players raise your own game to another level, playing on a good team means every once in a while you may be cold but a teammate feeds you a play, you hit a lay-up and you are back in the game for the day. Not to mention pre-market research and commentary from your team leader. It is highly UNLIKELY you will find the same caliber teammates in trading rooms, even if you do, it is a lot faster for someone to bark "BUY XXXXX!" than someone getting into the position first then tell you to buy it a minute later. If you are doing great as a retail trader then by all means go for it, but I simply see ZERO advantage (that actually matters anyway) of staying retail other than perhaps the comfort of trading from your own home.
Hitman, I certainly can't argue with any of the points made in your last post. But after I made my first post, it occurred to me that we are differentpeople with different objectives. You make your living at trading; I don't and that takes a hell of a lot of pressure off me. You're the pro, that's a fact. Me, I'm retail and if the market doesn't look good to me that day, I go do something else like restore one of my old Jags or something. I wouldn't want the pressure you're under. Of course, I don't want to lose money either, just as you. But the fact is that I don't *have* to rely on trading to put food on the table. My hat's off to you my friend with much respect and admiration for doing what you do successfully and, no doubt, love. Best, Jim