Ive traded full time for about 3 years(p/t on-and-off for maybe 5 years prior to that) Although this isn't my income I also have a paying job, which is OK, but it has been my passion and goal to break free from the ball and chain for about 9-10 years now. ( I can't believe that much time has gone by and has been wasted...) I really believe that I am good enough, My biggest problem has always been money/account management. I have more winning days now than lossing days by at least 2 to 1 but the losing days are drawdowns that hurt. Recently I took a step back and made a few adjustments: (#1) I decided to keep the same share size for every trade. When I am behind intraday I tend to increase my share size to try and make a comeback and end up screwing myself. Also, there are times when I have put together a profitable day and try to be aggressive and give everything back. So, all of my trades will be for 100 shares at a time. I will adjust shares upward when I have earned it. (#2) It has really helped my trading to look at my p/l during the day in points, not dollars. I adjust my position window so I can't see the $'s - for example my trade is +/- .45 My daily goal is to be +1.0 per day. At 100 shares that is $100 and as I said I will increase share size as I go, but the goal will be +1.0 and I will possibly review this also. (#3) I've increased the profit/loss amount per trade. I used to shoot for/and stop at .25. Now I drasticly dropped my share size and hold the trade for a longer period of time. I will be posting either my blotter or trades at the end of each day. I welcome all ET'ers comments...
I'm happy with my trading today. I didn't let any of the losers get away from me much more than I wanted to, which is my biggest problem. I don't use stop orders, but I do have a day-loss-auto-close set by my broker. I am also working on trying to trade for a longer period of time during the day when I am ahead. I've been either guilty of increasing share size to try and make a killing, and losing the gain...or "quitig when I'm ahead" which isn't so bad, but I would like to be good enough to make money all day long. I did have a few tech issues with my platform, which cost me a few dollars, but not enough to make a difference. I've attached a summary of my trade p/l. As I stated, I am trading 100 shares at a time with a goal of +1.0 points per day net. My net p/l for the day was $611 (divided by 100 shares) = +6.11
I ended green and above my goal, so those are 2 very good things. Right at the open I had a loser running on me and I let it go longer than I had have planned for, but the other trade I was in was running in my direction for the same amount as the loss. I closed the profit and was ready to close the loss, but it started to come back to me...I ended those 2 trades +1.88 and -.77 The remainder of the day was just a back and forth battle. My Daily Goal = +1.00 Today's net $129.95 div. by 100 shares = +1.29 Mon +6.11 Tue +1.29 Week + 7.40
Day 3 of this Journal = Green Although I am happy at again making money the true test wil be when I have to post a losing number, that it is not a huge drawdown. I started off the day on a good note, going long on the opening gap down anticipating that there would be a spike up, and then shorting it as it dropped. I was then in and out until about 12:30 and decided to stop as I had just given some of the gains back and didn't think I had a feel for what the next big swing would bring. Also on Tuesday I had traded straight thru the day until about 3:20 and didn't want another all day battle today. My Daily Goal = +1.0 Today's Net = + $367 div. by 100 shares = +3.67 Week Total = +11.09 Trade Summary Attached Congrats to the guys on the Trader P/L 2008 that are kicking butt.
Day 4 of this Journal... I almost had it wrong today...my daily auto-close is set at -5.0 and I was in a few trades that put me at -3.0 and then some, and I was going to stop out the trades if I reached -3.5 and regroup, but it worked out...day 4 = green. My goal coming into today was to not get closed out at -5.0, as I came into the day +11.0 for the week, I wanted to have just an OK day and that would secure a green week. Mission accomplished. I closed out my last trade at 10:29. It was not a very active day. I did believe that the end of the day would have a big drop, but I stayed out. My Daily Goal = +1.0 Today's Net = +$327 div. by 100 = +3.27 Week Total = +14.32 Trade Summary attached... Trade Detail in next post...
Day 5 of this journal... It is nice to be on the correct side of movement. Since I have looked at trading movement in points rather than dollars and having droped my share size and widened my goal/stop amounts I feel like I'm playing a whole different sport...before it was like swinging at a screw ball. My goal for the week is +3 points, today I fiished + 12.81. I never would have thought that type of gain possible in one day.... Does anyone else trading stocks look at their trade P/L in Points??? My Daily Goal = +1.0 Today's Net = +$1281 div. by 100 = +12.81 Week Total = +27.14 Trade Summary attached...