"losing" and "noobie" may be redundant, but yes I've just started trading my account and have lost about $1500 in 10 market days. exchange listed stocks, volume 500k-1.5m. Trading in 100 lot shares. $0.006 commish. "strategy" Look for a good trend, unusually high volume, and follow the trend. Problems: I'm picking tops and bottoms and keep getting burnt for 10 cent losses. Sometimes 25 cent....yeah, brutal. I am holding on to my losers. I realize that stops are a useful crutch or brake to make the exit a no brainer. Some stuff that I traded Friday 3/23/07: FL 700 shares, $27 gross, $22.1 net GOL 200, $12 g, $10.60 n DNA 400 shares, -21 g, -23.80 n DWA 200, -7 g, -8.40 n Overall, I was up $7 gross, -18 net. Total shares traded 3000. Today I tried to draw channels and wait for breakouts from these patterns...i think i found a pendent in TNP 10a-12pm. I had been lookin at this stock at aroudn 12pm, it broke out after i wasnt watching it. went back to it at 2pm, of course i missed the 1 point runup. http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=TNP&t=1d i need help..
-$ 1,500 ??? that's NO loss... The noobies make the turn when losing becomes large enough and painful enough that they finally decide to not lose money. That's the only way to be a great trader that I know of.
You've just started trading.... loosing money is part of learning and happens, you need to be prepared to loose for the first year and maybe longer. It seems you realize what your problems are, picking tops and bottoms, well don't do that, if you are trying to follow a trend, there is no point picking a top, look to get in near a low. Trading takes a lot of work, I've been at it 6 months, and if I said it has been easy I'd be kidding myself. Keep watching charts and learning, you will be spending a lot of time learning and being wrong.
First off, 10 days isn't even close to enough time. You need to be trading for a minimum of 6 months to 1 year before you likely see consistant profitability. I would recommend paper trading for at least a few weeks. You need to become profitable on paper before you even think of going live. Papertrading will somewhat allow you to fine tune your method. Once you go live, the learning will begin all over again, as most traders would agree that the psychological aspect of trading with real money is the hardest barrier to overcome. As for your style - you have to find something that fits your own personality and risk profile. If you are consistently buying highs and selling lows, then maybe wait for pullbacks. Losing $18 a day for a newbie (as in your example) is very acceptable. However your obviously bleeding much faster than this if you have lost $1,500 in 10 days. Keep the bleeding to a minimum to allow yourself to be around in 6 months - 1 year. Slider.
Why are you trading more than 100-200 shares? If you believe you can make money within a few weeks of live trading, the market will humble you and make you sad. Your goal should be to learn. The goal is to learn enough to be consistent. To do that you must stay in the game. To stay in the game you must minimize losses. Trading 100 shares is the best way to do that. If you're using a strategy that absolutely requires scaling out, then trade 200... but don't take more than that.
too much size, too many market orders, undeveloped edge (inadequate confidence in your strategy due to inadequate evidence that strategy is profitable) most likely. if what you are doing is losing money then stop doing it until you have something that you have confidence in. if you dont have something that you have confidence in then dont trade until you do. otherwise you will create mental problems that will hinder you in the future when you finally do develop a strategy that you have confidence in (assuming this strategy ever materializes, which is something you should think about). if you are under time constraints to pay the bills, get another job while you develop your edge. all imo.
I think he was refering to per share, but accidently said 100 shares. CyberTrader.com offers this. Ends up being about .60 for 100 shares.
Just to clarify, I trade in 100 lots, but in and out several times through out the day. (FL should read 800 shares). My first week, i'd made like 10 roundtrips in a single stock. I'd lose and try to chase. My second week, i've improved my selectivity, but am still really careless as to what the chart is telling me. I wonder if most often, there is nothing tradable and i lose money by getting bounced in between a range. 0.007$ per share.