I have vacillated on whether to start a Journal here or not... but what the heck.. I have been involved in the markets on and off since in College in the mid 80's.. Played pennies then by phone and did well thanks to a very kind broker.. Early 90's tried some buy and hold (to be responsible).. Probably just back luck but those went nowhere.. Around 95 got active again in pennies with around $600 and got this to 150k or so at the height of the Dot-Coms.. Nothing special really in those days but was glad to have always taken from the markets... Last 7 years have been up and down... I have a day job and both have suffered due to a lack of discipline putting neither in it's place.. This Journal aims to "help" organize and hopefully, improve my results. I am a very new member "retire48" at Covestor.com (A Mr. Sykes here mentioned it an I thought it "interesting"... It's free.. NO AFFILIATION WHATSOEVER with Mr. Sykes OR anyone behind Covestor). By my handle you can see I was to retire at 45 but I have given myself 3 more years I am (trying to be?) a swing (2 days to a few weeks) Trader that relies very heavily on TA. I am quite good at Charting and there is no doubt anyone looking over my shoulder would make a mint. Why haven't I made a mint?? Ahhh... the reason for this thread.. I have had some diseases... 1. Trading in one time frame and watching/reacting to another. As one should trade based on the base period of their style, you better not watch the much lower periods.. The shortest period a Swing Trader should see is an hourly. But I see smaller ones, uproot my trades which almost always go as originally planned. Since I am incapable of not reacting to a 10 min chart the goal is to never look at one again. I am a pathetic daytrader.. period. 2. Over-trading resulting from the above. A Swing Trader must very rarely have daytrades. This means stops should not be place on the day of the trade.. Properly planned trades should not suffer a a result. 3. Not being faithful to a core set of markets. Those that wander from table to table will tend to be taken by those that "work" those tables, have paid their dues and deserve the fruits it bears.. That's it! Remedies.. (Rules) 1. No market watching intraday.. A recurring nightmare is early Morning reaction to the Futures.. This has probably eaten 80% of my profits... For a swing trader with proper Trade management, a day should never be enough to ruin things. A 30 minute glance during the final 30mins is the MOST market watching to do. 2. Pre-entered entries and exits There should be no daytrades here.. 3. There shouldn't be single losses larger than 3% from entry. Chart-wise, very simple really.. MACD, Trendlines, ADX.. LONGS: 4 day highs in Low MACD stocks where a trendline has just been broken Very Clear Support areas. Simply reverse this for shorts.. I use Telecharts and Ameritrade. Core Stocks... 50 stocks I keep in telecharts.. examples.. DRYS, TNH, RYL, CLF, BZH, YGE, AKS, FXP.. Basically THE perfect swing stock is Volatile on a weekly basis but less volatile intraday.. I want stocks that are "clean" i.e. when on a trip they rarely violate prior day highs/lows.. They should have relatively few MACD crosses.. Too much rambling.. This should be a DULL journal if it is to do what I hope. Daily updates only if anything new. Weekly updates on the Market overall and the recent week.
It should be an interesting journal as long as you post lots of cool charts, commentaries, reasonings, and of course the P&L Looking forward to it, Schaefer
Hello retire45, Look forward to your journal. If the mood hits you, perhaps you could post a few charts of previous set-ups that you like to find (regardless of outcome). I like to watch : ) TIA GF
Basically THE perfect swing stock is Volatile on a weekly basis but less volatile intraday.. I want stocks that are "clean" i.e. when on a trip they rarely violate prior day highs/lows.. They should have relatively few MACD crosses.. What scanner do you use?
in the 80s i was a premium seller in oex,had 2 accts ,one for scalping , and one for prem selling ,rarely touched prem selling acct,just saw results on my sheets every morn,thats one way of trading both styles,as long as u have stops in your swing trade acct ,u can leave the positions alone
I use Telecharts mainly because of VERY complete, clean data and it's Volatility Scan... Very simple .. over 400k avg vol, High Volatility, 10 day ma as short/long screen.. Then I study the charts -- MACD sorted. I'd rather have a scan that lets in strays so I can make visual calls myself. Rashid
Sorry ammo but if you see me daytrade/scalping you WILL Vomit.. I am the one you are usually scalping..