i ag i agree. trading should be done with full concentration. you don't want to loose the money you invested for profits.
So when I wrote about this I exited a majority of my options on 10/11/18. They expired 10/19/18. Had I done nothing I would still be up more than 2x my exit points. I sold my last 1 option I was holding onto 10/19/18. Last week, I bought more options but this time long term ones expiring in Jan 2019! The instrument I was trading has been consolidating. So it went down some and I bought more since the daily chart was still consolidating. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Then today finally it BROKE OUT of the range in a HUGE way!!! Learning from my mistakes I will NOT sell any on the first day of the breakout. I will it ride. It could still be a failed breakout. But everytime I sell on the first day of the breakout I had seller regret since the continuation ran for at least a few more days. Let's see! Kind of exciting. And so much less stress than daytrading. And significantly more profits. “It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight! It is no trick at all to be right on the market. You always find lots of early bulls in bull markets and early bears in bear markets. I’ve known many men who were right at exactly the right time, and began buying or selling stocks when prices were at the very level which should show the greatest profit. And their experience invariably matched mine–that is, they made no real money out of it. Men who can both be right and sit tight are uncommon.” - Jesse Livermore
Agreed. I haven't daytrade in over a week. Busy with work. Today, the instrument I have been holding finally broke out of its consolidation. This one day gain is more than the total profits from my daytrading over than same time period. No stress. This one is a runner. I'm still holding. Yay!
Here's the thing. On 10/11/18 I got out most of my swing trading options(it had 1.5 week to expiration) even though my TA said it should run for a little more. So I kept one contract til expiration on 10/19/18. And it was much higher than my exit points on 10/11/18. Then I bought more much longer term options expiringi in Jan 2019. Yesterday when it broke out of its consolidating range, I said I should have gotten out but I didn't. Well, of course it came back down but still sitting at the HIGH of the old consolidating range. So bulls are still holding this up. My point is it ALL depends on your TIMEFRAME. If I were to daytrade this I would have gotten out everything yesterday morning. Then bought it back in the afternoon. But I really can't since I work full-time now. Also these is part of my much larger multi-month core position strategy. So I'm OK with letting it fluctuate around for a while as long as it's above the consolidating range that it broke out from. Which it has. Let's see. And the week of 10/11/18 the intent for short-term swing trade. But I got out on te first day of profit, which is not according to plan. Still learning and refining my strategy and thinking around holding winners.
Congratulations on making your profit but if you don't mind me saying, you still need to work on sticking to your trading plan. So far pretty much all of your profits were made by you deviating from your trading plan. If you think your trading plan is not allowing you to maximize your trading profits, then it's your trading plan that you need to change by re-evaluating your trading plan, doing more backtesting and then revise or come up with a new trading plan. You cannot change your individual trades every time you trade. One of those days, it's going to backfire on you and in the long run, it won't allow you to make consistent profit. Once you created a trading plan and made sure it's profitable, you need to stick to the plan! Just my 2 cents.
I haven't checked this thread in a while. Sorry for the delayed response. You are right! My trading plan is not great not. When it works it's great. When it doesn't I need to exit sooner. I need to account more contingencies in my plan. I have only simplistic exit scenarios. Now I realized the market can do an infinite multiple of moves. Obviously can't account for everything. But at least the exit plan should include the following: 1) know when you are wrong and get out at a small loss 2) know when to get out to protect profits 3) know when to get out when it's at the high consolidating high points 4) know when to re-enter in a major trend 5) know when a trend continuation is on and hold on just a little longer etc. etc. Right now I'm just holding.. it bounces all over the places. I could have exit at the high of the consolidating range multiple times and got back in at the lower band.
Today I tried to daytrade on my simulator. I realize even though my signals and setups are good, I'm just TOO SLOW to daytrade. By the time I see it and act on it has already moved. And I get in a pretty bad price. And I'm too nervous and get out too soon. Even though my original pattern works and it goes where it should be going. Not sure what I was thinking trying to daytrade these last few years. I could have saved myself a lot of headache, pain, suffering, and lost money and time. I could have just bought the QQQs or index funds. And swing trade. Every single time I've daytrade recently I've lost. Not a lot. But a little each time. This tells me daytrading is not for me. I'm too slow for that.
I couldn't believe. It came all the way back. I was busy at work and didn't check my positions. I hate sitting through a consolidating range. It has the feel of a reversal now. Kinda nervous. Shoulda. Coulda. Woulda exit earlier at the highs...
Everybody is now too slow for daytrading ever since HFT has arrived. Swing trading is the key to beat HFT. Let those HFT bots to earn those half-of-a-cent profit while we earn the bigger money in longer term trading.