+$36.42 I made one mistake today, but there weren't any opportunities to really make money on. The goal, as always, is to just diversify and scale up slowly. So I was only mildly retarded today. My frustrations are no longer with trading, so much as they are getting what software I use to do what I want it to do. Endless hours of C++ programming just do not sound that appealing, but it seems like it's a requirement.
A pollster gave up and just asked the pedestrian: "are you just plain ignorant or appethetic"?, and the guy said: "I don't know, and I don't care" pm yourself on that one.....
+$168.95 No losers today on ~2300 shares. I turned off a lot of signals because of earnings, but they seemed to make $ also (on paper). I'm just more comfortable avoiding news, although I traded through the fed announcement today. Btw, if there's any confusion, I am not on a simulator. I just don't believe in turning up size and trade the absolute minimum size, and will not turn up size until I am comfortable.
I would recommend getting off of the simulator as soon as possible. I heard NLP along with focused breathing techniques and sexual tantra will not only make you get through the day on a live account but also make you last longer where it counts. A focused and disciplined approach as prescribed in the Art of War will make you an ultimate warrior trader. I believe the following image is a perfect metaphor for your current trading skills. You and limitdown could learn something. Right now you are the white boy and the market is the G-dawg. Your PnL is the ball going out of bounds.
Perhaps life itself is happening inside a giant simulator, and that when we die, all of our pnl is just fake. We are all really paupers eating mud outside of the life-simulator.
+$13.19 I was up around $70 today when I got caught long in HAL. It was part of a group of stocks I was trading, and I noticed it was way out of line with its peers. I cut this thing as soon as it looked suspicious and it was the right decision, because it proceeded to drop 11%. I don't normally override my system, but in events like this, it's almost obvious because the stock just stops acting right. I have no code to detect this, I just eyeball it. But the hint that something was wrong was just that the stock was moving in a straight line. During the usual flow in the market, there's lots of mixed ups and downs and the picture looks similar to how all the other stocks in the peer group are constructed. So, this week so far: +$37, -$4, +$169, +$13. Had I let this thing run against me, I would have wiped out everything I had made. I really need some kind of news filter, because my strategy cannot withstand news. Trading is hard. It's harder when you are mentally challenged like me.
+$53.72 I have a massive headache and don't have the energy to watch the market, so I'm just closing out my profitable position and calling it a day. Closing out this week as profitable. One of my baskets is acting wonky; I think I'm going to remove it from the mix.
I'm currently hoping to run this strategy through May before scaling up. I'm not sure how aggressive I will post about what I am doing through May because I'm looking for short-term software contracting work. It's nice to make some small money on the side, but I'm not confident in scaling up yet. Even with a positive track record, I want to minimize my cash-flow dent, since my (current) monthly expenses are around $3000 a month, and my expensive lease does not end until August. I'm not trading scared, because my computer does all the trading. However, what I am doing is not taking up the size or scaling out fast enough. I don't think I'm undercapitalized, but I also dislike writing these rent and expense checks every month. Current deficit per month is around $1600. So if I could pull in some post-tax amount to offset this burn, I would be much happier. If I can find some work writing C/C++ code for pretty much anything from noon onwards, that should give me enough of a cushion to keep working on what currently works.