This may sound like a small amount to some of you but I am testing a new trading strategy as such will be documenting it. Thanks.
-$53 for today. Make some mistakes with TOL not folloiwng my own rule of shorting when it was in flat/weak trend. Obvisouly then it dropped to close in 22.23 but I had already covered my shorts at 20.48 after having shorted at 22.35 or so... Had similiar problem with LFC but was able to recover most of my losses by re-shorting when trend strengthen.
Neke, I might start another one but I'll need to focus on this setup and trades for the time being - this month - stay focused and discipled. I understand you have an active journal with goals of hitting a target by year end. - yours is long-term. I do not hold positions overnight...if I do then I am voilating my own rules, I'll cut losses though sometimes holding overnights will improve the position - keyword - sometimes. I am following purely tech analysis and not much or none fundamental some are 'story and news' stocks. Had good results trading LFC, ACH, KONG, CBAK, TOL, KBH and some other stocks but again...mistakes on TOL took all of my gains...especially since I decided to average on losers....not always a good thing. Given the stragegy I am following I need to stay very focused on 1 or 3 (most) stocks at any given time unless they move in my favor early in the trading and I can set a stop limit order and then move on to another trade...but there has to be a good profit cushion before I shift to another stock...tho I have up to 100 stocks on my page that I am following. Obviously I could set some bold huge target number but that's not realistic in trading, after reading your journal it reinforces my perception. Don't get me wrong...year is not over yet and you still might make your target. let's not discuss your objectives in this thread...though I started it My plan is to trade trend, trend, trends backed by up or down volume. Thanks for the question!
Anek, Thanks I read your journal too and looking to incorporate some stuff into my plan as it fits for stocks.
Wrapping things up early this morning due to a meeting I need to attend. Traded: Long: MTL, GLBL, GSK Short: SNY, Longs all won but lost on SNY. My staragetry correctly predicted the trend of MTL, GLBL, GSK though they were trading in red. Trend reversed on SNY and lost on that trade making me break-even for the day less commissions. Lesson learned: Wait until full confirmation of the trend...make sure SHORT-TERM time frame indcators opposite of LONG-TERM indicators. IN case of SNY I did not fully confirm...as result it cost me some money. Especially when trade is borderline simply pass it. Plus my one of my tenants called...washing machine is not agitating so I had to call my technician to get that fixed, a bit destructive today. More on Friday...attending a financial summit tomorrow all day to listen to William O'Neal, James Altercher, Larry McMillan and other hot shots - it's free to customers Happy trading to all.
Did not trade on Thursday (10/4) as attended a seminar to listen to William O'Neal of IBD, along with some other traders Larry McMillan, prez of Decision Economics and some trader guy named John Carter, never heard of him before. O'neal was good, very good, I think he is now pushing his IBD subscription hard and selling books. His overall strategy is sound, his folky approaching is great, very acocmplished man, overall was great. He is investment guru slash motivational speaker slash economonic cheerleader. Larry McMillan was good too but very dry and boring, he needs to work on his presentation skills and perhaps revise his slides to make things a bit engaging. For the first time saw Wealth-Labs application integrated with Fidelity's Active Trader Pro platform, good platform overall but it's for retail clients with $8 commission, has good charting, execution, etc...but remember event was sponsored by Fidelity. I asked the trader presenter what was the next best think or close to what Wealth-labs does he mentioned TradeStation, MetaStock, and something else. I remember first reading about Wealth Labs long time ago but did not know that Fidelity acquired it and there is no way to subscribe to it ... it comes packaged with Fidelity's trading platform. I was impressed by back-testing of Wealth-lab...I am checking out TradeStation and will probably switch to TradeStation. John Carter spoke to about his setups and high probability trades, I think there is some substance in what he said, he run Trade The Markets.com site and posts daily videos, I checked out some. I have not backtested his strategies. He mentioned a good site decisionpoint.com which I chcked out but have not decided whether I should subscribe. overall was good. VP of Decision Economomics Dr. Allen Sinai spoke...I found him very interesting and articulate...that's rare for econimists to be so not-boring, he ended speach saying chaces of recession about 40% unless job numbers come out very good then chances of recession will go down and will not trigger Fed rate cut. I alreaday heard of that on CNBC. Oh..one other dude named Jame Altucher who used to run a site stockpickr.com which was bought by James Cramer program..and Cramer refers to be constantly during his Mad Money. Altucher was OK very aloof, funny, I thought he did not take the audience serously as he kept talking about annektodal events and funds. His company is fund of funds...mananages money for other hedge funds, did not disclose amount under management or anything specific. Did not tade on Friday (10/05) I had a staff meeting and was not able to concentrade, one think I learned is never place trades in a hurry to thinking "I have to make some money today, I must" it does not work...normalyy it's the opposite. I am looking forward to Monday but I have to drop a friend at the airport to catch a flight..hope to be back to market open. There it is my unbiased review of the event. I'll post if anything else comes to mind.
If you are testing a new strategy, perhaps % return per trade is a better indication of how its doing rather than a monetary goal. Once u start worrying about how much your making, things can go downhill quick