5K is highly unrealistic for this guy. you can only make 100-200$ per day on a good day. on a bad day the same with a negative 100 or 200. the guy needs to go back and learn the craft. Money management is awful. profits have to be quite big compared to losses as we canonly b 30% or so correct. this guy take a break and reasses and needs to come out with a whole new strategy. im sorry to be so blunt. day trading is painful business. the guy makes 3 winning trades and 3 losing trades and comes out wiht a negative amount. he has no business trading and never read a book in his life.
But it doesn't matter. Keep working at it, peruse the other journals, study price action to start with. Because you work during the day, you're at a disadvantage in the most competive business in the world, in a competitive world. *** Study the AHG thread by Anekdoten and the ES Journal thread by B1S2 every night when you come home. Review your setups ad naseum during the weekends. Everything should be on automatic with your trading, and if you keep at it, it will be. Good trading, JJ
Well, what can I say....it's the worset feeling when you voilate your own rules and guilt makes sure to come after you and bite you right in the ass - that's the condition I am in. Greed kills people...was it Gordon Gecko who said "greed is good..." in the movie Wall Street with Michael Douglas and Charlie Sheen. As you can see from timing of this post...I am not trading, I will not for a few days until I regroup. Also moving my account from IB to TradeStation, later in the post I'll explain why. Trades that hurt me most are ZNH, MTL, MBT, - I trade these stocks often but my signals kept getting either delayed or hell knows what. I took loses (in long positiong) on all these stocks yesterday and the day before just to see them gap up yester, the day before yesterday, and obviously today. Moral of the story - my stops getting whipsawed in a little fluctionations, I need to revise my entries more to pick a near perfect entry so far it's been when Stochastics are low and short-term-window MACD is bearish...but I did not always follow that to a t so get caught in a short bearish run down. Specialliast and pros...took my muneee. My target is on for this month...I'll do my best, I hope to back-test some of my strategy setups, I know they work before eventioally stocks that I went long did and do rally but I get stoped out in the short run...plus some of these stocks very huge bid/ask spread...maybe...just maybe...they are not the best candidate for day trades...One pleassing things only so far in my long term invistemenets portfolio I am up 15.5% year-to-date...I could be up more but these are my conservative investments which include mutual finds...with most focus overseas and foreign economies (ie. American Funds Europacific, Janus Worldwide, Fidelity's Maggelan Fund, etc) I got a bit depressed about my performance but I am back now...and will contiue to post more.
True this guy made 3 winning and 3 loses...plus his winnings y esterday were 3 and loses 2...more wins then losses but his money management seems to be the problem because his winnings are small and losses are big...reverse of pfitable traders. I'll tell him to focus on trades...print his statements today and re-study his trades...he is typing this message right now. He says thanks for your comment. Also he wants you know that he has read some books his trading is based on Alexander Elder's trading money, author of Trading for Living and author of Come to my trading room, he also read Van Tharp but did not find much value for it. Currently has ordered Trading in the Zone by Mark Douglas and can't wait to get it.
Ok. u sound like u have regrouped and i look forward to more of your comments. but i still have concerns over your money management. As you yourself highlight. you have more wins than losses but u still wind up wiht a negative result. why r u cutting the winning trade, surely if you can compute a stop you can also compute a target for the trade. only enter the trade if risk reward is 2:1 or higher and only risk 5% of capital. thats all u need. good luck dude.
Well here is the problem with winning trades...I enter a trade then it moves in my direction UP and then I set a stop-limit sell order if it drops few ticks below certain level sell and 80% of the time it has been jumping around like that...it'll come down just enough to take my order...perhaps dropp a bit more but then it trends up as I have projected...as I said...I cam getting cought in the middle of temporary down turn...perhaps I should not set such stop limits when I am in the money but I risk giving up whatever gains I already made...so go figure. For loosing trades when it moves against me I some room...and room keeps growoing before I cut it.