You might want to take a day off to clear your head. Try to be objective and not 'revenge trade' when you get back in the driving seat. Good luck....
Okay, today was 10x better than the last 2 days. I'm quitting early as well. Was break even but satisfied. Traded in 100-200 share lots only. Had 11 winning trades, and 7 losers. Decided to be VERY patient. Biggest downfall today: hesitating when my system provides an entry. Execution is of the utmost importance. When 30 seconds goes by, and I say, "what the hell, I'm placing the order"....well my edge just went down a bit. Sometimes i didn't even place the trade and watched myself throw $ out the window. There is no room for second guessing ! My confidence is slowly building. Screen time will do it. Lack of confidence in a profitable system is the stupidest thing a trader can do. But my confidence is slowly building. Just some notes and things i have to work on: 1) I'm 110% positive my system is profitable. There's no question. in that. It is not the system that needs perfection, it is the trader. Stop worrying about whether the system will eek out a gain, and start worrying about executing the freaking order. 2) You execute right when system provides the signal. Too many bad executions today. 3) Confidence is what will make me successful. 4) Focus on letting profits ride. Thats the difference between a profitable trader and non profitable. I hadn't done that today and I need to focus on it tomorrow. Today i was only worried about not doing stupid non-system trade bullshit and being patient. I've found myself scalping for 10 cent winners for 1 minute holding lengths in a trade that is designed to let ride for 10-20 minutes. Cost myself hundreds today. Yes, hundreds ! And i'm only doing 100 share lots ! Its not that I'm closing positions b/c I'm reading price action wrong. I've been closing positions just to eek out a gain. Stupid ! Let profits ride, don't hesitate on an entry signal, have confidence. Slowly but surely. I've understood my weakness. Now I shall correct them. And to the poster that said I'm on the road to destruction. No sir, I'm on the road to understanding myself as a trader.
Take a look at my attachment. At the bottom is shows my gross for the day, up $3.42 cents. Above that it shows one of the positions that i entered. Only traded til about 2:15 today Take a look at what I bought it at, and what I sold it at. Then take a look at the chart for the stock, and you'll see how bloody retarded I was. My reason for selling it ? Possible resistance at 18.15. Didn't let it ride. Left a good amount on the table. Had I exited according to my system, I probably would have exited around 18.30. Big difference. Signal was good, execution was good, exited w/o thinking logically. Exited based on taking a small profit. On the other hand, I saw slight improvements in my trading today. Still left a shitload on the table. Probably should have been up around $200-$300 today. My executions got much better today. Executed at the prices I should have. Still hesitated somewhat, but I did better than yesterday. Monday I will do better than today and so on.....Steady progress. Made a fat finger mistake for about $30 today. Added to my position when I meant to sell. Its not much in real terms, but when your trading 100 share lots, its big. Made a $30 mistake w/ one hesitant execution. Made me have to widen my mental stop. Stop was hit, so that was a loss. Lost $13 on 1 non-system play. Idiocy. Didn't do it again for the rest of the trading day. Had so many opportunities to do so again, but I resisted my urges. Soon I shall have days w/o non-system bs. Took a quick 20 cent profit on a stock that went down over $1. Got a late entry b/c i didnt notice it, so it made me feel as though i had to exit quickly b/c my stop was huge even though its profitable over 80% of the time. All in all, executions were much better today. Hesitancy slowly got better, but I definitely didn't trade many of my signals. Profit riding still needs work. I saw little improvement in that today. Confidence in my system was up by the end of the day. Its laughable how much money I've made today, compared at how much money my system woulda generated. Oh well, improvement everyday. this shit takes time
0 Fat finger mistakes 0 non-system plays Less hesitation, but still missed out on a few I shoulda pulled the trigger for. Protected profits too much towards the end.....ended up in me losing $. Left a few entries on the table b/c of it. Still working on this hesitation thing. Slightly better today. Just need to focus. Let profits ride in an $18 stock, made 45 cents off of it. Biggest % profit to date. Didn't let profits ride in one of my other winners, b/c I had a 'feeling' the stock was gonna go down. Fucking stupid. never doing that again. Feelings are for girls and are usually wrong. Left 20 cents of an $18 stock on the table b/c of it. Missed an entry on another stock that woulda netted me over 60 cents on a $19 stock. Woulda made $412 had I traded my usual size. Satisfied but not happy yet w/ my trading b/c I netted $45 on one stock and ended up at $35 for the day. At least I let profits run on a stock. That was the difference in an up day and a down day. Net $35. High for the day was $71. Definitely traded better than Friday. Caught in a few reversals towards the end of the day.
Not posting an attachment. Too lazy. Realized: -$65 for the day. Summary of the day: First trade of the day.....confused it w/ a system play. Impatience. NEVER DOING THAT AGAIN. 2nd trade: Hesitation by 10 fucking minutes, and still bought. 3rd trade: hesitation. bought too late. Stop too wide. Price decided to shoot up 60 cents on a $26 stock on the 1 min. candle. Jokes on me, $78 loss. 4th trade: Shouldn't have entered. Stop loss had to be too wide. caught in the reversal, lost $30. 5th trade: Non system revenge trade: -$5. by 11:30: I'm down $152 trading 100 share lots. Lots of stupidity. Took 20 mins to clear my head. 12:00-4:00. Stuck completely w/ my system. Was in the zone. Made $90. I still made mistakes from 12-4, but the main thing was I executed where I should have, so I kept my losers at a minimum and let my big winners ride. 9 winners, 7 losers in the afternoon session 12-4. Biggest winner: $39. Biggest loser: $12. Thats the way my system should work when trading it correctly ! I feel as though after that minor mishap in the morning, I went right back on track to improving. More and more confidence in my system !
Made $82 today. Net $67. Gotta stop doing so many market orders. My $.004 per share is turning into like $.006 per share b/c every order i place is MKT. No hestitation today. No non-system crap. No buying / shorting of stocks in which I needed a wide stop for. Really focused on not hesitating today and I'm happy w/ it. Last problem left: letting profits ride. My main pyschological barrier is once I see the stock move in my direction, I want to keep those profits. Primarily b/c I'm too focused on my p/L. I have a system for when to exit which i haven't adhered to. Woulda been up over $200 again had I did that. Yah, same shit day after day. Woulda coulda shoulda. But I'm making progress. Tomorrow and Friday goals: let winners ride. Don't worry about p/l. That'll come when u fix your pyschological barriers.
$40 Gross, $27 net today. Only placed 12 trades. Tried adding liquidity today so that fees wouldn't complete destroy me. Market chopped way too much for my liking. Didn't place one trade after 1:00. thats not like me. Went to lunch from 1:30-2:00. Missed two would be trades that woulda have netted me money but I don't care. Gotta take a break sometime. 2:00-4:00 was chop city. Dow jones did nothing. Could have squeezed something out, and thought about doing non-system plays all day long. Didn't let myself do it though. No big mistakes today. Just a slow day. Satisfied nonetheless. If i'm satisfied w/ my performance tomorrow, I'm going to up my share size to 200 shares for stocks under $40. I'm also gonna start trading stocks $50 and over. Thus far, I've restricted myself to stocks under $50 and 100 shares only.
Traded like an idiot today. Took a bunch of small loses in a row b/c the market seemed to want to fade a bunch of my picks in a row. Also played a short position at a great entry point, then went downstairs to eat some soup. 6-7 mins later, the position reverses on me and I'm down 15 cents on an $18 stock. Normally, the way that entry works, I would have taken a 10 cent max stop loss. Most likely, would have closed her up even earlier. Instead, idiocy resulted. Then when I actually got 2 decent opportunities, I was cynical on the trades right away, and was pissed off at the markets so I sold them for scalping type profits. Had I not been a bloody idiot, and been in the right mindset, those two trades would have netted me an extra 40-50 cents. 100 share lots.....u do that math. Realized $37. Net: $17 End of week 2: Realized $129. Net: $26 . Finally found out how to add liquidity. that helped a lot towars the end of the week in fees. Monday I'm starting on 200 share lots.