Are you trading prop from home? What benefit is the prop firm giving ?Leverage ? Training ? Tools? Does the prop firm train?
Realized $59, Net $46 To the above poster, I have 6 figures worth of leverage. Only traded 100 shares today. Was vomitting earlier in the morning, and was not in the mood to subject myself to more risk. VERY VERY disappointed w/ my afternoon session. Sold 1 of my shorts when the dow hit 12400 and briefly bounced off. There was support there earlier in the day. 3 mins later, it breaks 12400 and I would have made 60 cents + on the move. Sad thing is, I was protecting miniscual profits, and according to my system, I should have held steady instead of selling. At that same moment, I failed to short another stock that gave me a system entry. Would have made 20-30 cents on that. Could have been a very good day. Instead, it was just OK. Tomorrow I'm switching to 200 shares.
Realized: $106. Net $85. Traded 200 shares w/ most stocks. Was a little hesitatant and afraid w/ some stocks, so we'll work on that. What a day. Started the day off w/ some software problems. Guys at Sterling did a great job of helping me figure out where the problem laid. Didn't place my first trade til 10:30. Hesitated going long on Crox, only to watch it sore upward to high heaven this morning. Although I partially blame it on my software problems. Still, shoulda went long. Definitely hesitated a lot today, but I did a good job of letting my profits ride. Only failed to let her ride on two stocks today. 1 stock was b/c the fed minutes were coming up and i didnt feel like gambling, and the other was just stupidity on my part in the morning. I found out if I focus and think the exit out in my head, I'm smarter and let them ride more. But when I exit based on emotion, I will lose out every time. Afternoon session made up for the stupidity in the morning. Oh, this was my first $100 day as a trader ! Quite happy w/ myself.
Realized $13.50. Net (19.43) Markets were very cruel today. I was headfaked in every which direction today. Im just happy I got out with a small loss. I've never been faked out of positions so many times since I started trading. Freaking RIGL towards the end of the day was nuts. Doesn't help that I'm still hesitant to trade the 200 share lots. Cost myself a profitable day by not adhering to 200 share lot trades. Tomorrow my goal is to trade 200 share lots w/ every trade once I can adequately define my risk. i defeated myself today.
well looking back at my trades today, I can honestly say I lost focus and lost patience. There were plenty of good trades out there that adhered to my system that would have been winners. Key word is patience. Completely lost focus today. Its amazing what a few errors can do to your day.
Realized $34 Net $4 Wow. I'm 100% satisfied with todays outcome. Didn't make money, but learned an awful lot. 1) The same entry thats been plaguing me in the mornings the past 4 or 5 days, that I've failed to get in to, I finally figured out a good entry plan so that hesitation won't happen again. Freakin' entry nails out out 40-80 cents in sub $30 stocks every time. Easy $. just gotta have lightspeed execution and no thinking 'what if'. 2) Todays market movements helped my hesitation problem big time. Still haven't fixed it yet. But making progress. 3) Learned today what revenge trading and anger can do to a trader, and how far in the pits u can go. Recovered nicely after that. Down over $150 part of which was revenge trading. I figured it would happen. I did it all the time in poker and sports betting. This time though, I stepped away before it got too much out of hand, and worked my ass back to profitability w/o over stepping risk management. 4) Non system plays can really f#k u over huh ? What happened to NO non-system plays eacy day ? Oh thats right, I thought I was smart enough to trade w/o my normal well-defined edge. WRONG. You're only 2 weeks in. See how well u did last week on the days u didn't trade non-system plays ? 5) Profit riding problem: Cured ! Hesitation: Work in progress ! Execution problems: Cured Patience (esp. during 11:30-1:30) : Bad, but working to fix. Week in Review: Net: $46.09 $85.05 ($19.43) $3.88 Total Realized: $213.10 for the week Total Net: $115.59 for the week Week 1: ~($1500) Week 2: $26 Week 3: $115.59
wiesman02, A couple pieces of advice for you. First, you have no business increasing your shares traded until you are CONSISTANTLY profitable. I would recommend going back to 100 share lots until you are profitable at least 10 business days in a row. Once you reach that you can increase your size incrementally. Trade so small the outcome of any trade is inconsequential to you, as it should be. Give your strategy a chance to work. Second, it seems your biggest problem is not following your own plan. You seem to know this and mention it a lot but still cannot seem to do it consistently. Trading long term is not about being a hero. It is about applying your edge as many times as possible over time to essentially eliminate chance from your long term results. Any one trade can go for you or against you and it doesn't matter. What matters is following your plan and giving it a chance to work for you. Let the math help ensure your success. But if you can't follow your own setup how do you know it works if you change it on the fly every trade? The best way to overcome this is imagine you are trading for someone else. An eccentric billionaire or whoever you want. But the catch is they do not reward you for trading based on your results. They reward you based on you FOLLOWING YOUR TRADING PLAN. If a trade falls outside your parameters, do not take it. Period. When you have more experience you will learn when you can break the rules on occasion. Keep a journal so you can prove to your "employer" you are following your plan. Your real job is to follow your plan and let the chips fall where they may. Pretend they will revoke your trading privileges if you do not follow your plan. I guarantee you will like your results if you do this and you have viable edge. Now if you can't or won't follow your plan for any reason, stop trading and save your money. Trading isn't for everyone. Because plenty of people will be happy to take it from you if you don't. Good luck and enjoy the journey. I hope this helps. BM
Realized $68, Net $52. So sick today. Vomitting, diahhrea, everything. Still traded, but only in 100 share lots b/c i was so sick. I'll respond to the above poster when I feel better. No complaints about my trading today. Stuck to system only plays, but missed out on some profits b/c of sudden diahhrea runs, but its ok.