haha. You are right. My consulting and side business produces steady income that are about orders of magnitude better than this. So until I fixed these issues, it's more entertainment than productive use of my time.
Went long NG(natural gas) and got out. Ka-ching. Rode the long trend with ease. Just need to do the same with NQ. I know a lot of people here on ET are daytraders. I was just looking at the daily chart. From 12/29/17 when I short at the highs of the day and covered near the lows of the day. I was so proud of myself. 70 NQ pts! But had I instead just bought and held(like most retail investors it would have been almost 600 NQ pts!) Just ridiculous how strong this market is. Do you sometimes feel like wouldn't it be easier just to buy and hold. Of course, you can improved on it with risk management overlays. The average retail investors just buy and hold forever and don't take account into risk etc. Actually a lot of daytraders don't either. haha. Yours truly included. It's a lot of stress to dart in and out. For those of you who are swing traders, are you killing it in this market? Anyhow, I just put in a limit order on NQ on the lower band. It got hit went a little further but came back(as always). Sold out. Trying to instill good habits here. It's not much on one lot. But one day all these improvements will add up to something...
In theory, that's a very correct assessment. In this particular case, I'm daytrading a few hours in the morning(thanks for being on the left coast). Then the rest of the day I'm working on my consulting and business. In theory, I would learn more and faster if I focused a 100% on my daytrading throughout the day. But as noted elsewhere on this thread, I seem to be a bit far away from being profitable enough to support myself through daytrading alone. So, why not do something that generates steady income and work on gradually improve my daytrading skills? Gotta be realistic about where I am skillwises when it comes to daytrading. I wished I was good as some people here on ET. But I'm not there yet. In the meantime, why not do both? Seems a very reasonable approach.
As I've said before, I also run a consulting and side business that generates steady income for me. Those activities take up the rest of my day(after the few hours in the morning of daytrading ends). But I do have my screens up with charts just in case something interesting is moving and I can jump in and out. hehe. Even if I could daytrade whole day, as noted earlier, I don't think I'm good enough to make a living out of it. At least not yet..
This market is incredible. I had a resting buy limit order. It got hit when I wasn't watching. Then it down against me. But I just held and I got out with a profit. lol. What is this?1 I was stupid enough in 2016-2017 to be bearish. Every dip is bought. Every pullback is bought. Only on really rare occasion does it not come back. But these are precisely the trading habits that will get you one killed in a bear market. I should know. I lived through the last one. Just did it again. Bought the dip. I guess this market is training people to buy the dip and get rewarded. Until the dip doesn't come back then the bulls get wiped out. Then the bears have the upper hand. Then the bears will get wiped out in the next bull cycle. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
What a crazy ride today! Down in the morning then up nicely but should have gotten out of open profits sooner. But still ended up the day positive. The moment that I was proud of was buying at 6987.75 and selling at 7001.75. Originally I was short and lost in the morning. Then I went long and lost because I was shaken out. Then short and lost. Then NQ pullback to a support area. I got in and rode for 14pts. Not bad. I had thought about shorting at around 7000 area. Today it would have worked wonders. But 9 out of 10 times, I would have lost shorting the highs thinking it's a top. So, I stopped the URGE to short. And waited for a clear short signal which came later. Self control. Hopefully this signals the end of my short bias? Or at least being able to switch sides short to long to short to long as the market dictates... Then the market started to come down. I was thinking about buying the dip. But the price action was so violent and fast I figured this is nto the time to buy the dip... Then I reversed my thinking when a clear short signal came along and went short and held! 133 points on YM! Would have been 200+ pts if I had covered at the lows. Instead I let it pulled back quite a bit before getting out. That's an area of GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT despite making money on it. Should have gotten out way sooner.. To let it come back like 70 YM points was kinda dumb. hehe. Even though I made money on it, it was poor trade management. Then it came back I tried to short again, but lost. Then late day I just shorted and covered for small gains. NQ moves WICKEDLY fast! I feel like when my PL is at local maxima. Everytime I wait to get even more there's always a HUGE SPIKE up in prices. Probably the algos that are programmed to buy the lows are causing these spikes. For those who trades NQs, how do you exit quickly? I'm a point and click guy(yeah, I know slow). By the time I see it and decide to get out prices have moved and spike up(when I'm sort). Thus not being able to realized my gains even though I was right with the direction. Acct1: Position Size Contract Price Exchange Time Points SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6975.75 GLOBEX 06:38:00 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6975 GLOBEX 06:39:36 AM 0.75 BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6979.75 GLOBEX 06:47:05 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6968.25 GLOBEX 06:52:24 AM -11.5 SLD 1 CL Mar'18 @NYMEX 64.59 NYMEX 06:54:35 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6972.5 GLOBEX 06:55:38 AM BOT 1 CL Mar'18 @NYMEX 64.56 NYMEX 07:02:08 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6989.75 GLOBEX 07:07:56 AM -17.25 BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6987.75 GLOBEX 07:08:16 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6989.75 GLOBEX 07:12:08 AM 2 BOT 2 ZW Mar14'18 @ECBOT 429.75 ECBOT 07:12:17 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6987.75 GLOBEX 07:20:20 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 7001.75 GLOBEX 07:35:36 AM 14 SLD 1 CL Mar'18 @NYMEX 65.17 NYMEX 08:10:48 AM BOT 1 CL Mar'18 @NYMEX 65.16 NYMEX 08:15:20 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6953.5 GLOBEX 08:17:12 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6955.5 GLOBEX 08:17:51 AM 2 SLD 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26298 ECBOT 08:25:04 AM SLD 1 ZW Mar14'18 @ECBOT 432 1/2 ECBOT 09:52:30 AM SLD 1 ZW Mar14'18 @ECBOT 432 1/4 ECBOT 09:57:28 AM BOT 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26165 ECBOT 10:35:07 AM 133 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6925.75 GLOBEX 10:36:19 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6938.75 GLOBEX 10:51:51 AM -13 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6942.25 GLOBEX 11:36:52 AM SLD 1 NG Feb'18 @NYMEX 3.464 NYMEX 11:48:24 AM BOT 1 NG Feb'18 @NYMEX 3.462 NYMEX 11:53:14 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6938.5 GLOBEX 12:46:33 PM 3.75 BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6939.25 GLOBEX 12:48:18 PM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6932.75 GLOBEX 12:50:13 PM 6.5 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6934 GLOBEX 12:50:26 PM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6927 GLOBEX 01:10:22 PM 7 Total Points NQ -5.75 ; YM 133 Acct2: Position Size Contract Price Exchange Time Points SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6983.5 GLOBEX 06:59:50 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6990.25 GLOBEX 07:04:56 AM -6.75 BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6998.5 GLOBEX 07:14:15 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6994.75 GLOBEX 07:29:12 AM -3.75 SLD 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26308 ECBOT 08:13:31 AM BOT 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26278 ECBOT 08:16:37 AM 30 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6959.25 GLOBEX 08:26:59 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6944.5 GLOBEX 08:31:09 AM 14.75 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6936 GLOBEX 08:43:43 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6942 GLOBEX 08:44:53 AM -6 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6944.5 GLOBEX 08:53:12 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6932.75 GLOBEX 09:01:41 AM 11.75 SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6937.5 GLOBEX 09:11:05 AM BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6928.75 GLOBEX 10:35:34 AM 8.75 BOT 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6954.5 GLOBEX 11:46:47 AM SLD 1 NQ Mar16'18 @GLOBEX 6955.75 GLOBEX 11:47:01 AM 1.25 BOT 15 YANG ARCA Apr20'18 8 CALL 0.1 ISE + 3 12:24:29 PM BOT 45 YANG ARCA Apr20'18 8 CALL 0.1 EDGX 12:28:59 PM SLD 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26252 ECBOT 12:31:38 PM BOT 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26244 ECBOT 12:42:59 PM 8 SLD 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26270 ECBOT 01:01:50 PM BOT 1 YM Mar16'18 @ECBOT 26260 ECBOT 01:03:08 PM 10 Total Points: NQ Points 20; YM Points 48