Ok guys and gals be cool after reading some of these posts man, talk about brutality!. I have been swingtrading for about a year and I am daytrading now. I am not doing all that well and I even have a subscription to a trading room where the calls that are made each day equal at least 3 points or more and I am still losing money. I find it hard to enter and when I do I exit at .10-.20 gain and then watch them go up more. I have been studying and studying charts and reading everything I can find. I have been mentored at least 5 hours and still seem to be losing money. I use .30 stops and that is as far as I go. I trade Nasdaq stocks since those are the ones being called in the room and also because I find that it is hard to get in and out of NYSE stocks. Sometimes I can hit sell market and not get filled right away and in a tanking stock that costs a lot of money. I don't have this problem with Nasdaq stocks. I use MA crossover with volume confirmation. I find that I second guess myself and don't enter and miss the move. I have gotten in stocks that are moving up fast and guess what?, as soon as I get in they pullback. I don't lose a lot per day around 50.00 but I only have a small account and trade with a prop firm so 50.00 could be a lot I guess. I usually trade only 100 shares maybe 200. The psychological part seems to be the toughest to overcome. I know how to find intraday support and resistance and know when I should enter but when it comes time to trade my mind seems to go in all sorts of different ways and I forget to pay attention to stuff. I don't know if it is the fear of losing money or what but when you are in a trading room that makes at least 3 points with only 1/2 point worth of stops and you still lose money then something is really wrong in my opinion. I would greatly appreciate SINCERE replies and suggestions. Thanks Traderdave
Quit trading NAZ stocks and start trading NQ. It's sooooo much easier to game. A veritable money machine, just waiting for you to turn the crank!
forgive me if I'm off topic ot not answering your questions as I'm slightly buzzed. The psych part of trading is definitely the most difficult in my opinion. I think it is obvious you are losing money because you do not have your own style of trading that you can feel confident about. You're relying on the predictions of someone else and you can't have any confidence since you can't determine anything on your own. Someone else is holding your cards. I think you should find a good paper trading program and practice practice practice until you feel that your psych is prepared to handle whatever risk your trade has in store. I'm not a successful trader but I think what I said is pretty basic and any successful traded would agree. On the days when I'm not mentally prepared, I lose money. My explaination for my losses are that simple. When my psych goes, my losses get out of hand and I lose my profits big time. Why are you trading at a prop firm? Is the small account your own money or is it what the firm allows you to trade with? If you are trading your own money, do you feel that it is actually beneficial to pay the firm? Goodness! If that trading room is so consistent pm me and let me know how I can get in. hah
Well in my opinion you might be playing with the big dogs and your still a young pup. Swing and day-trading are 2 different things. First you should start of trading some NYSE lower price stocks. MU, MOT, GLW.... Learn how to get in and out of orders. I bet you are playing some big name nasdaq stocks and of course they are ripping you apart... they move to fast and you havn't learned how to handle it. Its about making money and not about chatting how you traded YHOO all week. Second... I can't believe your prop firm is allowing you to use market orders. A market order can and do get held sometimes and you do get raped. Check a level 2 screen and place a sell order .02 cents below current bid if you really need to get out and you should get price improvement to the current bid. Third.... .30 cent stops are way to much in my opinion. The most should be .10 cents to say to yourself... I was wrong. Remember you can always get back in... but you don't need to wait .30 cents to tell you your timing was off. Just my advise.... Take it for what its worth.
Scalping is a gruelling way to daytrade. It is one thing to look at a chart to see where one COULD have made money buying support and selling resistance, or buying breakouts to new highs and selling breakouts to new lows. It is much more difficult doing it real-time. Spread and commissions kill, but so does the stress. Here are two suggestions: 1. Read some of the good threads here on daytrading ONE NYSE stock. Maverick74 has some good suggestions. 2. Focus on finding ONE trend (good for stock index futures). That is what I usually do. It takes months/years to be proficient at daytrading. Hard work and perseverence cannot be exaggerated. Experience is often the best teacher. Make certain you do not blow up before you learn (actually, you never should stop learning). There are no worthwhile shortcuts. Good luck (unless you're trading against me .
Hey Dave, I think the answer to your problem is within your post! You've identified that the psychology is where you're struggling, and clearly that is what you need to resolve. I could have read it wrong but it seems you're a little scared to 'pull the trigger', the only reason for being scared of entering is through fear of being incorrect, which is the wrong attitude. It also appears that you want to take the profit as soon as it's available, rather than letting the profit run up to the objective & beyond. If you have a system that you know will produce consistent profits with small draw downs, the only thing left to do is quite simply, trade by your system rules. Rather than being pleased to make money, grade yourself on how well you adhere to your own rules for each trade. You must develop the discipline and confidence to trade without psychological conflict, but this may be hard to achieve when relying on someone else (the room) for your trading signals. The only system you can have confidence in is one that you know to work consistently. Once you're at ease with your system and its signals, the fear of 'pulling the trigger' should dminish, as over time the odds will favour your success. If you haven't read it, get a copy of Mark Douglas' 'Trading in the zone', this book will help you address most of your psychological trading issues. Regards, Sam