Yes, LESS IS MORE. 2 things from someone that knows nothing, 1. New Rule. Sticky on monitor. Check positions at 3:30PM. Go flat EOD. Pretty simple. 2. Less is more. You are doing Waaaaay too much. Focus on the one main trade of the day. Focus on dollars, not pennies. Focus on LESS. Focus on one(1) SIDE, on one(1) STOCK, on one(1) SETUP.
If I may be so bold, here is another test of discipline should you choose to accept; Monday, pick one stock or ES or YM or NQ or whatever you pick, and take only one trade on whatever instrument you chose. Wait for the best trigger and jump on it. Manage the trade in whatever manner you choose. Don't feel like you need to pounce first thing. A good trigger may not arrive until 2:30. Who knows. If you get no trigger take zero trades. If you pass this test then try only one trade on tuesday. Then compare the results to last week.
i enjoy reading your journal and please disregard my post if it doesnt make any sense..but i notice that you have a bias on the short side of everything you trade..it seems like 80% of your trades are on the short side..dunno if this has anything to do with your p&l , just an observation..wish you all the best...
I do have a short bias because the stocks I generally trade tend to fall faster than they rise and I have a short attention span. As an example if you look at FUQI's chart, it takes from Tuesday morning until Wednesday midday to rise from around 29.00 to the 30.50 area, a day and a half. Then in just 1 hour it drops from 30.50 to 28.36. Or STEC which takes from 8/21 till 9/1 to go from 35.25 to a new 52-week high of 41.75, then in one day (9/1) drops down to 36.00. In fact FUQI on Wed was my top trade to short if it made a new high and then pulled back to leave a lower high. The setup was perfect and then no shares were available with either of my brokers! I think when it approaches highs all the shares get borrowed and shorted, even in IB. My ES trading has been both directions.
I did a quick check and STEC does have options available to trade. If you can not short the stock, and especially since you don't plan holding for more than 1 day, you could either buy puts or sell calls. If the stock falls, these options will make you money and since its just 1 day, you don't need to worry about time decay.
STEC's always been shortable; FUQI is spotty when it's making highs. The problem with day trading options on these is the spread takes away the day trade advantage. Options would be fine for swing trading these. Day trading options (which I do very rarely) I prefer ultra liquid ones like AAPL.
Sim traded only, focusing on trade management. Continually cut my profits short by 3-4 times what I took off the table. Some examples: Short CL @ 74.96 actually catching the tippy top of a spike, covered @ 74.87 because I moved my stop too soon; price dropped to 74.62 on that leg. Then shorted it again @ 74.71, pullback from lower high; covered @ 74.65. This alone was not so bad, but then I re-shorted @ 74.75, pullback from failed bull flag, and was stopped out b/e by moving stop too soon again, only to watch price drop to new lows around 74.40. Did the same with some FWLT trades, leaving .20-.30 cents behind and taking only .10 cents. I wonât trade live until I can overcome this problem in sim.
Do you have an exit procedure for each of your set ups? An if/then course of action for every possible situation. If the price does this â¦. Then I will react in this manner. This prevents you from thinking when in a trade. You get to do your thinking while you donât have cash on the line. You have a plan for what you will do in every situation. Much easier than opening a position and wondering what do I do now. Write it down and keep it beside your trading station. Might help.
The problem is this: I've had many winning trades turn into losers since I started trading, so I want to at least lock in a b/e trade if price moves a certain amount in my favor (usually .10-.20 cents depending on the spread/volatility). Then often the move looks very solid and so I move the stop to lock in a bit of profit and that's when I often get shaken out only to have the move continue after that little "burp". I guess the big secret to success is to take profit on half and leave the initial stop in place on the rest. I give myself credit for one thing today - I didn't chase at all when that happened.