+$129 Did not intend to trade today; leaving early for a weekend away and was basically going to just watch. Also, computer problems all morning. Firefox shutting down regularly, and then my trading platform shut down just as I was about to take profits on some HANS position. Platform shut down again later, too. However, GS beckoned with a nice scalping setup. 11:04 a.m.: Short GS @ 114.20, overbought, SPY overbought, stop just above the HOD. I set a limit order of 113.70, but accidentally entered 114.70, immediately filled at market 113.88 for a $64 gain. 2:01 p.m.: Looking for a FAZ scalp before calling it a day. Long FAZ @ 16.64, GS and SPY overbought, FAZ oversold. Sold @ 16.81 for an $85 gain in about a minute. Via IB, my better half and I scaled into a GEOY swing short, looking for retracement back to the 22.00 level or better.
Robert Weinstein Registered: May 2002 Posts: 2418 04-02-09 10:58 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote from NoDoji: I have to wonder if I�m capable of being a consistent trader. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi NoDoji, I wanted to put this in its own post as I feel its VERY important and should be standing out there on its own. It is NOT important to be a consistent trader. You should NOT focus on being consistent. Let me repeat that: DO NOT TRY TO BE CONSISTENT !!! What you do WANT is to be profitable and to maximize your profit. Being consistent FEELS good but like so many things in trading what feels right and what brings in gains are direct opposites. decide if you want to feel good or if you want to make money as you can not have both. ..................................................... That statement is ohh so very wrong. There was another one earlier that said watching price action was also a joke with only a few years experience. Talk about being "INCONSISTENT". hahahahaha Come on weinstein which is right and which is wrong? Another poster chimed in and said he flunked out trading index futures so everyone else should take his advise and not even attempt where he failed. Nothing drives me more goofy than "NEGATIVE" people who wish to relate to others their own failings. Caemateiasoe or whatever his name is wants us all to follow his guru. ha, FUNNY stuff. Nod, do yourself a favor and as honest and truthfull as you are be careful stroking the others failings. You are your own person so you do what you feel is best for you and not others ego trips. Misery loves company, thus losers like the guy that flunked index futs feels better telling others how horrible his failure was.
I was trying to make a point that Taleb makes is all. That when we look back at what has happened in the past, we ascribe a certain story to it and convince ourselves that it could not have happened any other way. Of course, things _did_ happen in a way that would have made a bunch of money had the position stayed. The point isn't that hindsight is 20/20 -- but more that randomness is happening all the time. There was some randomness going on in AIPC but we ascribe the perfect story that it was destined to go lower. Bighog, I don't know where the vitriol is coming from. I'm the first to admit that I'm not a successful trader yet. But why rail against RW, who is successful and one of the most generous guys with his time, chat room, and advice?
No bickering on my journal guys! I've learned much from each of you, Bob, Hog, and cae, and continue to do so. I would never let someone else's failures influence my decision to do something. I wouldn't be trading anything if that were true. When I say I strive to be a consistent trader I am not referring to a consistent amount of profit, or a consistent number of profitable days in a row; I'm striving to exercise consistent discipline and risk management in my trading. This kind of consistency is mandatory IMHO, and I have yet to attain it.
- $97 Despite major virus/spyware scanning and other system maintenance, my system continues to have problems and browser crashes every 20 minutes. Very distracting; need to get to the bottom of the issues. I will soon have two PCs, so that will be a relief for days like this. 10:54 a.m.: Long FAZ @ 16.46, oversold, SPY & GS overbought, stop @ 16.26 hit for a $100 loss. My mistake was not waiting for pivot off oversold. The trade was solid, just entered a bit too soon before pivot instead of after. I was not focused and failed to replay the trade after the pivot. 1:54 p.m.: Short RIMM @ 63.46, overbought, SPY overbought, stopped out @ 63.67 for a $105 loss. (L2 action tempted me to exit @ b/e, but I'm still getting a feel for which is the better option: maintain original stop or exit when this happens and re-enter later. So far using L2 action has been the better choice.) 2:01 p.m.: Short RIMM @ 63.64, same setup, pull back from new HOD, covered @ 63.40 for a $115 gain. 3:22 p.m.: Long FAZ @ 16.51, moved stop to b/e when it moved in my favor because I wasnât crazy about the L2 action. Out at b/e when it turned. Considered re-entry at a much better price, but held off. Covered some HANS position end of day to free up some extra capital for the week, $40 gain. Should've covered earlier this morning for a very nice gain. I am coming to believe more and more that I need to focus on trading one thing. Days when I trade the same stock again and again are some of my most consistently profitable days. Some previous examples of this from the past few months are WTR, UAUA, ORLY, and APOL. I'm leaning heavily toward GS, FAS and FAZ on a daily basis, and reserving strong setups on other stocks for longer term swing trades. I look forward also to my demo ES trading account; just waiting for the second computer to be set up.
+ $106 No complaints other than undertrading. A big help was my system was stable all day, no crashes. 10:32 a.m.: Short GS @ 116.70, overbought, SPY overbought. This trade I tried to pick a top, in retrospect not the best setup. Stop @ 117.50 hit for a $160 loss. Then true to form I watch GS for a while then ignore it while it later forms a double top, and falls very nicely. Focus! Ironically, had I held the position all day, it wouldâve ended the day profitable. Ha! (Donât worry, I wonât let that thought negatively influence my risk management!) Watching COCO and APOL hitting lows. Looking for either a hammer to bottom pick or a higher low. 12:12 p.m.: APOL formed a beautiful hammer on high buying volume off 62.56 and Iâm long @ 63.04. Closed @ 63.90 overbought for a $172 gain, just .02 cents from the top of that move based on L2 price action. Great setup, great trade! In fact, the setup was so solid to me that my palms DID NOT even attempt to sweat despite me going long in a down market. 1:48 p.m.: Totally forgot about my remaining HANS from the unintentional short position the other day when my system crashed. Suddenly noticed HANS in the 35.50âs where I covered for a $50 gain just to be rid of it. I never meant to short it at that price in the first place. Watching APOL for retest of 63.00 area. It was taking its time, so I grabbed a bite to eat and came back to find it bouncing hard off 63.05. I absolutely did not chase. Iâm pleased to say I havenât chased a position since early last summer. Learned a hard lesson back then and that lesson actually stuck! 3:18 p.m.: On a pullback, bought APOL May $65 calls @ 4.50, closed near end of day @ 4.70 for a $100 gain. GEOY swing trade working very nicely, still in a very overbought condition, yet ending the day quite profitable. It looks like my target area should be met within a few days. SNDA puts not doing so well. I will take a hit on this one if no 50% retracement occurs before expiration. NFLX calls holding up well; my goal is to earn the entire $970 premium at expiration. HOTT daily chart is uglier than heck now, so Iâm hanging tight. I told my husband to short 5000 shares @ 12.24 the other day, but he wasnât at his desk, so he put off the trade. Oh, lordy, lordy that wouldâve covered my unrealized loss a few times over. I was discussing this HOTT trade with my friend who is also in the trade at a similar price. I was basically trying to pinpoint the psychology of why we held this loser through such a drawdown (especially after I vowed never to do that again after IDCC, CECO and ORLY). I entered the position on a setup that shouldâve dictated total intraday stop management, yet I did what Iâd been doing many times before with this one: Put on the trade, set a target and forget about it. My friend and I both agreed that we didnât really bother worrying about it until it started on a trajectory straight up, reaching what we considered ridiculous prices. NEW TRADERS, TAKE NOTE: There are NO ridiculous prices as long as demand continues to exceed supply, or vice versa. Then, when the price was insane, all I could think was, âI would never buy it at THIS price, I would short it!â And so I held on until the unrealized LOSS was ridiculous. At that point, I put in a stop (fortunately not hit). Ha! Insane trader behavior, right in front of you, documented in this journal designed to remove all ego from my trading.