What you're missing is that although I day trade, I also swing trade. I plan a swing trade in advance. When I entered STEC and URS on Thursday, I planned to hold them overnight. In fact, that's why URS was traded in my Etrade account; I didn't want to tie up capital in my active day trading account by holding a high priced stock overnight. Both STEC and URS became "scalpably" profitable the same day I put on the trades, but I had planned for a larger move.
Don't push it. She is still searching for "limited success." Your advice should be directed to Red-Ink (as if he needed "MORE" success). If you do REMEMBER your own early days of trading, you should understand what NoDoji is going through now. About overnight hold, I used to buy 10,000 shares of a penny stock just before market close and hope for a gap up the next morning (I won't go into details of my early "trading method"). I remember I bought RAD one Friday afternoon and the price didn't go up, so I decided to hold, unwillingly, for the weekend. It happened that I had planned a road trip to Pensacola that weekend. I drove through many road junctions and saw many Rite Aid stores. Each time I saw the Rite Aid sign, I thought about my 10,000 shares. As you can imagine, I didn't enjoy that trip. Well, that was an understatement. As a matter of fact, it was ruined by my worries.
You got it. I'm trading small until I've exercised strict discipline for a significant period of time. It's only been two weeks since I even got a trading platform that allows me to scale in and out of trades without getting eaten alive by commissions. Once I'm consistently trading 400 shares or more, I'll be exiting half my positions at that place where I'm itching to take profits and seeing how well I can let the remaining half run.
Nodo you ask not to make your fun because of small lot you are trading.On nontrending days I also go small,question is always one must trade well,and follow all the rules.30% of my profit comes from daytrades,rest from swing,position and options.When ever I trade bad, I go small.Thanks on your feedback for RTI.God bless you.
+ $312 I was itching for a SYNA short on open because futures were down and I love the speed with which SYNA falls when it falls. I saw the Ask in pre-market @ 37.50, so I added myself to the list. My 37.50 offer was lifted immediately and that was the day's high. Covered @ 36.67 when it pivoted just below previous dayâs support: +$163 Offered 40.15 MFE on open, and covered @ b/e when it established support @ 40.00 and failed to break down. It did break down off a new high later, but I'd moved on instead of keeping my eye on it. Offered 36.90 SYNA, missed by pennies, and it fell too fast for me to be comfortable chasing it. Short STEC @ 18.65 on pullback from double top, was looking to exit @ 18.45 on the trend line, but trailed the order too close again and was lifted @ 18.53 for +$22. Short ESRX @ 63.39, break down through the intraday moving averages. Initially thought to hold and add to the position, but decided to put in a stop @ b/e because it was oversold and if it was going to break down, it should fall fast like it did the other day. Stop hit for exactly b/e. Short JCG @ 26.18, pullback from lower high, covered @ 25.98 (trend line, MA, round number) for +$38. Short JCG @ 26.15, pullback from failure to make new high, covered @ 26.02, pivot off oversold: +$24 Short URS @ 52.00, pullback from run up to new high at the end of the day. Traded this one in my Etrade account planning to hold overnight, but I covered @ 51.62 when it made a very quick strong move to oversold right there on the spot: +$67 I did not take many many setups today and I don't really know why. Still need to be more aggressive at jumping in on every signal.
Hi ND- I'm curious about your morning SYNA short trade- What were your reasons for feeling it would be a good short right from the open? Was it just that futures were down, and it was currently slightly over the prev day's close, or did it have something to do with the action during the previous day? Thx
SYNA is an interesting one for me. It moves from overbought to oversold and back in nice trajectories on the daily chart. It does, however, present some dangers to the short side: 60% short interest and solid fundamentals ensure that it will likely continue to make new highs for a while. My bias is to the short side because when it falls it falls very quickly and I have a short trading attention span. I usually wait 20-30 minutes after the open before trading, but sometimes there are high probability, low-risk setups afoot and these are usually my most profitable trades. My rationale for placing my short offer before the open on SYNA was the lower high Friday around the 37.50 area and futures being down this morning. This confluence meant that the likely move would be down from the open. The low-risk part of it was that my position was small and if I got in at 37.50 and it rallied to a new high, I would double my position and take profits on the pullback that quickly follows each of SYNA's new highs. Getting in at the high of the day was priceless. The market opened and I immediately had a $65 gain.
Nod I again am glad to say you are doing good. Your journal has helped other new traders see what is possible, thats the good part. If someday i was driving through Az on I-10 i would be more than happy to offer an outing for dinner and cocktails to you and your husband for a chit-chat. That would be fun. Maybe next winter. Now to business. I do not want to push my bias to you if i thought it would not be worth your while. I still believe you would be a very good stock index futures trader.The more you post and the more i read your tactics, etc, the more i feel you are missing the boat. YOUR trading personality is what makes good futures traders. Let me say this.... which has a lot of years of experience behind the statement. I know it is hard to allow it to sink in but it has real value. LESS IS MORE I will refrain from constantly trying to drill that into your head As time progresses in your trading and you make less mistakes i will bet the farm that you will someday see where making the same mistakes in different stocks is/was part of the problem that held you back from full potential. Different stocks have different personalities just as all humans are different. I always was the phrase.....a good man can only handle a single good women and she made him the man he is. You do watch futures in your trading as you stated in your last post. Well gee whiz!!!!! Why would you judge different stocks from the index and NOT trade the index itself? See my point? ES this afternoon busted out to a new rth session at 934.75 and made a super 'RUN" for 10 handles without a sweat. Then after that it went to a new intraday high and that bar turned into a KEY reversal. Would trading the different stocks have produced such easy picking? ( this was all after the days nut was filled earlier). The index makes "RUNS" that are NOT egualed by 500 different stocks. Thats the power of trading the index over stocks, you get far more from the same day efforts. The technicals work tons better in the indexs because the index is so condensed. How can 500 individual stocks ever compare to the profit potential of a single index? It will never happen. You want friends in your trading, you want all the other players to watch and follow what you are watching for purchasing power. Take all the players in 500 different stocks and you can see how weak and dispersed their individual power is. Scalping stocks is doable in stocks because of the limited power of the players. Index traders want "RUNS", they do not get up in the morning to play for a penny here a penny there. A single ES contract with $500 margin that "RUNS" 10 handles equals $500 profit or loss. Thats power of money and you want power of the players to push your favorite technical signals because in breakout trading there are but a FEW golden signals used to bring home the bacon. ALL the same players that know the score of their signals "ODDS" are winners. I hope someday i will be able to say, "she is coming to the other side of the tracks and join our team. I will continue to peek at your journal now and then. Keep up the progress, even if on the wrong side of town. The cocktails taste better with less work and more profits on the other side of the "TRACKS". Later
Hog, I am very, very close. I totally understand everything we've discussed over the past couple months. I've been "paper trading" SPY with fantastic success using those strategies. With this paper trading, I've been focusing solely on trend following, which as you know I've never done before. I'm developing a very good feel for this, and have been pretty solid at predicting it with my stock positions, too, which is why I often exit at or close to b/e (sadly I don't reverse to the long side...yet). I'm opening my futures demo account this week. I know in my heart that I have the kind of trading personality that would really benefit from trading one instrument full time.