Are you looking at FCX right now ??? Since i mentioned it to you it has dragge almost 2 dollars down !!
Morning of Jan 5, 2011: Net of sales: $227, Net of commissions: $212 Average profit per share traded (sell 1, buy 1 = 2 shares): 0.071 % on capital used: 0.96% % index gain (as of writing): -0.04% Trade size: 300 I suspect today is going to be a stupid trading day so I'm going to stay out of it until the afternoon. I was expecting a channel-based trading day today so I was honing my channel trading skills. The channel trade nearly turned into a perfect breakout but I had exited the trade by then. I had to get back in outside the channel while it was taking off. Till the afternoon, then.
Jan 5, 2011: Net of sales: $170, Net of commissions: $132 Average profit per share traded (sell 1, buy 1 = 2 shares): 0.018 % on capital used: 0.6% % index gain (as of writing): 0.67% Trade size: 300 Wow, what an afternoon. I went from being up $350 to a net of $132!!! I can't really defend it, it was a stupid mistake. Let's recap: * Awesome trade entry (short) * Trade went my way but no patience -> got out at profit ($350) * Thought trend changed -> went long * Trend didn't change * Kept waiting * And waiting * Lost patience If I had not lost patience, I would have been at b/e but the signal did not show up until right after I lost my patience... Isn't that how it always is? Future: Buy some damn patience badges from Facebook or something. Original awesome afternoon trade entry would have netted ~$300 on the one trade alone. I knew it was awesome and there was no signal telling me otherwise. Why didn't I stay with it? AFRAID. I'm a dumbass. Still, ended the day positive. One thing I'm noticing now is that I'm really going for the bigger wins. I just need to develop the patience for it. And stop being a dumbass.
Jan 6, 2011: Net of sales: $373, Net of commissions: $367 Average profit per share traded (sell 1, buy 1 = 2 shares): 0.31 % on capital used: 0.91% % index gain (as of writing): -0.59% Trade size: 600 It appears that I only did one trade but actually I made a few more. This was the only trade that I managed to get exported from IB (and imported into my custom trading journal.) I can't log back in to IB for some reason but in any case, the remaining ones are scalps that I think were mostly positive. I'm trying to stick to the one big trade but it is so effing hard. I need to make a hypothesis and stick to it. The problem is that nearly every sensible hypothesis is correct at *some point* in the day just not when I act on it. One thing I did for this trade was increasing the trade size when it went in my favour. I don't know if it really mattered but I don't think I'll do it again. Will update the post if IB shows a significant difference for the trades I made after this one.
[Update: managed to get back into IB] Jan 6, 2011: Net of sales: $471, Net of commissions: $446 Average profit per share traded (sell 1, buy 1 = 2 shares): 0.093 % on capital used: 1.12% % index gain (as of writing): -0.46% Trade size: 600 So as you can see by the gigantic drop in average profit per share traded, I scalped after "the big one." I'm of two minds about scalping: 1) It seems so bloody easy sometimes 2) There is a lot of churn and may make me miss bigger opportunities So perhaps my strategy should be this: 1) Set up, execute and exit The Big Trade 2) Scalp unless you lose money at 1 or scalping
Well youre making money daily and thats damn good. Sorry if I missed this but are you live trading or sim? You are pretty consistent, keep it up.
I'm sry, but you really can't scalp on a simulator in stocks, you won't see the effect your actual order will have on the bid/ask/tape. You can pretty much throw your results in the trash, especially if you are going to trade any size at all.
Well that's disappointing but not surprising. So I guess in training mode, I should stick to the One Big Trade and perhaps hone my channel trading skills.