Packing it in for sure. Volume is pretty light and I think that whipsaw action will be the idea of the day. I dont see any real need in screw myself over. Happy Veterans Day, and thanks to all of you who have served our country. Brandon
Football. I have my priorities Went to the Iowa game and watched em kill Northwestern. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/rankings?poll=2 Anyway, I never guessed that by not trading I would generate so much interest on thread. I'll have to remember that if things slow down A lot of the people who posted made good points, I would still not trade on friday though. There is no way I would have made money. One of the only edges an off the floor, non market maker has is that we are never in a position that we have to do anything. We always have the option of taking a position in cash (that is a trade too, at least IMH0) Brandon
What Can I say? Maybe I am compulsive, but I took one last trade here. --------- NQ long (2:26) 974. Out half 976 (2:28) and half 980 (2:30). Avg exit 978. +4 This trade was based upon another divergence. We had the markets hitting new lows, but the TICKs did not confirm. Also, we where coming straight into the 2:30 reversal time when all the clowns come out to play, so I figured I had an above average chance of a profit. Final Tally: Day Total After Commissions ($6 per r/t one lot) : +$247. Days Return: 2.47% Months Return (To Date): $728.50 (7.29%) ------- B
Nice little scalper. But I've got TICKs confirming at that time, ran down to -900, matching their lows of the day (from around 12:15). Got a feeling that ORCL reaffirming guidance right around that time caused the pop that made you your profit, not a TICK divergence. Hey, whatever works!
Probably. At the time I entered it was diverging. The market had hit its lows and was starting to bounce with out the TICKs having done so yet. A few minutes later the TICKs did make a new low, but without the indexes doing the same (which would have stopped me out). Brandon
Tomorrow morning 10 minutes before the market opens I will be at the Dr's to find out if I am diabetic. Most of my family on my grandmothers side are, and I have been showing some of the symtoms and not feeling well. Blah, Blah, Blah. I will spare you the details. At any rate, I do go in right before the market opens. As the area around the open is the most productive for me, and I often use the gains from that period as risk capital for the rest of the day, I have not yet desided if I will trade tomorrow or not. If it does turn out that I am diabetic I doubt I will for the simple reason that I will be busy sulking, but, if I am not, then I may trade. If I was going to be here tomorrow I would look for an Oops buy above 981.5 with a target around 998.5. Just trail the stop back a bit if it sets up. B
Brandon, Some recent studies have shown that drinking lots of coffee helps prevent diabetes. There has been some buzz about this for a couple years but research is finally reaching the mainstream now. http://www.diabetesnews.com/
I really should not have traded today, I felt kinda miserable after going to the doctor. Never the less, I thought there was a decent short setup going into the noon reversal period, so I took that and ended up with 1 trade for the day which resulted in a 2 point loss. Short NQ 1003, exit 1005. Generally I think I should have done very well on a day like today, Toni and Ivica both did, but I just sorta got left behind I suppose. Its most especially frustrating since what happened today is exactly what I thought would happen, but I have not a penny to show for it. ------ Days Return (after commissions of $6) -$46 (-0.46%) Months return: $682.5 (6.83%) Margin used: $10,000 for 1 contract. Brandon
Every single day I think I say, well it was a slow day, not much has happened. Pretty obvious from this Journal that to me, daytrading does not mean trading every single move of the day. In fact, I think that the its counter productive. To me trading is a lot like hunting deer. It involves a lot of patience. You wait for your setup, others may pass, but you have your edge with a few and wait for those. So far this month I have now done only 16 trades, but using a very conservative margin requirement am up nearly 7.5% (in pratical terms this is $3750 on a $50,000 account). I am averaging 1.6 trades per day, which is right about my average. ------ NQ Long (8:32) at 993.5 and exit 997 (8:34) for a gain of 3.5. On the open the velocity on the initial selling was quite strong, such that it usually holds. We opened up right in the area of the GLOBEX lows, which normally hold on the first test. Also we were right around the area of the 200ma on the all sessions 15 minute chart, another area of support that nearly always holds the first time out. I got in with a risk of 1.5 points that I felt was legit and not holding it too tight, and figured I had a 70% + chance of making 2 or 3 points on it. Days Return: (after commissions of $6 per one lot) $64. (0.64%) Months Return: $746.50 (7.47%) Margin used: $10,000 per contract. (50K account would be up $3700ish this month using this example thus far) I have had a lot of comments about how infrequent I trade, and that there have only been a few days that I made any "real" money. Both of these are in fact true, and have been so for since I became successful. When I was unsuccessful I traded a lot and had huge up and down days. Now, I average 1 to 3 trades a day (not many) and neither make nor lose very much on any given day. Maybe once a month there will be a great trend day that I will make $500 per contract on, but for the most part what you see here is what I do. It definatly does not have much sex appeal, a lot of people have commented that it seems very boring, but what you see is what you get. Too many people start trading because they are bored with their "real" job and they think trading is exciting. This is using the market as entertainment, and as anyone who's gone to Vegas a few time knows entertainment aint cheap. Anyway, I hope you guys are enjoying the Journal even if I am a boring SOB. It does not seem like its getting too much activity except the day I decided not to trade.... Brandon