Every weekend, I'll post pictures of my blotter for the week as well as a PNL summary. At this point, I'm 6.5 months in without a single positive month. Next update: 28 July 2007
Things to try from 30 July 2007 to 3 August 2007: - Trade off 5 min charts - Focus on only three high-volume ETFs (XLE, XLF, SMH) - Take big winners (3:1) and use divergence to measure the risk of a profitable trade going against you. - Don't play chop. - Be more selective than ever about which trades to take. - Avoid scaling out if there is no indication of a probable reversal or deep retracement (to the 20 ema and beyond). Next update: 5 August 2007
What went right: - Managed to get multiple big winners ($0.70+/share) on friday simply by hiding my blotter. - Successfully traded divergence off the 5-min SPY. - Good coordination between EMAs, volume, NYSE Advance/Decline, and R & S for risk and trade management. What went wrong: - Lost a lot of profit playing chop - Exited a few huge trades too soon - Averaged in too late at times - Walked away from desk too often - Overtraded - Poor loss from top control Improvements for this week: - Also look at 2-min chart for each ETF - Continue hiding blotter - Average in more shares early on - Keep trades under 20 round-trip/day - Look at XOI to help trade XLE, and XFI for XLF. - After the first hour, pay close attention to what is a potential trade and what is merely chop. Next update: 13 August 2007
interesting .. I am new at this. I wanna trade full-time but I have to still pay bills.. I trade options and I am about -15% on 2007. ALthough I get a few winners. I'll like to join your thread. Here is todays blotter. I work for a financial company so I have to use eTrade. Commision is killing me but still make money on winning trades. I can only freely trade indes and ETFs. I like SPY and QQQQ options. For day trading I concentrate on ATM options ... today -2%
Last week is my best one so far. I made more during that time than the last six months combined. I hope it's a turning point but I'm not taking anything for granted nor getting complacent. Thursday was a record day at a net of $502. I almost had double that on friday, but it ended in disaster. On friday by 14:00, I was up $954. I was so eager to get to one thousand that I jumped into the first trade that looked remotely profitable. After losing $184, my emotions took full control. Eventually, I lost so much from my peak that I was electronically locked out and ended up with $271. I believe impatience is the last major hurdle I need to overcome before I can get consistent. What went right: - Aggressive - Able to hold trades longer without hiding blotter. - Getting into trades at the end of retracements rather than waiting for new lows/highs. What went wrong: - Missed tells from the market because of lack of focus and impatience. I'm missing divergences, volume on longer timeframe charts, and significant levels. Missing runs because of this. - Scaling out too much, too early instead of waiting for the market to tell me when to get out. - Overtraded - Too much adrenaline during the first hour of trading What needs to be improved: - Priority: MORE PATIENCE - More anticipation of probable trades; less reactive trades. - Calm down - Scale out methodically. Listen to the market. - More focus. Next update: 20 August 2007