uptik, if it started to be a winner I set a stop (break even, not a trailing) and walked away from my station. Instead of that approach have you considered, once a position has gone profitable, to close half of it, and then move your stop up to even for the remaining half. That way you lock in some profits, and leave something on the table in case it continues to run in your favor. Your method risks giving up all profits if the price returns to breakeven.
yes Magna...I do that also...I guess I just was stating what I do in the first few minutes after opening a position...but once it gets to my target, if the market seems exceptionally favorable..i sometimes scale out of the position...i usually only do this if its towards the end of the day and I'm willing to risk a small part of my position for a possible next day gap but i hardly ever do that unless its with the QQQ's All of these examples are great reasons to use a per share firm instead of a transaction firm. example: you buy 1000 qqq's at 30
woops exp continued qqq hits 30.25 you sell 500, let it ride...goes to 30.50 sell 250 then later you sell the remaining 250 @ 31 if you use a per share, your total commision is about $20 a transaction firm @ 15 a trade= $60 not including ecn fees just an idea Beer is Good
It is not often that you can get a positive start while having the direction dead wrong. Last two day's I went very short off the open when the market ran and today I chose not to do any bullets and market sold off hard. 3600 shares on 2 of 5 shooting, +572 before commissions, +487 after, no bullets. Pre-Market: Bad employement report, nothing else worth mentioning. 9:30: CEX opened up and ran hard, took PPG at the open price for a quick point, unfortunately only did 500 shares as the future didn't show strength at all. Took PX for a half point gain. Sold both near the top. Tried DOW off the open too but out for flat. CYC was running hard and I loaded 700 MMM and took a 40 cents loss as the futures caved in on me . . . ouch . . . I was up $500 from the longs, but I already missed just about all of the bullet opportunities, not willing to chase I watched market sell-off hard . . . I wish I was more aggressive now it is October but I just wanted a few wins together. 3 games winning streak, I gave up a tons of opportunities today (insurance, energy again, they are soooooooo tradable again), next week I need to take more shots.
wwatson, For crying out loud, at least have the decency to start a new thread so that it can be deleted more efficiently... Oh, wait, you did that too. Take your advertising elsewhere, we aren't interested. Spam stinks.
Light day but there were a tons of opportunities. Today was in many ways a watered-down version of the Monday after the WTC attack. The insurance sector was extremely playable in the morning, silky smooth bullet opportunities, and defense stocks were great longs. Throw in the energy stocks that trended very nicely, should have been a very easy day. Bad news, I decided to stick to my bread and butter stocks and did not play Defense nor Insurance, and struggled until the very end. The energy sector is a lot more tradable than before, and I think every double bottom on the intraday should be bought as weather is getting really cold in New York those days, and oil price should soon raise. Good news, I managed to keep my streak alive and after 4 straight wins I have locked down about $1800 for the month, hopefully I can make a serious run from here, I need one of those 21 out of 23 kind of month's. 10900 shares on 4 of 9 shooting, +711 before commissions, +346 after. I am out of Mrs. D's group for good, there are some personal reasons I would not disclose on this board but those who are interested can e-mail me for details. That said, today she recruited someone from Hold Brother's, a hardcore scalper who does quarter million shares a day and made his firm $25K last month, himself $500 . . . It seems Hold Brother has some really weird payout rates, you can trade for as low as 0.25 cent per share, and get a 30% payout, or you can pay 1.5 cent per share and get a 98% pay out . . . Kind of make me feel fortunate to hit Worldco, while it has been no charity, I could have done A LOT worse had I jumped into a different firm. A trader is most vulnerable when he is new, as he has no capital to trade with and is at other's mercy, once his wing grows, sky is the limit. Pre-Market: Light news, we know it is going to gap-down and we know there will be a bounce. 9:30: AHG sold off on heavy volume Friday and had a great daily/intraday set-up, while the volume could have been a little stronger, I saw a BID off the open and I just took it long for a easy 30 cents move (too bad futures caved in hard). Tried again when it came back to unchanged and lost 10 cents. SLB sold off on super heavy volume and I was betting on a bounce, took some at 44.93 and I didn't get my stop in there in time, trades like this if the thing moves against you at all you must get out and I didn't do that, lost half a point on a bad spread. Energy selling off, bulleted KMI and pared all the way out for nearly a point (unfortunately by then most of my position is already gone). Bulleted EOG but no luck, only got my bullet cost back as it quickly reversed. Tried to play AOL on a bounce on two futures pop's and lost 20 cents first try, 15 cents second try, third time I got him with a smaller share amount for 30 cents profit, too bad, I didn't do as much size there as I wanted to. 10:30: Energy reversal, as expected, a trader should always be aggressive because you never know when you will score a big trade, I had HP at 27.10 and NE at 26, I ended up making $200 from both after churning 1400 shares in HP and 1000 shares in NE, believe in yourself, don't be lazy, if you are in a trade don't get out because nothing is happening, stick to it, because you never know . . . this should have been a high 3 digit game and I lacked hunger. Sure volume wasn't there but just hold, same with RDN, took some at 36.50 and out for flat, stayed a little longer I would have got a 30 cents pop out of it . . . Those add up, take what the market give up and don't leave too much on the table. I traveled 1 hour to get to work, I should have got more out of what was there . . . Maybe it is the Holiday, but I am a trader, as long as there is a market, there is a job, a mission, a battle . . . I would never associated the word LAZY with me but those were very lazy trades, low volume and didn't move fast but with oil price going up like that, you gotta hold . . .
Hitman, if you are in a trade don't get out because nothing is happening, stick to it, because you never know Gotta disagree with you on this one, depending. What I mean is depending on whether your original reason for taking the trade has changed. Doesn't matter why you opened the position, price action, volume, tape action, stochastics, bollingers, rsi, you name it. But if the reason you got in is no longer valid then I say Exit Post Haste. Sure, something good might happen right after you get out, but something bad might just as easily happen. I believe in patience if the reasons you took the trade are still looking good, but otherwise I don't think patience is a virtue
On a side note: I wasn't aware of the private message feature and I realized I have quite a few unanswered messages from a while ago, I have never ignored a request so if you have any questions please send them to te_bai@hotmail.com. My apologiy if I seemed to "ignored" anyone . . .
If you messed up the open, you are dead, such is the condition of today's game and I was completely shut down. I am happy about the damage control but my four games winning streak came to an end and I must rebuild my momentum. +165 before commissions, -172 after, 12000 shares on 6 of 9 shooting, 1 bullet. The afternoon was full of small scalps hence the superior shooting percentage was very misleading as only 2 of those 6 winners were triple digit gains. Pre-Market: Again, very light news, one retailor downgrade. 9:30: A lot of stocks (SOX, RLX) got hit hard off the open but after the first 15 minutes it was all choppy rest of the way. Took LM off the open for a 20 cents scalp and got out when XBD/futures tanked. Should have followed up on it again when futures came back, very strong and held through. Got a horrific fill on DO at 25.68 on OSX pop, and missed the fills on a few sweet pops to the long side (PPG, EMN, EOG), and I lost 40 cents in DO, it was printing between .50 and, 70 and all of a sudden .30, ouch . . . anytime you get a bad fill and it doesn't go your way, cut your position size immediately. Churned him a couple of times and got a 20 cents scalp on WFT on OSX rebound. Very very choppy index and that opened loss on DO was my biggest loser of the day and stayed that way. Tried to bottom pick APC and gave up another 20 cents. 10:08: Bulleted NBL at 33.70 on XNG sell-off, covered half of my 1000 when I saw a 25000 BID at 33.50, when the offer stepped down to 33.51 and started hitting the BID I sold the half again, it quickly went down to 33.25 and all of a sudden a pair of 2500 share blocks went off, XNG rebounded right back and what looked like a great trade turned into a flat after bullet cost. 10:39: IUX going straight up (this along with the brokers were arguably the only sectors worth trading after first 15 minutes of the game, but it was so choppy in the morning and I didn't take longs when it broke out, thought it would be just another choppy sector), took MMC at 100.20 and he blew my stop at 99.75, he sold off again and hit .75 again and I thought he was done, and I was right, lost 45 cents first try made back 70 cents second try, not bad. Futures breaking out took LOW and lost 10 cents. 2:30: Took MMC again at 99.85 and sold for a 15 cents scalp too bad gave up 40 cents move but this stock is just way too tough to trade without heavy volume. Took SGY and scalped for a nickle, I have seen maybe one or two final hour energy rally in my entire career, when the commodity trading stops at 3PM the oil price is stagnant, so is the index. Great tape, horrible index, not going to happen after 3PM. Took TYC for a dime scalp on the squeeze into the close, wish I took GE, MMM or IBM instead, all moved substantially more . . . Could not save my streak, but tommorrow is another game, +1600 for the pay period, 4 games left . . . write my own check . . .