bighog... ur absolutely right.... i look in the mirror and say the samething over and over... be a f**kin man and own up to the realization that i made a bad call. it happens , move on. it is so easier said than done, i truley feel its a reflection of my behavior when it comes to money. i have on good thing going for me.. i was a nyse floor clerk for many years.. my ability and feel for the market is outstanding from my years of experiance,, but the one fault i own is the spending habit i incured while working down there.. talk bout living the fast lane.. i always made and i always spent... now its beyond critical that i curb this horrible habit. the money is only going one way till i wake the F**K up!.
this is so accurate... LOSERS AVERAGE LOSERS! obviously, because i dont kick it.. i average down and ur right i get lucky maybe 10% of the time otherwise i am in a bigger whole... ARRGHHH!!! my new plan is implementation of hard stops. these stops.. are they limit stops or mkt stops. and if its market stops... wont hybrid have a ball with my order especially during nasty gap up/downs?
"gaps, a basic recurring maneuver of specialists and market makers, are inconsquential IF you're doing what you've been suggesting, namely scalping. Although conceptual, the phrase "losers average losers" should be attributed to Paul Tudor Jones. Hard stops telegraph where you are. Playing cards face out. As a scalper, you should be cognizant of price movement throughout the day and hence MENTAL stops (or notified alerts). Stops of course mean nothing if you (and your ego) don't honor them. Basically, what you're wanting is a line in the sand where you're clearly wrong beyond expected flucutation. If TRIN is above .90 you should be on your guard. Yesterday's midpoint makes for a reasonable disaster point. Intra-day a low made first (LMF) changing to a high made first (HMF) is pretty basic wakeup call. A scalping position should be addressed long before that transition. The distinction between loose and lose should go without saying.
This is not a matter of risk management. In a very simple, backtesting environment, you can get a +80% profitable setup just by placing a limit order on the selected tops and bottoms (yes... it depends on the market, though) Usually, with this, you'll have a larger losing trade. That said, you are still not good at picking nice setups. Also, you need to feel out when to scratch the trades or cut the losses.
Before online trading, when we had to call in orders to the floor (futures markets), the order to open a position would not be accepted without a corresponding stop loss order. You need to enforce the same discipline on yourself for every new trade you plan to enter, no exceptions.
Placing hard stops was the way I controlled this particular demon. I suggest to the OP not to ignore these comments.
first day at focusing real hard and only had on pos. go against me... and guess what....went short @ 111.. lost 30c .. had the balls to reverse and made 70c... horray!