Going OK. Been logging my trades as you know...noticed some tendencies. Namely that buying new highs and selling new lows doesn't work in most stocks. Don't know why, but in many cases if I had done the opposite of what I've done I would've made money. LOL So instead of taking the A-ups off of the 5-minute OR. Fading the failed A-up/downs is working good for me. Even with the good news/bad action plays, many of them have viscous snap-backs at points of extended volatility. Plus I'm decent at knowing when an A-down will hold or not. Crazy thing is is that we have had a good momentum market, and even then many of these a-ups/a-downs arent holding! Maybe I suck with my product selection, or mean reversion plays just fit my personality better. Whatever it is...I'll keep ya posted.
Well, I think a lot of it is just the lack of volume in this market right now. No one wants to sell it and no one wants to buy it. So stocks are getting pulled up and down by the futures, not real volume. Just keep that in mind. If we break out to the upside or breakdown, you'll start seeing many more confirmed A trades. Right now it's just gap and grind every day.
Since I've been trading stocks intraday for the past 5 months I haven't seen much of a difference in terms of stock movement and volume. There hasn't been a ton of follow through on breakouts/downs since I've started. Even when we had big breaks on high vol a couple months ago...most stocks didn't have nearly as much follow through as the indices(intraday) I've consistently been playing momentum and trends on an intraday basis, and you can see some of the results for your self. Maybe I just suck at trading and product selection or a combo of the two, but LOL the numbers don't lie.
Shan I havent been on ET in a long while. I actually just ran a search on the site looking for Mav's original thread on this topic because I have a new student starting at my firm soon and I want him to read this thread before starting. My mentor sent me this thread before I started trading and told me to read it. I did. It didn't really start to sink in until I read it again after my first 2 months of trading. I'm guessing you've read this by now. It really is part of ET gold. Hope all is well. Good luck.
Maverick, Question for you.. is the big money in the NYSE day trading game over? Is that why we are seeing firms like SMB focusing on training because they had a very limited sort of edge that is now no longer viable due to things like HFT? I'm thinking this may have something to do with it. I mean you said you guys made like millions. I take it those returns are less common these days, I mean for NYSE traders? Do most of the real prop firms have some sort of "structural" edge that allows them to make consistent profits?
Shan, I'm new to trading myself and so I've been spending a lot of time researching and actually reading forum threads here. I've gone through and read your posts here. I like your journal but the losses are too heavy to me to read because I started the same way, 3 weeks ago. I'm by no means a seasoned pro but I'm dedicated to make this work by the hours that I spent researching it. I tell myself that it's my full time job right now. However, in looking at your losses, there are times I don't understand why you held for so long even on profitable trades. You can only take what the market gives you. If you're up just a little and you sense a reversal, get out quick because after that you don't know what's going to happen under a choppy field. At that point, it's real gambling. No need to be greedy. On your last post with the chart of WMT. Were you going short? If you were, I don't understand why you jumped in where you did. I thought you paid attention to price action. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3328405 I'm not a pro but I just don't get why you jumped in short after the long green bar. If anything it was a reversal. In reading a lot of threads here on this whole forum. There is good info and a lot of misdirection by certain people both here and problem at your prop trading company too. I don't know the details of everyone's methods but I just doubt people here will just give it to you so you can turn things around because they've gone through a lot of pain themselves in figuring it out if they did. Why should they give it up for free? Especially since tons more of other people may read it. A lot of the market is counterintuiative. Such as chasing after trades and learning to take smart losses when in reality you want to stick with it. That's why it's so tough. You talk about about momentum, trends, and support but in some of the loses, I just don't understand some of your entry points on the losses. I primarily look at the 1 min chart and use the 5 min mostly to find some resistance or support levels. I wish you luck as I'm trying to figure it out on my own but do see that there are patterns. I'm not a pro at letting trades run but I definitely will get out my trade quick if it doesn't move (ie trade sideways or reverse) and I've minimized my losses that way. I would definitely go to paper or virtual trading for a little while until you can prove that you can be more consistant. I know that it's exciting because it's legalized gambling but you gotta put your emotions aside and focus on discipline. Good luck. I'll still be following your trades in hopes you're able to figure it out. T PS - print out your charts at the end of the day with all your trades (I'm sure that's what you're doing) and really look at what you did wrong. Go over it in your head over and over until you've sworn not to do it again. Believe me, I've repeated a lot of them. That is the true part of discipline in this game. Look for the pattern and examine why tick by tick why the stock moved in the direction that it did until you see the pattern. Overtime, you'll see it.
Hey there! How long have you been trading? This game can be a real mindfuck lol. I've been refining my ACD approach lately and can say things have are going better. Last week and couple weeks have been relatively consistent. 11/1/11 Net P&L: +201 Shares traded=3,000 Here's an example of what I am doing. I've been doing these types of trades, because I saw a very consistent result from logging my trades. Still ACD, but more of a systematic approach. I see a trade with certain conditions, take it and manage it!
Congrats on your ACD trade. I've been doing this only for 1 month and knew nothing about it but stochastics before I began since I watched a youtube video on it and it looked good. Looked too simple right? However, I'm putting full energy into this while some have day jobs. I'm not working so this is it for me. I had a friend that could get me a job down in San Diego (awesome location which I would love to move back to - lot of great scenery down there if you know what I mean) but declined because I'm searching for the holy grail like everyone else here. Looks like you caught that one perfectly. Wished I could graph them like you but it's too much work for me. I enjoy your charts. I'm posting my results too and have yet to turn positive on the real thing. However, the first two weeks shouldn't count since I didn't know what the hell I was doing. The third week, I was doing stupid stuff like chasing trades or holding on too long if the stock looks like it's reversing. Those are painful lessons where I lost 100-200 on a trade. I'm still down today and -60 on two trades and the juice (commission). There were so many setups that I could've done and had been very profitable on that I just couldn't pull the trigger or wasn't in front of the computer when they happened. I've learned to exit trades quick if it's not happening. If you take a commission loss, that's still a neutral bet in my book. I lost a point twice today but those are nothing compared to the worst days. I used to lose -400 to -600 a day in the beginning. The big guys aren't getting much from me any on fake outs anymore. LOL This game is tough because you have a very tight window to fit in and there are always tricks done to fake people out. My biggest problem is discipline just like you probably. I've learned to be disciplined to get out on sideways or reversal prone trades quick (which took me a while to get used to) but not on letting profits run. My only profitable trade today was tiny since I didn't let it run. I got spooked and justed wanted a 1 pt gain which after the juice is nothing. Had I left it, it would've gotten 4 pts in 3 minutes would've made up for those loses. I can for the most part now see where the stock is moving on a short term basis and that's what's keeping me in this. It that wasn't the case, I'd just quit. However, being disciplined is my biggest problem. Virtual trades, no problem because no one cares, it's not real. Wished I had my 3 K back and could start all over from here. From looking at your losing trades earlier, you did a lot of things I used to do like not getting out in time. Letting the trade keep going when you can see that it's starting to reverse. I hope you turn it around and make it. Since I'm in the same boat too. T p.s. - I'm still use "hella" sometimes when I talk but "hella tight", man that's so 90's. LOL "Hella" believe it or not is used way up to Washington St. SoCal folks hate it though.
3 weeks is a very short time...this will prob take a while, well unless you are a natural and catch on fast. I've been at it on and off for the last couple years. If anything my journal is a good representation of what not to do in many cases and alot of good advice from Maverick and other posters! When I started I never took any stats on my trades or attempted to understand market structure and behavior. In the end, you must understand this stuff to make money. An edge is nothing more than finding a way to take advantage of a repeatable pattern in the market. ACD is a very structured and logical approach to markets and it's principles are based on market structure and behavior! This makes sense to me and I have stuck with these tools because they are compatible with me. What I am doing currently came about from analyzing hundreds of my own trades and forming hypothesis as to why stuff is happening the way it is! The way I am approaching trading is much more structured than the shoot fish in the barrel approach that I had for a long time. I am optimistic, but cautious about the future. I'm from Sac and lived in SF..."hella" is def a norcal thing man! I can give two shits about Socal lol. The "tight" may have been pushing it !