PropTrader - Daily exploits

Discussion in 'Journals' started by PropTraderMTL, Dec 12, 2010.

  1. Blotter in case you wanted to see it
     
    #21     Dec 22, 2010
  2. This was one of those days...where everything you hit doesn't go anywhere and everything you don't makes a great move.

    What I have learnt from these days is FORGET THEM and quickly. At the same time thank your lucky stars u didn't lose much (if that is the case...)

    So I'm not going to dwell on it. Just to mention I missed a break out in SIRI and a break down in ARNA... They were both basically hit and hope that it goes. Hope is never a good thing... Once you start hoping... Your wrong!!

    Not going to trade tomorrow... I will see what the conditions are like next week and make a decision then


    Date: 22/12/2010
    Net P&L: -$300
    Month Balance: $8,950
     
    #22     Dec 22, 2010
  3. NEVER say NEVER!!!

    I really did not lie yesterday I was not coming in today...BUT I did get my girlfriend to wake me up as she was leaving @ 7:30am to give me my phone to check my watch list.

    SIRI gapping up above $1.60 raised my interest but since I considered it probably a long trap it wasn't enough to get me out of bed.

    The thing that did get me out and rushing to the office was the bailout / nationalisation / probable de-listing of AIB!!! Now after trying to short $1.10 twice yesterday with no success it had predictably gapped down 25% overnight... nothing out of the ordinary for a day trader arrrrrrrrrrgggghhhh!!!

    Surprisingly I didn't make anything on AIB but on its counterpart IRE I killed it. Shorted 8k @ $2.42 and when there was no stupid short squeeze and it was just sitting there I knew I had a great trade on my hands.... sure enough it started going and never stopped... only paused...and then puked some more. No reason to get out until it got to the low $2.20s... ended up covering my whole 8k around $2.24.

    Could have taken more then 8k and probably should have but I'm glad i held it for the entire move. Wanted to short on the way back up but resisted the temptation and sure enough it did a 100% re-tracement... loss avoided.

    Taking into account fees and a couple trades on AIB / SIRI I finished up @ 12pm having made back yesterday plus $1k more... and puts me over the magic 10k mark for the month

    Happy holidays everyone and thanks for the early present market!!!

    Date: 23/12/2010
    Net P&L: +$1,350
    Month Balance: $10,300


    ...
     
    #23     Dec 23, 2010
  4. Blotter + month to date
     
    #24     Dec 24, 2010
  5. OK fellow traders. When I started I told myself that I would post the good with along with the ugly. As much as it feels cr@p to re-live yesterday I promised that I would do it when I started this journal... so here goes...

    It is really quite simple, I picked a bad day to trade. I kinda knew it going in with the snow etc in NYC and the long weekend. However I saw the news about Chinese Interest Rates and thought there might be a bit of action.

    Last Thursday I went in on what was clearly going to be a slow day BUT I saw some good opportunities on a few stocks which had NEWS on them... I basically just traded them and had a good day. However yesterday I didn't see anything in particular and that was my problem.

    As a trader its about picking your battles... that means macro down to micro... from the days and hours you trade down to the stocks and trades you take. This was a macro problem as the market was horrible to trade unless you caught the long financials in the first 10-15mins. This had me off guard as I came in thinking short side... but the market is always right and I didn't fight it after my first trade.

    The other trades were just haircuts... essentially positive on nothing. I would probably have been better to take one position and hold it... make the loss or cover for a profit instead of chopping in and out.

    Lesson learned and if any of you see me making this macro mistake again ... Remind me of this lesson!!

    Probably done for the month now...


    Date: 27/12/2010
    Net P&L: ($1,247)
    Month Balance: $9,079
     
    #25     Dec 28, 2010
  6. I took yesterday off due to how I felt about Monday... I had no reason to trade yesterday as I didn't see any opportunities in the pre-market. I also was not in the right frame of mind and felt I could chop more money away... history has shown this is what normally happens.

    Woke up this morning and looked at the pre-market. AIB was below support and SIRI was above its 52 week highs so I was most certainly going in.

    Once I arrived... all had changed... SIRI back down @ $1.66 (1.69 pre-market) and AIB up @ $0.90 (was at 0.84 pre-market). So I decided that it was time to sit on my hands as there was no reason to trade now.

    After sitting and watching I noticed IRE was showing real signs of strength. Above the top of its range ($2.43) and didn't show any signs of coming back. I bought 5k @ $2.47 and added 3k @ $2.50 and this time I decided to wait for the trade to play out instead of getting out at first sign of any resistance or selling.

    This paid off and I let it run up to $2.58 before getting 3k out (happened to be the top for quite a while). Instead of getting everything out, I waited. It pulled back through $2.52 which I really didn't enjoy. I added 3k back @ $2.54 when I saw buying come back in. I could have gotten out around $2.57 level but decided to try and see if it would take out the day highs. After chopping around for a while I took my $$ @ $2.55. It broke out at the end of the day but that was a long time to hold.

    Happy with my trade. A few small winning trades on C & XING and a small loser on AIB made for a decent profit considering the type of day it was.

    (I have included a picture of the IRE chart so you know what I'm talking about)


    Date: 29/12/2010
    Net P&L: $800
    Month Balance: $9,879
     
    #26     Dec 29, 2010
  7. blotter from yesterday
     
    #27     Dec 30, 2010
  8. May I ask something, since you do not edge-based trading, but PA, how do you guage momentum will continue or stop? IE, how do you determine the proper stock to trade besides the possibility of a 5-30 cent move.
     
    #28     Dec 30, 2010
  9. Edge... hahahaha... sorry but for me that word is over rated and over used

    Look, if you want to use the word then of course I have an edge... reading charts and time&sales. PA (I assume you mean price action) is probably the most important thing in trading besides money management issues.

    I never stick to a fixed rule about when to hold for a bigger move. I guess I'm just reading the PA and can recognize when the buying / selling has dried up. Sorry I can't expand much on that... its just been hours and hours of screen time and having seen lots of similar moves.

    In terms of stocks... I like to trade stocks that are below $10 and mostly below $5... this is just because I like to take a bit more size and also the speed of the movement in the higher priced stocks is quite fast and makes it harder to get the executions you want.

    In more specific terms the stock needs to be doing something unusual i.e. testing support or resistance... I really trade the range badly and I'm always looking for the bigger move rather then just scalping 1c here and there. I have found that my %'s are better if I target moves rather then range or quick scalps... much tougher for HFT / institutions to fight a trend

    I also don't mind playing stocks in the news, I will be doing this more in the future. I find that stocks in the news stick much closer to how stocks should move without the HFT... it gets back to raw human emotions.
     
    #29     Dec 30, 2010
  10. JM1987

    JM1987

    excellent journal my friend, your style of trading is very similar to mine. It seems you are a lot more proficient then I am though haha but I'm still learning and will be keeping a close eye on your posts, keep up the good work.
     
    #30     Dec 30, 2010