I have been day-trading for few months with minimal success. I think I have a system that works but I lack the discipline to follow. Sometimes I enter the market because I get this "gut-feeling" that the market will go up or down and I always get slaughtered. I do not use any indicators except price. I'll usually do 1-2 trades a day. There are days when there are not going to be any trades at all. It usually happens if the market opens lower and keeps going lower, otherwise my system will provide a signal. Instead of talking about rules (which I do not plan on sharing), I will post my execution report and tell why I entered and exited the trade. I will answer any trading related questions.
sounds great ... I look forward to hearing about it ... ya I never thought of a day-trader as 1-2 trades a day ... I think of that more of a swing trader ... Are the rules very 'secretive?' in that you wouldnt want to share them? anyways ... look forward to discussing things with you ... let it rip
Any trade opened and closed during the same session is a day trade. Could be one trade, could be several, all would be day trades. Swing trades remain open for more than one day but not more than a month, or thereabouts. Trading from your gut feeling? At least you figured out how foolish that was. Might as well flip a coin. Don-
No kidding? Good luck with that. Makes ya wonder why all these people are using charts showing all these different indicators, or why they watch the news, or use backtesting systems, or volume flow. The only way I use my gut feeling to trade is that I never use it. It just gets in the way of what DOES work. Don-
Agreed, I believe there are a very select few who trade strictly off gut feeling, and do so successfully. In fact, an interview in Schwagers book "The New Market Wizards" is with a person who trades on gut feel ONLY. this is a person who has made $100's of millions trading only on gut feel. Who knows where they are now, but they were good enough to get chosen by a well respected market author for an interview. In fact, because they were afraid of how it would look, the refused to let their name be released, so they will remain anonymous. But, they claim to do it...and they are successful, with little reason to lie. (considering they will receive neither praise nor scorn for their approach to trading) Besides, what about exclusive tape readers? it's about as close to gut feel as one can get, but it is, in the end, the single best indicator. This is of course assuming that the person trading is at least aware of the price changes... If someone had been trapped in a box for 20 years, and then asked which way the market was headed, I don't think they could say without some frame of reference of change in price... But I don't think this is what we meant by "gut feel"... is it? Greg
But Samosa...to quickly address your post... are you confident with your system? If not, you'll never trade it right. I had a few "systems" that I used to trade...one that even worked, but I didn't have the right emotional control to work with them. So, get a winning system...and make sure it suits your strengths. As for myself I'm impatient, so I intraday trade the eminis. I like to make a lot of trades, and take both profits and losses fast. I also don't mind watching the screen all day (like it in fact), so this is what works for me. since you see that your "gut feel" isn't helping you. Quit trading off of it. Simple as that. It can be very difficult to do, but it will be your downfall. To convince yourself not to do it, when you believe the market will move a certain way based on gut feel... get up and walk away from your trading station. Grab a wad of $100 bills, and light them on fire. It's pretty much the same thing I'm afraid, and the end result will probably be the same. If I had a nickle for every "gut feeling" I had... Greg
samosa ... So it looks like you must really decrease the gut feel trades and increase discipline to follow rules. Have you done any simm/paper trading with live tickers??? How do you know your system "works"?? If arent sure your system is "effective" then the urge to gut trade will increase. ...rj