Worst day of the year so far. actually did have one good trade. Stop loss in IAR kicked in and I was out. Kept going lower so it was good I got out. results reflect the loss of 507 on my TS account out of IAR @ 7.23 - 6765 for the day - 6114 for the week - 3953 for the month + 6454 for the year. Looks like I have some ground to catch up on. I think the trade was valuable and I don't actually feel that bad. It was a very hardcore extreme that has improved my system going forward and I think my long signal will be better for it.
Can you expound on how you will adjust your long signal? Sorry you had to take the loss. Keep up the strong trading, your system seems to be working well, even if you have an occasional draw down.
Yes, On Feb 8th I bought 4 units. 2 pre market and 2 at the open. all sales were near the top. I have adjusted my rule to not buy in premarkets and also to wait until the first 30 minutes in a trading day to adjust a position if losing. I still would have lost on that trade but I would have cut my loss in about half or less. Back testing that change would not have caused any lowering of the profitable trades but would have helped on several others that went bad. As of this post IAR is still falling (6.72) so getting out when I did saved me from another 1800+loss. One thing is for sure, I have not yet traded an IAR before and don't understand how it can be pounded to the point that it is. Thats behind me now and I am focused on going green for the month. One trade at a time. Best of trading to you.
out of OCR @ 23.96 +33 for the trade made a mistake in calculating entry so I adjusted my exit based on the correct entry price which lowered the profit. So basically that mistake cost me $70 in lost profit
Ok, weekend is here and nothing else meaningful came up. Still watching IAR after my beating and its still falling. Spent some time on the yahoo boards and can't believe how uninformed some are. I guess thats good for the rest of us. lost about $10 and two hours with IB tech support trying to get IB book trader to work correctly. It will not let me hit bids or asks only post liquidity. Fine for most of my trading but when I wanted to get out of IAR I became tired of "invalid order" really fast. IB says its because I am using directed and not smart but I have no idea why that should matter, my bid/ask should just get placed at that spot IMHO. +22 for the day - 6092 for the week - 3931 for the month + 6476 for the year
I have this same problem with book trader. I place directed orders and get partial fills before getting the 'invalid order' message. To answer your question, it matters a lot to IB since they want you to use smart to route your orders. Also you'll notice that when using smart to hit bids or offers you get filled by ideal (Timber HIll) most of the time. This is one of the ways they make their money. Bottom Line: When you have a broker who is also a marketmaker watch out. How do you think they are able to offer the cheapest commissions. There is always a catch.
You know I didn't think about that before your post. I thought it was a programming error on their part. (preventing crossed markets etc) It kinda sucks how everything you think you get from IB turns out to be so much less as a result of issues (like customer support or having forced liquidation 15 mins before close etc.....) As a result of ET I feel IB is still the best route for me as I use ET for my support....LOL Best of trading to you