Hello ET board members I've been buying and selling investments on and off with simulated investment portfolios for almost a decade. Over the past couple of years I think I developed a sense for day trading and swing trading so I decided to put down real money and give it a shot. I've been trading for about 3 months now. I started trading with an account size of $4200 and since then I've added $13,800. I trade on margin with an $18k account at Interactive Brokers. I have not gained any profits and only incurred opportunity costs. I'm starting a journal to rant about my trades and my progess in hopes of helpful advice from other traders. Since I am limited by the PDT rule I try to swing trade more often than day trade. I normally place trades on upward trending stocks that I have been watching for a little bit. I also look for good fundamentals; however, lately I've been ignoring them. I figured that if the trend was moving up and the fundamentals were strong, the trade itself would be at less of a risk to go red.
Previous Balance: $18700 Loss: $530 Balance: $17974 After Thanksgiving I lost about 726 and gave up all of November profits. I'm feeling pretty foolish because I bought and sold impatiently. This Thanksgiving week I began trading larger sizes. I trade within 500 and I usually trade about 200-300 shares. I think I can place successful trades and with a larger position I should be able to produce larger profits. I need to cut my losses a little quicker but I make bad decisions as to when to sell because it just depends on the individual trade. I also need to take my time in choosing which stock to place trades with( filter out noise). This past week was a very distracting week. I was studying for exams that I absolutely need to do great on. Having the little tot running around during the day is also distracting. My Trades: I got comfortable with my measly profit from trading AMD and I got in on AMD too high last week. I bought some more on its way down thinking it may rally a little. The news of their flash business dropped the stock but I think it was going to pull back a little anyway. I sold it at for about a $240 loss only to see it climb higher the last two days. INTC would have shown a nice profit also but I sold it before the run up because I wanted to trade instead of holding onto a stock. I bought WMT when AMD was sinking and I don't even remember why. I think I was trying to make a quick buck to make up my loss. I've made money with WMT before and I thought it was a gimme that it would climb high enough for some profits. Instead it dropped to $47.53. I averaged down the price to $48.30 and sold all 1700 shares at an average price of $47.98. It began climbing up shortly after I sold all the shares to my original sell order price of $48.30. I lost a total of $650 today from the WMT stunt. I had the chance to get out with a 500 loss I had an overnight hold on AEOS that nearly went completely wrong also after AH news broke out. My unrealized profit of over 100 turned into unrealized 250 loss in a few minutes. This morning I average downed the price and sold 1100 shares for a $75 profit. A quick ANF 100 share day trade produced about a 20 profit. 50 shares of TM held overnight realized a 27 profit. I sold it early to lock in the gains because I paniced over my other losses. I probably would have made only 20-25 more anyway. Next week will be better. I just have to wait until wednesday to trade again.
AKAM, AMD, and SONC are some of my favorite trades because trading them have shown profits. I'm waiting for SONC to pull back. I got tired of waiting for SONC to trend back up so I sold it for a small profit last week. I thought I would get a chance to buy in at a lower price but it instead went past 30. I was waiting for at least 29.5. Damn. I waited and waited for AKAM to pull back but it just keeps going higher before I get to buy it. damn pdt. I should have known it was pulling back the past couple of days. I wanted in on AMD and AKAM today but I was occupied with getting WMT and AEOS out of the hole. Should have just sold it and bought a trade I felt confident with. Its pretty crappy when you've been following a stock for so long and it makes run ups without you. I've been thinking I could profit from this stock for more than a year when it was at about 13. Now its at 21 and I've only made a little from it. I guess whenever a stock moves to another price level I'm not quite sure how to react to it. PDT regulation blows. I can't prop trade from around here and I'm can't move to another state right now. I'm thinking of ditching stocks for the most part to trade other products. I've been telling myself to research futures and options but I haven't done much to educate myself yet. I heard from the board that eminis are a good place to get started. I'd like to check out commodities trading. I still don't know what all the instruments are and how they play together. I'll check out the IB material. I'll also print the info from CBOE.com and CME.com to study after my stats and calc finals.
I haven't traded because I've been studying for final exams and I've been stopped by the pdt rule anyway. I traded FEB 06 YG at night for the first time last week. I bought at 504.4 and sold it at 504.3 because the lack of volume scared me away. I would have made money if I sold it any day if I had just waited. It's at 520 now. What would have been the profit if I had waited until this week? I don't think I figured the calculations right because the amount seems like too much.
12/9 Made $50 in YG only to lose it trading ES. Scalped my way back to profitabilty until I took one bad trade at closing and was down about $155. 12/11 Sold ES for a $505 profit even thought I think it will move up tomorrow. Buying AMD and ANF on a dip Monday. Perhaps I should wait until int rate hike. Buying TM in the morning and I want to buy GS but funds are short. Buying YG at below 534. I doubt it will go down that far so Imay buy higher. I want to buy it right now at 536 but I don't want to stare at the screen all night. Actually want to buy ES dec or mar right now at 1262.5 and 1271.50 but I won't because I'm not going to stay up watching it esp with the low volume. Balance: 17,350 edit: balance is 18k not 17350
Crap..bid is at 537 after i submitted post. Buy order is set at 536 and 535. 536.5 may be a better bid but I'm scared. I'm leaving the computer.
Dont you think you should be trading 100 share lots until you show profitability? I mean, if something isnt working all that well, there is no sense to up your size trying to "make it back". I have quickly read through your journal and you seem to be making normal rookie mistakes (which is perfectly fine). But the goal is to eliminate those mistakes as best you can and work towards a better system. Just a few quick tips I think may help you out. I assume you dont mind getting advice since you are posting your thoughts and trades here. 1. DO NOT average down. If you are a seasoned vet and know when its appropriate and when its not (usually its not), then thats one thing. But in your sitaution, you dont have enough experience to know whens its a viable strategy and when its just foolish. Cut your losses and maybe look to re-enter. Dont expose yourself to that kind of risk yet. 2. Trade 100 share lots. Get proficient first and then start to size up a little. Cant stress this enough. Thats all I have for now. Good luck to you.
Sold overnight GLD for a $30 profit. Looks like I sold it too early but I wanted to lock in profits. I made the error of selling 50 shares twice because I thought the order disappeared with 50 shares still displaying in my positions column. I closed my short position and I lost $10. Mother caused hysteria because her tire is flat while my short and my bids are occuring. She wants to take my car. Daughter wakes up crying due to the hysteria. Bought BR at opening. I knew it would move up but I just sold it for 2.50 in profit. I Intended to buy only 50 shares but I accidentaly bought another 50. I figured this trade was going to go bad because my accidents often become even more screwed up. instead of holding onto it I just sold it too early. I won't be trading the opening again unless I'm selling my holds. I'm still not ready for it. The 2 trades I'm allowed for today have been met. I'm holding onto TM and SBUX. I bought them this morning but I'm not so sure about SBUX. I decided to buy it spur of the moment. I'd rather be holding onto AMD than SBUX because I have no experience with SBUX. It is what I originally intended to do. I bought TM for 96.97 and SBUX for 30.10. I wanted to lower my bids for both stocks but I was too late. TM is about even for now. SBUX is in the red and would be in the red even if I had lowered my bid. I thought YG at 536.50 would move up this morning at opening and it looks like it has by $2. Last night I chased it from 533-540. I became tired of missed opportunities when I bought and sold it for 540. Shortly after I went to bed it climbed to 544. Profit: $30.50 however I have a -20 unrealized loss. I will be trading YG and ES now.
Thanks for posting your advice. I got confident with some of the stocks that I've been trading and I guess that was pretty foolish since I don't really know anything. balance: 17500 unrealized -5 watched TM go up and down and stop at a 13 unrealized win. SBUX just stayed down all day. I went from 125 profit to -460 to -275. I had many chances to profit from YG but I didn't make any moves. I find myself staying away because I worry about a retracement. I made obvious mistakes while trading the ES. I'll need to quit selling out of anxiety. The really dumb move I made was trying to make back the money that I lost. I ended up losing far more but at least I got some of it back after I cleared my head. I knew I should have quit while I was ahead. I had about 18060 In my IB account at the time which I up from about 17970. If I lost 300 from the 18060, why would my account size be 17500? I'll have to check my statements and see what I forogt. Staring at the computer since yesterday is really making me dizzzy. see ya
Hey guys, I had a lot of shoulda woulda but couldn't trades that I wanted to place today. Of course as you know by now I blame the pdt regs. I started the day up while trading ES but then I began losing money in today's flat market while waiting for the fed announcement. After the announcement I was up by a little over 300. I lost half and ended at 212.50. During the run up, I tried to take advantage of the situation. I felt like I didn't trade quick enough. I basically bought ES and then sold it once the movement up slowed down. I kept doing this until I lost money when it began tanking. I made some of it back by scalping. Missed a 2.5 run up on the ES when I thought it would be too risky to trade off the last 30 minute bounce. I didn't want to risk losing more profits. I lost money on YG. Trying to scalp YG for a couple of ticks or short spikes was a dumb move. That thing kept falling when I thought it could rise and rising when I tought it was about to fall. I lost $173. I sold TM for a 122 profit. I sold it less than the what was already on my sell order because I wanted to lock in the profits just in case. It closed higher than my original sell price. Sold SBUX too early. I wanted to wait for fed announcement but then I got tired of it and sold it. SBUX actually moved up and stayed above my intended sell price of 31.40. I sold it at 31.10 and took at -2 profit. Dumb move. balance: 17487 STocks: 122 Futures: 40 For some reason the account at IB says that my current futures Pnl is $92. I don't know how far back this balance is calculated from. I thought it refreshed everyday. Perhaps its because the amount has not been settled yet.