Hitman, I personaly don't think there is anything at all wrong with taking on a part-time job. IMO that is what a winner would do. I was fortunate enough to have had enough experience in the game that when I made the jump over to doing full-time I was pretty much profitable from the get go, but I can say that if I had to I would have done anything and I mean ANYTHING to assure I could stay in the game......... Also Hitman and I hope you are secure enough to take this as constructive criticism and not an insult, but after reading your journals for sometime now, I feel it is nothing but yourself and the way you are approaching the game that is holding you back from tapping into your potential...... JUST TRADE hitman! Once you start to look at this game as what it is, a dance, a journey, an art, just a game.....This is not a battle, it is not life or death hear.....Don't trade to win, Dont trade not to loose, let of all these external wants, desires, and pressures go, and just TRADE TO TRADE.....Once you can learn to do this I too am very confident that you will have no problem at all crossing over..... I wish you all the luck in the world Hitman...... PEACE and good trading, Commisso
maybe a part-time job will help in trading as some pressure is taken off and one can look at trading in a more systematic way, without wearing himself out with all the "determination" to make it. trading is a strange gig. the harder you try, the worse you do.
dozu, trading is a strange gig. the harder you try, the worse you do. Amen, and double amen to that. No question about it -- the more I effort at it, y'know, get wrapped up in all the stuff, the worse I do.
A very poor effort but it is a start to break out of this cold spell. +478 before commissions, +292 after, 8200 shares each way on 5 of 10 shooting. Another record day for the firm but for this trader the priority is to get out of this cold streak, tons of opportunities today but there was definitely a lack of confidence with pulling the trigger here and there . . . All day sell-off, no bullet, final hour rally, no long until it was too late. I need to increase my holding time a little when there is little activity going on. Patience, it is a virtue, and there is always a fear to lock in what is on the table which prevents me from holding and getting bigger bang's for the buck. Ice cold, that's the word to describe my performance, ICE COLD . . . I need to warm up and find my groove ASAP . . . I had a lot of trouble putting up bullets given how oversold the market was, pathetic, never ask how low something can go, I have almost never believed in stochastics why do I ask where is the bottom? The inability to short made me waiting for a bottom and at 2:45 I honestly thought it was over, this market won't bounce today, it bounced in my face and rallied 300 points and I had zero long position. Pre-Market: Yesterday energy stocks were absolutely destroyed, hence this morning I was nervous about shorting them, that was a big mistake. The daily's looked awful coupled with downgrades . . . 9:30: CEX/BTK strength , took ROH for a 30 cents move but lost 10 cents on CRA and DNA, plus an extra 15 cents on PX. Entire market sold-off, shorted EPG for a half point and left 1 point on the table. Huge energy sell-off, I had numerous chances to put up bullets and I passed, probably because earlier in the month I got hit on every attempt to short energies. 10:30: Shorted STI for a half point when the market tanked hard along with the BKX index. Took a 20 cents scalp on LSI, and a flat trade on ADI when market bounced, very weak of course . . . 1:00: I really thought this market will rally. Took MGA long, didn't work, got out flat, waited . . . 3:00: V-Bottom recovery, by the time I realized it was for real, too late, took AGE at 34.36, pared out half for a 10 cents profit, got spreaded on the other half for a half point loss . . . Talk about chasing stocks up . . . You tell yourself that you don't believe it is real, over and over, then in the end you take it and get hit hard by it . . . I could have took DNA and many others earlier, but I thought it would fizzle, it did, after I finally jumped onto the boat. The marks of a struggling trader, I need to get hot again, and right now my confidence is just not there, 7 games left in the month, down $400, September is every bit as good as we anticipated, but where is my game?
Hitman, Enjoy reading your posts. Makes me feel better about my own trading I wish I knew something that could help. I tried trading for small gains but couldnt handle it. It dawned on me one day that all you really need is one good trade a day. Thats all I shoot for now. Much easier.
Hitman, I've noticed that you pay a very large portion of your profits in commissions (for example today it was 39% of your gross). Have you considered that this may be a hinderance to your further success? for example, what if you start to become more selective and trade less? just some thoughts.
Hitman thanks for putting in the time on this Journal, it is very interesting. I wish I could help you more, but, overall this market is tough. Whenever, I go into a slump I really concentrate on just taking a few cherry setups while watching time and sales like a hawk. After a few days of this I always get back on my game. That is how I made money in August after having a losing July. (I rarely have losing months, although if I do, it is in July.) I have been trading full time for almost 5 years; mostly scalping nyse stocks. I also went through a lull in my profitablity about two years into my career. It was during an october to november period when other people in my office were making good dough. I was thinking about getting engaged and I was probably getting too concerned about the money. Now I have a question, if you don't mind, what kind of size does that trader who had those two big days throw around. Is he doing hundreds of trades or just some very large ones. I think I need to take my game up a notch or three. P.S. if you do not want to talk about other traders thats cool, I understand. thanks
Hitman, I agree with Nicodemus and Babak who both point to many trades for small profits. I have tried (and thought through) the scalping strategy, and for me it just doesn't work. I'd rather take a few quality trades per day and get more out of them than trade my heart out all day and wind up making my broker rich. And, I don't have the benefit of paying only pennies per share as you do since I trade from home and pay about $32 per round trip. It seems to me that scalping is risky because it is difficult to predict price action over very small periods of time (i.e.- seconds or a couple of minutes tops). In addition, to scalp you really need to trade big shares in order to make it profitable and this forces tight stops to prevent big losses, and tight stops are easily broken. Translation: one ends up getting stopped out frequently and takes only small profits when they come. Don't get me wrong, I don't necessarily think you are a scalper, but reading over your posts and checking the charts on your trades it seems that you don't mean to, but you are scalping. I look at some of your trades and don't understand why you exited for such small profit when you did, leaving alot on the table. If you've got a trend going, let it ride a bit, taking some off the table along the way just in case there is a major reversal. Think about it, after the first few moves in your direction and with a decent profit, take half or more off the table, and let some ride out until the trend is broken. For example, today (9-19) I shorted 200 LEH at 51.44 and covered 100 at 50.21, then let the remaining 100 ride and eventually covered at 49.28 when the S&P touched 1000. Or C, shorted 470 at 38.71 and covered 370 at 38.01, and let 100 ride, eventually covering at 37.30. There are others, but I've learned that you almost never can pick the bottom, so I like booking some profits after a decent fall and let the rest go since the portion that remains can't really hurt you since you have more room to play. You really end up trading the cliche about letting your winners run and cutting your losers short. By the way, I do enjoy reading your posts and wish you the best. Good Trading!