7/12/11 Gross: +93 Shares: 22,800 Net: -33 July: Gross: Over +300 Net: About -100 Risk Reward: Just over 3.5 % Winners: Below 25% ----------------------- The trend continues. I had a great morning. I was up +150 gross by 10 AM. I was up over +270 unrealized at one point. My max realized gross today was +205. Today was supposed to be good. I closed the day net negative. I have serious issues. I can't get away from the keys. Most people need a downside breaker built into their software. I need an upside breaker. ----------------------- 1. WWW - Thin stock. Beat earnings but traded lower. Waited for a buy point. Traded WWW twice. Bought at 37.08, sold at 37.58 and 38.45. Can't complain, I knew how far it could go. Second time, I bought on a dip at 38.18, sold at 38.58 and 38.85. Again, no complaints. 2. Gave back all my WWW gains in INFY. I was short under the 61.50 morning level. Since I was short, my mind saw flutters in my direction as potential breakdowns. In fact, the stock was finding support. The slippage killed me. My 1 cent stop became a 23 cent loser. Ouch. It was in play, and it could have broken down, but I had my chance to get out. They began aggressively paying the 50 cent seller. The character had changed, I remained short. I deserved it. 3. Tried buying MCHP a few times. This lame 10% circuit breaker rule is a joke. You know people can't hit the bid to short, and you know that it is a pain to get filled on the offer at good prices. You are only left with longs. Longs in -10% stocks do tend to work well these days. Just gotta find the right price. 4. NVLS - Hah. A bunch of morons were buying this in the morning, making the short side difficult. Eventually, the longs got slammed. I tried shorting through the 32.75 level first. The trade began to work, but came in and stopped everyone out. I decided I'd go after the morning low of 50 cents instead. A 50 cent break would get the larger morons to panic out. Low and behold, that is exactly what happened. I covered near the quarter, as the stock hit the 10% mark, and bids were heavy. It took a while for NVLS to finally break down to 32. I called out the 32 price destination, but the lame 10% rule makes things more difficult. 5. QSFT - Lost over and over in QSFT. I was waiting for that 20 level to break to the upside. Never happened. They were aggressively paying it, especially when the market popped. 6. WM - Shorted WM through morning lows at 36.50. Chart suggested some downside. Trade began to work, I held. After being 12 cents in the money or so, it came back and stopped me out. Target was a quarter. 7. EQR - Bought the EQR breakout up at 63. Target was 50 cents. Market broke to the upside at the time of the breakout. It felt good. It went 35 cents and pulled back all the way near my entry. I added and then I scalped my addition at the quarter. The trade was paid for. EQR did not make a new high and stopped me out for the rest of the position. It stung. 8. KSS - Bought the KSS 56 breakout. Trade began to work. Market heading up. It felt good. It ran 30 cents. People continued to pay up at those levels. I held, my first target was 35 cents. KSS came in, was unable to make a new high, and eventually stopped me out. EQR and KSS destroyed my mental momentum. I was up 200 gross while in the trades. The trades combined had me +270 or so unrealized. It was becoming slow, it was midday. I was selective all day, I was aware of my profits, I set a max downside from my current levels. Once these two trades stopped me out, my mental strength vanished, and a new trader took the keys. I began trading midday. 9. Found a setup in ADI. Shorted through 36.50. The setup actually was decent. It put me in the money by about 10-12 cents twice. My target was further down. ADI came in and stopped me out. 10. LRCX - My first "overtrade" of the day. LRCX had no setup. It was a complete hope trade. I shorted through 42 and got stopped out. I tried shorting it on its pop up to the quarter. Again, stopped out. I was forcing a trade that didn't exist. My losses in QSFT, ADI, KSS and LRCX brought me down to +40. Ouch. 11. Bought DE on the FOMC news, near 82. Sold at 50 and 60 cents. 12. GPRO - Bought GPRO on the FOMC news, as it had a bullish pattern. Got a quarter out of it. 13. I tried buying the dip. I rebought DE way back down at 82. Got stopped out as the market did not bounce. I think everyone got smacked around. Once I realized, "wow, they are going to screw everyone," I began looking for shorts. 14. I shorted CAT at intraday trendline resistance, up at 107.54. It would run 20 cents in my direction, and instantly come back up to the high 40s. The market slowed to the downside. I was expecting a bunch of longs to get screwed, hence I wanted quicker action. I eventually took profits at 36 cents because the market wasn't behaving as I would have liked. Soon after, in the last 10 minutes or whatever, the market got killed, and CAT went to my target of 107. Ouch. ---------------------------------------- I traded a lot of good stuff today. Had some good ideas, I was anticipatory and steps ahead of the market. I stayed in my KSS and EQR longs because the market had broken to the upside. There was potential for good movement. When the market showed it was going to be a pain, I did not take my scalp profits. I ignored the market metacommunications. Today was another day, that just hurts. I take many setups I like, some work, others don't. I end gross positive, my trading is profitable, but the high commissions slam me. I had my chance to have a great day, and I blew it, again. My overtrading was not TERRIBLE today, most of the just was pretty justified. My share count today is largely from getting more size in more things. Today's problems involved ignoring market metacommunications, and taking irrational position sizes as the day progressed. If you are up 200+ by morning, there is no reason to attack midday or afternoon trades in the same way. You should lose size throughout the day. ----------------------------- I think an upside limit of sorts would be beneficial, but it scares the hell out of me. I don't want to stop trading at +150 or +200. I push for 300-500 dollar days. I am going to try and get myself away from the computer once I'm up like 200 bucks. I can't keep giving my day away like this. Completely unacceptable. I need to be content with trading well and taking profits. I can't force P&L targets on the market. We'll see how tomorrow goes... Control yourself ksmetana. You've conquered the game, now you must conquer yourself.
What about a giveback % rule? If you are up $200 closed gross, maybe say not to be down 30% from there? You can also change that % each day depending on the market and whats in play but will keep you going if you are continuing to make money.
7/13/11 Gross: -98 Shares: 24,000 Net: -230 ----------------------------- I was gross +173 after owning CLNE in the morning. Bought the morning 16.53 breakout. Sold in the 90s. Later it set up at 17. I bought the breakout and got smoked by HFT. Gave all my gains away. I was so upset I did not set a tight stop in something that had so much potential to be a trap. I was on route to another great day. Made money back getting long in the CPX bull flag. I bought at 36.55, sold at 75 cents once the market had a big red bar. I knew CPX had relative strength, but I didn't want to get punished as in the last few days. CPX hardly pulled in and went a distance. From that point forward I had a series of losers and overtrades which brought me to -30 gross. I shorted HES and OXY on the news and made it to +81 gross. I felt good about getting close to even. I continued to slide. Attacked mediocre trades with size in the afternoon, boosting my day's share count and grinding my P&L down. Down gross -34, in a fit of rage, I got size in CEDC on the dip at around 11.30 where buyers were present and a seller was holding it. I got smoked, leaving me with -98 gross and a grip of commission costs. I became destructive in the afternoon, getting double - triple the size in CRAP compared to my pretty winners in the morning. Absolutely destructive trading. --------------------------------- I can stop trading after losing a particular amount. I can not stop trading after gaining a particular amount. If I allow days like today to happen, they will erase everything I do on winning days. I wrote on post-its around my monitor, and on a paper in front of me the following: 1. Am I willing to get 800 shares in this trade? 2. Do not ignore market metacommunications 3. Add liquidity I did better in goals 2 and 3. I did terrible in 1. I dabbled all over. I don't know why I can't stop the bad habit. I could tell myself, tomorrow, I'm leaving once I'm up 150-200. But I know I won't leave. I am very depressed about today. I am a broken record. I can't stop over trading. It is currently 3pm and I'm writing this to try and not look at the trading platform. Today was an ominous day. I have high prospects for the near future, but I need to be strict with myself. I need to find a way to control myself once I am up. If I am down, it is easy for me to be selective and wait. When I am up, I can't seem to do the same. Tomorrow, I trade and then leave early to go to job #2. Hopefully I can have another good morning and fix today's mess. Murphy's Law says, "The one day I HAVE to leave early, I will have a losing morning." If I can't get strict on my daily money management, I will never beat my high commissions, and then... R.I.P. ksmetana
Kurt, what are your stock rates? And why are they so high? Are you trading in a group? FWIW, when I learned to trade I was paying 1.7 cents per share! Yes, that's $17 dollars per thousand shares. I had to pay a vig to my mentor. Pay to play as they say.
I trade for a firm. Well, they definitely aren't THAT high. 17 a ticket, good god. But I guess you'd learn to only pick the best stuff. Yeah, pay to play. I know. I currently pay $3 a ticket, plus ECN fees. Average ticket cost comes out to 5.5 - 5.7. I know that commissions aren't everything, they just put unneeded pressure on things. I suppose they are the scapegoat when I'm in a bad mood. It really comes down to my selectivity. I'm thinking I should just take my morning profits and leave the office , for a month or two. Grind things up a bit, a day at a time... I gotta get disciplined. I think stepping away is a good way to train my mind that its OK to make money.
You pay a ticket charge? I didn't know firms still charged that. I thought that stopped back in 2002. Wow. When you say your average ticket comes out to 5.5 to 5.7 is that $5.50 per 1000 shares?
7/15/11 Gross: +216 Shares: 11,600 Net: +152 ------------------------------ Writing this after having a good morning, coming back and taking a lousy trade right off the bat lol. I am not going to screw myself today, even though RRC is probably going to run to highs. I am taking what I have and running. Very ashamed I just slipped up. Max gross today was +253. Stopping my trading at +216. Sounds reasonable. Had a choppy morning actually, but eventually knocked the oil and gas trade today out of the park, though, with too light of size. I had light size because at the time I was -80 and at risk of having a miserable morning. The oil and gas stocks were trading thinly off the open, but I kept watching, waited for them to calm down and show themselves. Went -78 from the open, then went to +67, back down to -80, and finally up to +250. Bought COF near the open hoping for a bounce. I suppose that is all it was, hope. Sure it had potential, the thing is due for a pop, but there was no real setup. Bought some BEXP at around 9:50 on a dip. Some of the other active oil gas names were at highs. BEXP was on a list of possible takeout targets. Got stopped out. Bought PXD at 92. Sold at 15 cents and 25 cents. It was thin and I just wasn't comfortable in it. Hahaha, look where it went. Bought CHK at the 32 breakout, sold quickly into the buying pressure. I wanted to get my P&L back to even so that I could wait for a good setup, as I got ahead of myself in the morning. Would have been better to scalp a portion, CHK ran a bit. So I did not trade well off the open, that is for sure. ------------ Rebought BEXP as I saw the selling slow near the 31.50 area. It finally bounced. I sold at 65 and 75 cents, looking to capture profits. Bought RRC at 58.55 area, also noticing it was bouncing. Sold at 78 cents and 75 cents. P&L now at +67. --------------------- Bought PXP on the dip to 39. I was right on the trade, anticipated the bounce, however, as you can see, it wicked down and stopped me out. This was the beginning of another losing streak. When PXP broke my stop, I shorted, as I felt everyone buying like me was about to get screwed by this sector underperformer. At first, it did work, I saw many stops get triggered. Unfortunately, it did not reach my first target, bounced and stopped me out, taking me to P&L lows. ------------------------ Then at last, I found a few solid trades, with good setups. Bought SWN as it broke 46.59, I tried to buy the 50s but the buying was intense. Since I couldn't get the best price, I did not get size. Immediately SWN showed incredible strength, complete signs of institutional accumulation. I held this through dips and congestion, I knew this was going higher. I sold SWN at 46.95, 47.07, and 47.05. Decent, my first out was basically 50 cents away. I also bought RRC as it set up and broke 59. RRC is thin and loves to jig around, so again, I had light size. RRC turned out to be the trade of the day. I could have captured more of the move with more size. RRC showed no evidence it would go where it did. I did not detect reasonable strength during my buys down at 58.50. Anyway, I sold this position at 59.45, 59.74, and 59.93. Decent outs considering my size. These two trades made my day. ------------------------------ Bought BEXP again at the 32 area, as it showed signs of consolidation, nice bids, and buying sweeps. It began to work, I added. It went about 25 cents and I didn't take any outs. I suppose the winners earlier got to my head. The daily chart looked good, I felt it could grind higher all day. Well, BEXP never made a new high, and eventually stopped me out below 32. I flipped short for a little scalp. I had also bought PXP, on a dip at 39.55. Ended up scalping for like 10 cents. I only had 100 shares, and I didn't want to be too long into the stress test. My target was 40, which it basically hit if I had only held through the stress test. It is upsetting that PXP went BEXP did not. I had more size in BEXP. So be it. ---------------------------------- Immediately bought C on the stress test news as I saw buying paying the 39. Didn't work and lost a quick 20 bucks. I think at this point I told myself, alright its midday, I'm done. I went to smoke a cig and get some breakfast. Came back and saw UFPI on my news ticker. Got a downgrade. Chart showed a big quick down move, and now it was consolidating with MA's catching up. Very very light volume, I hit the bid as it looked like it may start to continue and instantly got screwed haha. I added as it came back in to 29. There were several selling sweeps, as if someone was trying to join me. However, bids kept filling the 90s. I got stopped out and said, screw this and stopped trading. I'm done today. Rather than touching such a dumb, low volume stock, I could have bought RRC, which was making its afternoon bounce. --------------------------------- In the end, +150 isn't enough money, but I have to take it. It feels a lot better to leave with some profits, rather than piss it all away. My plan next week is to keep my morning gains, and grind out an OK July. Today could have easily been a +500 day, but I was too scared to get size. I would have gotten HUGE in SWN, but I missed the gdamn entry, ughhhh.
Good news. Beginning August 1, my commissions will be lowered to $2 / 1000 shares. Just FYI, if I had these rates since I began, I would be net positive. This gives me a chance to really grind my account up. Just gotta survive July!
"I can't stop overtrading." Yes you can! Read my prior post. One of the best ways is to NARROW DOWN your watchlist and wait patiently for the set up. Even with your commissions being lowered to $2/1,000 if you do not force yourself to eliminate the bad habit of stock jumping, your net p&l will continue to be eroded by commissions through overtrading. Just my two cents...good luck.