It seems like you know what must be fixed to turn around your net p&l, so it's just a matter of implementation. Given that you trade in an office, perhaps you could ask to sit next to the profitable trader and just observe their trading style for a few days?
You probably don't know what I am saying but you are the balding, Caucasian reincarnation of the Hitman, a Chinese guy who traded at Worldco and kept a drama-filled journal much like this one but with a lot more angst. Anyone who has been here about 10 years will know what I mean. Is it any wonder that the markets move the same today as they have in the past? The faces of the people are different, but the players are still the same. Sorry to interrupt. Carry on. P.S. Go Anteaters. ZOT!
Hitman! Yes, I remember the guy well and there are some similarities. Interesting comparison. His journal should still be in the archives. That guy was a riot. Hitman and his princess. LOL. http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4753&perpage=6&pagenumber=1 http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1645&perpage=6&pagenumber=1
Just curious...what made you think this? Looking back, Only small hints of it throughout the log. That hitman though, ROFL. This business definitely attracts some interesting characters!
You need to man up and do this for yourself, idk if it can be done in any other way. Your source of strength/resolve needs to be hardened and come from yourself...having it come from some external source will leave you at the wim of that external source IMO. Though I haven't achieved the level of trading that I know I will, the only thing that will keep me going is within me and not dependent on something external! Hey I may have 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one!
I think I was a psychologist in a past life. LOL. I'm very good at reading markets and people. It really stuck out to me. Most men suppress their problems. So when they actually verbalize them, especially in a public setting, it means it's REALLY bothering them. Trading, like sports, is all about self confidence. When one is confident in their life in general, even if they are a bad trader, they can perform very well. Again, you see this in sports. Bad players can get very very hot in their respective sports when they are "feeling" it. On the flip side, when one loses confidence, they can't do anything right. Good traders can struggle for months. And otherwise great players suddenly can't hit a free throw, get on base, or hit a decent serve. Kurt is suffering from self confidence issues in his personal life and it's spilling over to his trading. There are two ways for him to resolve this. Eliminate all the things in his life (for the time being) that are hurting his self confidence. Or deal with the issue directly and try to resolve it. This is much harder and can take some time and in the meantime can bleed his trading account. Relationships are very tricky because they can either dramatically enhance your trading when they are good, and they can totally sabotage your trading when they are bad. As Joshua said in the movie "War Games". Sometimes the optimal move is not to play. In this case, being in a relationship.
Hahah, i see you do have a knack for it! Maybe Kurt can take some of your advice and it will help him going forward?? Seems like he knows what is up as well. Just a matter of addressing the issue!
7/22/11 Gross: +386 Shares: 9,000 Net: +336 ----------------------------- I swear to god the universe is out to stop me from being successful. Today should have EASILY been a 700+ day. You'll see why in a moment. Checked out Hitman's journal, haha, funny stuff. I am stopping trading at 2:17 pm eastern as I just made 1 losing trade and took 1 dumb out and I'm not giving anything more back to these manipulative bastards. I'll close the week with a glimmer of hope. On topic to previous threads, my love was recently on vacation, for 2 weeks. I saw her yesterday afternoon, and today I had my best day in a while. Interesting, isn't it. ------------------------------- 1. SWKS - Bought SWKS at 25.02 near the open. Good company has been sold off recently, unjustly imo. Positive earnings = gap n go in this situation. Though, I did not size up as in this game, even when you're right, they'll slam you. I got 200, sold half at 45 cents. It pulled back to 25, I added another 100. Sold half at 33 cents. Sold the remaining position at 75 cents. Good way to start the morning on light size. I knew it had more upside, but a good start seems essential to my daily success. Could have sized up down at 25 as buyers were at the whole, but a quick break and 10 cent flutter would have started things off poorly. 2. Shorted NTAP as it broke below morning consolidation. The pattern was called out, it was not on my watch list. NTAP was out of play, no reason to touch it. The trade began to work, and came back in and stopped me out. The morning wasn't incredibly easy due to all the idiots on TV yapping about the debt ceiling. Obama = please help me I need votes for re-election , Republicans = Please wire $500,000 to my account in the cayman islands first thnx ok 3. SNDK - Did not buy the smart money SNDK entry on the dip at 44.50. Instead, bought the 45 breakout. It ran 20 cents, came in and stopped me out. LOL. It slowly grinded back up. Whatever. 4. WDC - AHHHHH!!!!!! I was eyeing that WDC breakout at 37. I wanted it soooooo bad. A seller was holding it down at 95 cents before the whole. I was also watching SNDK, which was at a breakout level at the same time. When WDC broke that refresher at 95 cents it exploded past the whole. No way I'm chasing WDC, GOD DAMN IT. EASY money. Trade of the day right there, MISSED. Easily a $300 trade. 5. NCR - AHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I called out NCR at 20 bucks. It looked sooooo good. Bids rising to the whole after the morning seller. Great pattern, classic play. I was going to get HUGE in this. This was the trade I wanted most today. I was going to get 1000 shares. I had the shares loaded in my order box. I'm sitting there waiting. MY PLATFORM FREEZES. Everyone else says, "Oh, there goes NCR! Good call out!" OMGGGGGGGGG. NCR ran 30 cents no problem. Another $300 trade, GONE. Already, we have $600 in opportunity cost. I'll take the blame for the WDC miss, but the universe slammed me on the NCR, my trade of the day. =( I'm using to the universe owning me in many areas of life. Just when you think things are about to pick up, I get slammed by ill fortune. I still play the lottery, thinking that one day I will be redeemed for my 27 and counting years of pain. 6. I was absolutely on TILT. I was SOOOO pissed. I was cussing, clenching my fists, I wanted to leave right then, because I felt the day was over, the morning was closing. I took a TILT trade in CB, buying way up at 65 hoping for volume to come in lol. Lost 70 bucks in that trade bringing me to gross 0. I can't tell you how disheartened I was. 7. I bought CAT as it broke 105. CAT could easily fill some of its gap. I failed to get in the smart money entry 50 cents earlier. I did expect there to be short covering in CAT. CAT immediately exploded, went like 35 cents. Decided to hold my 200 shares. CAT snapped back all 35 cents, and broke below 105, stopping me out lol. I did not give up on CAT. I knew the first explosion would be all the morons shorting in front of 105 covering. When cat broke 105, it fluttered down 10-15 cents as all the guys like me who got long got stopped out. I rebought CAT as it made it back to 105, I added as it pushed above 105. CAT pulled back below 105, the 90s held as some bids came in. I added in the low 90s. CAT finally made its push. I had 400 shares total. I sold 200 at 105.50 I sold 100 at 105.90. I decided to hold the last 100. I expected CAT to make another leg up. It did not. Eventually, after sitting in it all day long, I sold my last portion at like 105.29 =( There's another $100 I missed out on. 8. EW - Bought EW as it broke above consolidation, above 78. I got 200 shares. Sold half rather quickly as I didn't trust the stock. Sold at 38 cents, and then at 41 cents. I'm fine with these outs, I did not intend for EW to be a major money maker. 9. OLN - Oh mama, MAMA. Accumulated OLN in the mid 21.20s. It had already dipped 10%, so the shorts couldn't attack it. Buying was present at 20 cents. It was a simple risk reward play, hoping for a reversal / squeeze. Began scaling out in the high 30s. Sold at 38, 42, 47, and 51. I was 300 shares remaining, which I wanted to hold. However, I was also aware that I did not want to piss away profits like I always do. As OLN momentum seemed to fade, I sold the rest of my position, rather than hold at least 100. Sold those last 300 at 50 cents. OLN ran to 22 dollars today. IT FIGURES, that the one day I do NOT let all my winners run, they run. The universe man, I'm telling you. 10. Anyway, by this point, I was sitting pretty, +379 gross, with my last 100 shares of CAT still open, up about 60 cents. I felt if CAT could hold 105 by 2pm, buyers may step in. Plus, UBS announced they are buyers of CAT and sellers of DE. CAT chart began to look like a short. I felt, since it is midday, anyone taking the short will get smacked, especially since those criminals at UBS are involved. I opted to hold through the grind down. CAT did break that downward trend, pushed up to 75 cents. I thought, alright here we go, time to squeeze and run. Nope. The market began to look lame, big bids kept getting slammed in CAT all day. I was tired of it, and I got out as another big bid was hit at 30 cents. 11. MMSI. Overtrade, this is the trade that made me stop trading for the day. It sold off in the morning, bounced. Then it seemed to be having a late day sell off. It consolidated at 17.10 due to a hidden buyer at 10 cents. I shorted 400, hoping for a push to lows. Stop at 14 cents. They broke the guy but there was no energy at 9 cents. MMSI stopped me out at 14 cents. The risk reward was there, the stock was technically in play as they reported earnings. But, it was inactive and hence had implied risk of failure. I closed the day at gross and net highs, but about $100 shy of unrealized profits.
Though, as I have shown, today should have been a $700+ day easy. I am very upset with my end result, absolutely terrible. This is not enough money to counter my losing days. A day like today, with my style, is supposed to be $1000, reversing all my losses on the crappy price action days. There is money being made right now, and I'm terrified to get involved. I'm going to leave the office, I am too pissed off to be trading. I get to leave with profits, I survive another day in the markets. I need to produce a string of days, I can't slip back into bad habits. One good thing about today was that I took profits into buying waves. I was able to add liquidity on most of my exits. It was a fairly flawless day, a few mistakes, should have been better, but so be it. If the universe wants to put me through hell and max stress before I succeed, so be it. ---------------------- I have no plans tonight. I have to go to job #2 right now. At least I get to see my love, which makes me feel content, even though she loves other men. Like Hitman, I get a sense of fulfillment when I do good things for her. "Love has no regret". There is a party on Sunday and a girl of interest will be attending. so I probably will not trade on Monday. This girl is cool and cute, though I am not sure I'll be able to make her mine, she is much more social than I am, not sure if she'd want to settle down with me. I was talking to this Romanian chick online about my love situation, and she said, "You should love someone who loves you." I need a new goddess. I wish I could focus only on trading, but lets be serious, I am a man. I have needs. Hormones don't let you tune out the need for a female, unless you're misfigured or gay. Aside from all that, lets look at today's trading facts: 1. I sold into buying waves, I added a lot of liquidity on exits. 2. I waited patiently for setups, however, I failed to act on smart money entries. 3. My platform froze during the entry for the trade of the day. 4. I did not get size in anything. I traded only 9,000 shares. I was able to produce a day like this by trading LESS. I simply took profits rather than arrogantly let things run. In doing so, I did miss out on some profits, but at least I captured them. Next Week: Looking to continue taking profits. Wait for setups in active stocks. Let morning winners run, taking off 25% on the first wave. Let 10:30 - 11:00 winners run, taking off 50% on the first wave. Take off 75% of post 11 AM winners on the first wave. Designate trades as A setups or B setups. Let A setups run, Cut B setups short, taking off a majority on the first wave. My profit goal for next week is $1000. I want to be very, very selective on Tuesday, I want to start things off on the right foot. I am better than this, I should be making more money. I have now learned how taking profits is a good thing. It is OK to make money, even if its not $60,000,000.
Hitman!!!!!!!!!! OMG. This is too uncanny. What are the odds. So help me God if you start calling someone your princess.... Did you ever see the movie "The Tao of Steve"?