Kurt, A couple questions from an LA-based trader... Does T3 in LA permit you to hold overnight trades? Are there any swing traders in your office or is only day trading? Also, about how many people trade in the office and how about long would you say they have been doing it?
Hmmm, that's a really good point. If I am 'in the zone' or 'have edge' I should size up. Oh and, that wasn't your last post, you'll be back.
8/4/11 Gross: +36 Shares: 11,620 Net: -16 ----------------------------- Another wild day, I came into the day bearish as all hell, as I stated in yesterday's entry. All the longs will get smacked. Despite my read, I did not get the balls to short the piss out of the market. Looked for setups, couldn't find anything clean due to the volatility. When I did find decent stuff, I was hesitant to get size, and I took profits quickly in everything. I felt like I had no edge, especially after the market made its first push down, I missed the smart money play. May have had a good day if my CVS short worked the first time. Buyer at the whole propped it up, held for such a long time despite the market making new lows. First time he broke, trade went 10 cents, bounced and stopped me out. I had OK size in that trade, would have been the beginning of a good day if it had worked. Later, same situation developed. Buyer at the whole, market making lows. Eventually he broke. When the buyers were unable to pusht he price back above the whole like they did the previous time, I shorted the 90s with small size. It is frusturating when crap like that happens. If you are buying the whole and you break, why don't you just reappear at a lower price for better fills? Doesn't make sense, but they do it anyway. Whoever was buying there should be fired. Don't have time to discuss much today, I am at job #2. Basically, I blew it today, missed out on the money despite knowing what was coming. Once I missed it, I began gambling for dimes, which didn't make or lose anything. I played different moves, like the bounce in silver, bounce in the market via 3x ETF, etc. Just light size and scalped. I missed the play, no need to push performance via risky trades. We'll see how tomorrow goes. The important point about today, was that it was technically a losing day and I only lost 16 net. If this is a trend that continues, it is a positive sign, as my winning days have been like 200+. Tomorrow will be a tell. No log today sorry. **P.S. I was having a beer yesterday watching TV and a commericial came on for Progene, a testosterone supplement or something. Anyway, it was a free month trial, so I ordered it. I figured some testosterone precursors could help me size up.
8/5/11 Gross: -54 Shares: 800 Net: -57 ---------------------- My alarm didn't go off this morning, woke up 10 min before the open. Tried logging in remotely to my comp, where there is like a 3 second delay, making things really, really difficult. Forced a few trades, missed the good setups trying to slowwwllly sort through stocks. My forced trades had potential but I'll admit they were completely edgeless gambles. I was like, hey maybe I can pull 50-100 and call it a day. Well, just the opposite. It looks like the action out there is really messy. I saw that Citigroup had a nice setup today, TLEO was awesome, DLB would have been a nice scalp too. But whatever, I learned my lesson. If I wake up that late, just sleep in. Up $300 on the month net, next week, we'll try again. My 401k is all cash, I called this crash before it happened and I'm not losing a dime. I didn't have the balls or capital to trade the crash and be rich, but I did put my money where my mouth is in that I went 100% money market.
You're right. Had to stop by today and see how you're doing. I won't be doing much posting is what I meant. Just a bullshit comment here and there. I notice when I come on here and get into arguments, and people want to prove this or that, it's really just pointless for me to waste energy or brainpower on it. It's all bullshit. I work too hard. Arguing about trading philosophies is ridiculous. All that matters is whether you make money or not and whether you have a risk management methodology. EDIT You cannot sleep in on days like this.
I just can't stand the morons, I love good debates though. And yeah, I dropped the ball, well, it was my phones fault, the alarm didn't go off, or maybe it did but I didn't hear it. I'm housesitting for my dad for 2 weeks and I don't have a good alarm clock here haha. I wish I went in today, our head trader made 46k, phew. And another guy who trades my style made 3.5k.
Yea it was a great day. I made about half of what you're head trader made. Still made a lot of mistakes. Trading is never as clean as I'd like it to be.
8/9/11 Gross: +520 Shares: 12,400 Net: +465 -------------------------------- First day trading in this wild market. Never seen action quite like this. Really insane stuff. What a CRAZY day. All sorts of opportunity that I did not capitalize on. Did not get big, since I had not seen what this kind of action is like. Haven't traded in a few days so I didn't know what to expect, I'll admit I was a bit afraid of coming in today. However, I fell into the tape quite quickly. Produced a solid trading day on light size. Have to go to job #2 tomorrow morning god damn it. I don't want to miss any more of this. Not going over trades today because I have to cut out to go teach table tennis. I watched earnings and a stock list I made. Focused on a set of stocks that I know. Had some good level 2 trades as well. Good entries all around. Really good trading day that I definitely could have sized up in. Action like this is rare, you have to absolutely attack it imo, ONLY if you have a market read. Trades attached. Today pays for my Series 56 costs. Need to make more money. I have been consistent, conscious of profit taking, selective, conscious of time of day, etc. I really hope I can continue the consistency and GET BIGGER. Get some balls ksmetana!