I have been trading for over three yearâs part time. For more than one year I have reached overall profitability. Before that.... well, lets not talk about that. Like many here I have learned trading the hard way, mostly about the use of stops. That was then, this is now. This is my journal, with all the normal dreams of challenging myself, taking it to the next level, emotionally conquering my fears (known and unknown), ordering a consistent rule set, etc. My comfort zone is swing trading stocks with a "somewhat SAR" system using a trigger not exactly based on just the normal price action. My exact system I will not disclose at this time since it took quite a lot of effort and some $moo$ to have it programmed just like I wanted. I usually trade three or four stocks at a time. My longest trade this year was nine days. The shortest was just over an hour, and that was probably too long. I hope to post every trading day in close to real time the activity of my account and solve my dream of being successful in the market.
I have a 3% stop if the trade works against me. The target...I let my indicator tell me when to get out and take profits. Occasionally (about once a month give or take) this stock goes on a nice tear and I can capture a great gain of over 10%. Recently a gain of 24.68% in a number of days. This really helps my stats. With this stock, my history is 64.10% win/loss ratio and avg gain of 7.12% and avg loss of 3.45%. The reason the avg loss is beyond my 3% stop is because of overnight upgrades, downgrades, etc and gaps. I try to stick to the 3% though, then wait for the next signal. Good Trading...
Do you have other open positions and do you trade from a specific universe or watch list or do you perform scans? Thanks
Just sold short TQNT at $8.36 a couple of minutes ago. I now have two open short positions. One other stream waiting for new signal. No stock scans, when I have a chance I look casually for other possibilities. Good Trading
Feared the worst this morning for my shorts. I try not to trade in the first half hour of the market unless I have to. The TQNT and SSTI shorts in the first 20 minutes of trading have now fallen back into the safe range. Watching it closely, especially SSTI. Good Trading.
Ignored my system and its 3% loss rule and got hurt with well over a 5% loss with my SSTI short. If I would have followed my own damn rules I would have only lost 3%, then gone long when my system flashed green and made back 1.17%. Damn analyst target upgrade....but that is going to happen. I just made it worse for myself by doing exactly the WRONG THING. I am sure they sold their stock to me so I could cover and crawl away. That coupled with the short signal I didnt take on another stock yesterday, that would have been profitable by 3.55% today, means I would have finished the day in the green. Whenever I try to second guess my system it always goes against me. My system works fine, just need a trained chimp to trade it. Green light, red light.....duh. My TQNT short is doing ok, I made a dime so far. TRADE THE SYSTEM....TRADE THE SYSTEM....TRADE THE SYSTEM Good Trading