Thursday, November 17, 2005 Here are the trades I made today. At 10:04 I went long 96 of TIE for 54.4 per share but got stopped out and lost $ 116 At 10:25 I am long 166 of RATE for 30.70 per share. Still long in RATE but set my trailing stop of 2% because have to go to work. G87
RE: 2% stop I'll give you my take on this. In my other trading I trade about 60 small cap stocks. One of the things I do is look at the relative volatility of the universe and adjust certain parameters based on that. For my Jack H universe, I get a overall volatility of 1.276 defined as the average true range divided by the close over around 100 bars. So , I then adjust my fixed stops and the amount invested so the overall risk is the same for all symbols. Example for TIE: It has a vol of 1.37, so I give it a little more rope but buy a little less than my standard position. Meaning if you invest a fixed amount for each trade, say $1000, the numbers for TIE are: Invest 1000*1.276/1.37 = $931 Set the stop at 2.00*1.37/1.276=2.15%. So the risk is equal: Standard 1000x2% = $20/1000 TIE 931x2.15 = $20/1000 DS
Doug, cool stuff... I am just hoping the S&P will break out the top and bail me out of TIE Please God!
Yea, that's interesting Doug... I'll have to take a look at doing it that way. Did anyone trade NTRI at the end of the day yesterday. It was just hitting FRV at close and showed a signal to buy, I however didn't trade it. Wish I had.
On occasion, we all experience a trading loss ( I did this morning). Nobody likes it, but losing trades do occur. As a cost of doing business, keeping losses small remains an integral part of a profitable trading career. Failure to maintain the discipline required to take the small losses in stride places your account at a greater risk of suffering larger losses. In other words, Hope and Prayer fail to test well as a viable strategy for making money. Your mileage may vary, but I doubt it. - Spydertrader
Thanks for sharing your insight on stops. You wouldn't happen to have an Excel sheet with these calculations automated would you? - Spydertrader
marty-I think Spyder commented on this too. I've been trading for most of my income for over 10 years and believe me, I learned the hard way to leave hope and prayer out of it. If you get taken out by your stop, accept it and move on. I believe a good trade is one where you follow your system/rules and it makes a profit or if it loses money. Bad trades are the ones where you think you are better or smarter than the market or when you start second guessing your trading rules, even if that trade makes money. DS