I don't know why you keep asking me. I'm not the one that one should be following. LOL Like I said, I'm not a profitable trader, only on paper. If you really read all the way through the journal. I talk about it. Don't pay attention to the Day Trader Rockstar stuff. Like I mentioned before, I use the 5 min chart and sometimes I'll look at the 30 day to see where the day is going. I've mentioned the problems with the 1 min chart. It looks too good but is not. It moves too quick for one to get in and out. I think that might be the reason why you're losing more than you should. Trust me, I was doing 1 min charts too and had to learn the hard way. Funny, I'm really a FNG here. I don't have a trade station other than my laptop. I've mentioned it all in the journal before. You really shouldn't be aspiring to be like me. LOL. If you really want to know what I'm doing, you can PM me if you got that taken care of. Although you can also read through the journal and figure it out. I'm not hiding anything here. There may be some good info. for others. Mistakes I've made, I've written down here. Yeah, I'll switch in and out sometimes to SPY if GS is not moving. I did SLV today on the paper just for fun. I started SLV long ago when I first began but I don't think my commission setup now would be able to handle trading SLV via scalps. Lot of volatility so you can gain a lot or lose a lot. Yeah, GS manipulates if it can but the only real manipulation I can see is overnight or pre-market on low volume. Honestly I've seen people try to manipulate with huge leverage during the day and get taken out. For example, I saw some huge bid with 40K shares on what I perceived as a down trend. It didn't scare anyone and it got taken out. I was shocked that they would put up that many on the bid side. I occasionally will spend time to read the Level 2 quotes and the tape but really there's a lot of misinformation there. The market is rigged to make it hard. Lot of misinformation. Like a poker game.
I only want to help here and there. I only wanted to know what else than GS you are watching and including in your trading decision to go long or short. I´m not prefer the use of the 1min for anyone. Level II and the orderbook is really important if you can see through it. I think I can look into the PM in 1-2 month, so I have no clue whats in the PM. Do you think about the Stoploss before entering a trade? GL in Trading
Do you have an email address? A lot of these things that you're asking are mentioned so far in the journal like what other stocks I'm watching. I mentioned SPY. Basically based on the commission fees set up I have, it is better to trade a higher price stock since it's per share. GS moves a bit more than SPY but SPY can handle much higher volume. These are all things people have to consider when trading. The lower the price, the more volatile it is. I don't know what broker you trade with but that's something you have to decide for yourself. I'm not a swing or investor. I basically scalp so therefore I trade GS or SPY based on my plan. For scalping, you need to have cheap rates. No, I do not generally use stops. Well, sometimes I do. However I found it better to not use them and have a mental note of where I want to get out and stick with it. I get out when that signal hits. That's the part about being disciplined here. I will try to use stops when I'm ahead however but that has hurt me too since I get out with a small profit instead of a larger one. With the way stocks bounce up and down so often stops often get hit. So therefore, I do not put them in and get out when I sense a reversal that cannot be overcome. Some reversals, I'll let it go for a bit and see it will come back. That takes screen time experience to understand. If you can't access PM, then give me your email and you can ask me there. It's too much work to explain it all here and a lot of stuff has been mentioned. I do have to enter my journal entries too you know. LOL
+11 I had a huge headache yesterday. Woke up real late and still don't feel well. Felt like I was hung over but with no alcohol. One bad trade. Bought 90.88 13:16 Sold 90.81 13:27 Thought it was just going to be range bound barb wire so I was just fading the extreme. Little did I know that it was going to keep going down and then sideways for the next 10 min. I was hoping to get out on a pullback but that occurred 5 min later. That's got to be the record for me for the longest wait for a pullback on a large move like that. I just thought to get out. Minimized the damage best I could. Of course, it went back up to where I thought I want to get out at with a scalp later. Scalps: Sold Short 91.23 12:49 Sold Short 90.85 13:43 ** Bought Cover 91.20 12:49 Bought Cover 90.81 13:45 Sold Short 90.77 14:21 Sold Short 90.60 14:57 Bought Cover 90.73 14:23 Bought Cover 90.56 14:59 Bought 90.81 15:41 *** Sold 90.83 15.41 ** - Was really trying for a bigger gain here. Had the target limit at 90.74 but it came 1 cent shy. But it hit my stop I had in place. A lot of overlap so it's better that I scalped out. A whole lot of work for +10. With my account barely above the 25K level, I'll take it. I'm done for the day as I have to deal with my headache still. *** Thought I got in a 90.80 but it was 90.81. Gain of +1 here. Oops
-45 Lot of commissions made it worse than it is. -26 (P&L) - commissions = approx -45. Bad Trades Sold Short 90.40 12:18 Bought 90.63 12:47 Wasn't paying attention to the chart on that one. Thought it was going to pullback for another try down. In looking back there was numerous tries to pullback and this one was at the end of a wedge and an overshoot. My brain must've fogged out. I exited too late also. The down trend was over and I was too focused on looking at the prices to realize it. SPY Sold Short 125.91 15:40 Bought Cover 125.95 15:43 Concerned it was going to reverse. I exited. I need to realize that it is better to go in after a pullback has failed. The previous uptrend was over. Need to wait for confirmation such as a pullback failure before going in. There hadn't been a pull back before this one so in hindsight I should've expected one. SPY Sold Short 125.87 15:43 Bought Cover 125.90 15:50 Emotional after the previous loss. It looked for sure like it was going down fast. I did a fast market order. Thought I was going to miss the boat but it pulled back fast. I need to remember that there is no need to enter via market order especially since they cost more and I will not get the best price. All ENTRIES from now on should be done via limit order. My emotions overcame me as I exited again and didn't have the guts to do it a 3rd time because I didn't think it had much room to go down. Of course, it dropped like a rock moments later. Correct call, yet fear got the best of me. This is the clear difference between paper and real. The emotions come out and they interfere with the logical decision making process. Improved in some areas yet still have a long ways to go before mastering it. Scalps SPY Bought 126.05 10:17 Sold Short 125.95 15:02 Sold 126.09 10:19 Bought Cover 125.92 15:04 GS Sold Short 90.45 10:38 Sold Short 90.91 14:40 Bought Cover 90.39 10:38 Bought Cover 90.87 14:45
+5 I'm really to blame here. Unable to keep emotions in check is the reason why I'm not profitable vs. paper. However with my account running on fumes, this is just another survival day. Bought 94.55 10:35 Sold 94.57 10:46 I wanted to let it go and the pullback freaked me out so I exited. It got as far as 94.63 and it came back, then took off. This is part of the game I need to work on. I figured waiting 10 min is enough and couldn't stand to wait any longer. In retrospect, there was not many signs of bearish strength before. I need to mark this down now as a bad trade because I could've had bigger gains on it on a decent setup. Bought 95:10 11:45 Sold 95.13 11:47 This too took off afterwards. Not as good of a setup as the first one but I could've at least set forth a higher exit price. I need to practice letting my trades run. I have this habit of always taking a scalp. I went to do the paper trade for a little bit after and was + 36 in an hour of doing it. I stopped because paper gets tiring (I get tired of making monopoly money) but perhaps letting my trades run on paper would be a better start. I just watched the market the rest of the way. Couldn't bring myself to do more and one trade zoomed right past me even as I put in the limit order. Oh well, I also realize after last Friday's loss that if a trade zooms past my limit order, so be it. No need to chase with market orders. One problem is that my account is running on fumes. I am only a couple bucks over 25K. Thus I am more willing to take scalps on good setups that are for bigger gains. This will be difficult because as much as I want to become profitable, the thought of taking one loss that puts me under 25K is what worries me. In essence, I need one good trade to give me some breathing room or a bunch of scalps to do the same.
-270 Though day.. I just couldn't wait for set ups. I entered poorly. I don't know why I keep doing it. My account is no more now for day trading status as I will be focusing on swinging positions. Sold Short 93.99 10:36 Bought Cover 94.43 11:01 Poor entry. I need to wait for the candle to finish first before entering. Entered mid-stream and made a poor assumption that it was going down. Nasty fake out at 11:00 made me get out. I need to remember that time 11-12 EST. Hard to keep track with all these factors in mind. Sold Short 94.08 11:22 Bought Cover 94.67 12:16 Ok entry with setup and could've taken a small profit as it went down to 93.95 but I held on too long. Thought perhaps the day pattern was going back down and stayed. Held till I couldn't stand it anymore. Bought 94.66 12:26 Sold 94.45 12:36 This was a setup entry that actually didn't pan out. Go out with the right price. Ideally this was an ideal loss if there was one. SLV Sold Short 28.58 12:57 Bought Cover 28.58 13:01 Took a short on an ideal down day for SLV. Was looking to short the 3 pushes up and down pattern. Good setup but unfortunately as I entered the stop order for 28.65, I accidently entered it as a limit order and it executed as a market out. Well that's according to Lightspeed as I called them. I know that I did not have market order in place. Two order entry boxes. One for limit and one for stop. It exited me at the price I entered only to see the price drop huge afterwards. Typical losing day for me. Can't even get in on the good trades.
Sounds familiar to me. Careful, you are about one level of mental fatigue away from succumbing to a high risk gambling trade. I am still stinging from my big mistake.
Don't know how much more worse it can get than the $700 I lost a couple weeks ago when I held over night. THe problem is that I have a tendency to jump in on trades that are not good setups since I get tired of waiting. Waiting for 20 min seem like an eternity to me. Perhaps I need to just wait for a setup, enter a exit point and a stop and leave the room. I have no one else to blame but myself for this.
It has been a while. I don't know why I keep putting money into this account. I keep saying this is the last time. Extremely cautious today. Mostly watching as I did the earlier few days. +18 Sold Short 98.16 09:52 Buy Cover 98.10 09:53 Sold Short 98.76 15:01 Sold Short 98.705 15:02