Wins 3 +171 CVX Short 114.73 Cover 114.50 Short 114.56 Cover 114.51 Short 114.54 Cover 114.51 I waited for the pullback on this. My guess was correct. I could have covered for less but psychologically I hate waiting . I am an impatient trader mostly because I don't like the anxiety of it. There's been numerous times where I took losses out of fear and want to get out just to end the anxiety. It's still tough nowadays. Sounds weak but calling it a day. Sometimes I just feel content with what was made even though I shouldn't be but not bad for 1.5 hours. No trading tomorrow or Wednesday. I have to work some other gig during the day that really doesn't pay much in conjunction with my night job. I am now in the positive for the year. Originally I was going to post until I got into the green but we'll see. I may just post the totals and wins/losses. I do feel as though I have turned the corner over the last torturous 3 years but still have a long way to go to achieve consistent success. I think the drive is important. Sometimes, I just lack the drive to trade, most probably because I do not like the anxiety that comes with it.
Win 1 +29 BIDU Short 173.52 Cover 173.358 I woke up from a nap and did another quick scalp while the trading system is operating. I really just wanted to get in and out. There was a large spread on this stock and got out fast. It actually kept going down but I really didn't have too much thought put into it. Sometimes when I'm up, I don't feel like hanging around to see what happens. +200 today is a good day. Done for good now today, tomorrow, and Wednesday.
Just finished the gig I had to do and got in a last minute trade when I just got back. Just for lunch money or lunch money discount. Not much to see here but it's better than nothing or loss since I really wasn't supposed to do any trading today. I took advantage of the choppiness toward the end. Win 1 Scalp +6 SPY Bought 184.81 Sold 184.85
Really a frustrating day today. I saw some opportunities and could not bring myself to get in. I think trading TSLA early where the large price movement had me worried. I just opted to get out with a scalp. This set the tone for today, as I could not bring myself to do much. I have a headache now as I didn't sleep much and all I did was scalp out and stare at the screen. Wins 3 +54 TSLA Bought 252.71 Sold 252.80 GS Short 164.60 Cover 164.57 BIDU Short 178.68 Cover 178.58
-645 Really bad day.. all my old habits came back. I told myself not to chase the prices and I did. I was trading TSLA again and the high price movement got me. I lost all discipline today. It's odd after days of non-losing, I wondered when my losing day will come. Everything could've been green had I been patient. I have definitely regressed as a trader. Doing habitual scalps and looking at the P&L rather than focusing on the chart definitely hurts. Win 5 WDAY short 114.71 Cover 114.64 SPY Bought 185.60 Sold 185.65 SPY Bought 185.62 Sold 185.68 SPY Bought 185.76 Sold 185.82 SPY Short 186.41 Cover 186.39 Losses 2 TSLA short 246.20 Cover 246.98 The pullback really got me. TSLA bought 245.19 Sold 243.68 For some reason I was hoping for a pullback up and a scalp. It got ugly. I broke all my rules today, lost patience, and it came as a bad end to what was a positive month. The TSLA trades could've all been ok had I stuck with them. I might just not trade for a while to psychologically gather myself for next time. Thus far, my biggest problem is that I lack the patience to be a good trader.
It's going to be a tough road back to where I was before Friday's loss. I still seem to scalp out way to much. I can't handle the anxiety of waiting for the trade to develope. I did a lot of trades in consolidation phases. At times, I felt like chasing the price, but ultimately I backed off. Which was good, or else I'd be stuck holding the bag or a loss. I did a lot of scalps on TSLA today but really it wasn't the best idea since i could've yielded more. I have to be picky in the entry price and not chase. +193 Wins 6 Scalped out on TSLA mostly along with micro GS and CVX scalps.
Hi it sounds to me you like you need to 1) change brokers. ie you can short and buy to cover 65 etfs commission free at fidelity all day......day trading on the long side is a differnent story. 2) try swing trading small amounts. less risk..less reward.. less stress.. I also find swing trading far easier to manage. 3) hedge your account by actually investing in stocks. the market is up huge this is what im doing and it works very well for me. I also use 5 brokers to get around the wash sale rule. try trading stocks in lots of 1000. for example today i bought 4000 oibr @1.47 and sold all at 1.50. only a 3 cent move. but did all right. now 3 cents in a 100$ stock is chump change. anyways just offering some advice. call me stupid if you like
You're not stupid. Everyone has their own way of investing or trading. The end goal is to just make money. 1.) My broker which is Lightspeed is one of the cheapest out there. The reason for trading stocks around $100 is because my rate is per share basis. So if I do low priced stocks for a ton of shares, I end up paying more for commission. The only problem with Lightspeed is that they use Apex as their clearing firm which sucks. Their 1099's are always wrong as long as I've been on this account. I have to manually do taxes by entering in every trade manually. I'm still working on 2012 taxes. I try not to do as many trades as before, but apparently my old habits die hard. I find that I've been at it again recently and letting the losses go too long. 2.) I don't usually do swings. When I have held over night, I found out that Apex charges unpredictable amounts for shorting. Sometimes, you never know how the market will open up. 3.) I don't actually invest. I prefer to trade. With investing, you have to go through days of ups and downs to get to what you hope to get to. I can't handle it that long. I want to sleep better at night. So as explained earlier, I can't trade penny stocks per my account fees. I have had moments where I have waited for trades to get to the target price but for some reason I still get out too early more often than not. I just can't shake it. My biggest advice to anyone reading this forum is to not chase the price. Meaning if the price is getting close to the target, don't jump in too late for a small gain. There have been plenty of trades where the price doesn't not fulfill its target potential. At that point, there is no designated exit price based on price action so one really can't determine a risk to reward ratio. I have been burned on this countless times.
honestly i think you need to get a flat rate broker. imho your commission and lack of shares traded could be a problem. mainly becuase its keeping from trading a ton of company's in the 5 -25 range. and also stocks over 100 bucks can have radical moves . like .40 cents spreads. I prefer liquidity. when i sell a market order i want close to zero slippage. td will work with you. i only pay 5$ commission up to 333 shares. option house i pay 2.95 grandfathered in. i believe going rate now is 3.95 unlimited shares fidelity free short etf and 7.95. free index etfs as well. trade kings sucks and scott trade no fills a 7$ yikes it sounds like im trying to sell you somthing lol any who good luck sfbay!
Very disappointed today. It started out as a good day. At some point early I was up a decent amount without a loss. However, I simply cannot shake the chasing. Made one bad trade that erased much of the gains. My punishment is that I will not be allowed to trade the rest of the day. +70 Wins 5 Traded SPY, BIDU, and CVX. SPY & CVX were all scalps. Loss 1 SPY Short 187.24 Cover 187.60 Again I was chasing the price by getting in too late. I thought that the SPY was too high today and got in at the red down bar at around 1125 hours. I was up at that point and let the prices go against me for a long time. People can look at the point on the chart and see that it was the mid-day low that was tested later on. SPY is a slow mover, so I let it go. In reality, I should've gotten out at 187.50 (which is the logical stop loss price) but I let it keep going because I really haven't been using too many stops. Arrgh.. This has killed my trading countless times especially only to see things reverse to where I could've gotten out in the green. I keep telling myself to be careful with entry prices.