Neke, Good progress.... One thing is clear: you prefer more challenging trades and don't "feel" as good taking easier trades.
I guess by "easier" trades you mean riding the trend. Yes I do not trade "technical" as such. But if I see a strong stock, I try to find out first a reason for the strength. It makes for a better trade psychologically for me riding a trend when I have some fundamental support for the move. I do not like being tossed here and there and shaken out of a trade. It all boils down to my mantra: Buy CREDIBLE strength Short Exuberance
Neke, Interesting... To generate ridiculous returns like we want we need to buy irrational exuberance especially. A contradiction it seems that you want credibility in such a short trading time-frame. You would not have traded the Solars long last week or Homebuilders the week before? What is BSC worth? Credibility is too fleeting on Wall Street and when there is credibility prices still confound anyway. Just conversation.. not criticizing at all.. just a bit surprised and think you have eliminated a LOT of opportunities with your noble stance.
"We know that prices move up and down. They always have and they always will. My theory is that behind these major movements is an irresistible force. That is all one needs to know. It is not well to be too curious about all the reasons behind price movements. You risk the danger of clouding your mind with non-essentials. Just recognize that the movement is there and take advantage of it by steering your speculative ship along with the tide. Do not argue with the condition, and most of all, do not try to combat it." Jesse Livermore
I understand that stocks can rise for no good reason, and in general I do not fade strength that is just starting. I only fade when the move has been underway for some time(maybe a couple of days) and I feel the last "fools" are jumping in this latest push.
Sounds like an exciting goal. Wish you the best of luck. Are you strictly attached to stocks/options? Perhaps I missed it in previous posts, but do you also utilize futures/eminis? If you are a good technical trader and understand S&P 500 action, IMO you give yourself a much better chance of obtaining $1mil figure by supplementing your stock/option trades with capturing these large weekly moves on the ES. Your goals are lofty and naturally require significant risk. An instrument such as the ES certainly would be part of my arsenal if I had such an extreme goal. ES during month of March was a 150+pt month for those that knew what they were doing. Local trader I routinely meet with for coffee here in Denver turned $215k account into $770k account over the last ~26 sessions trading just the ES & YM. If I remember correctly, he stated it was 15 total trades, including quite a few overnight holds. His experience/capability is not entirely special IMO, but his performance past month certainly was. Having read a good part of your 07 journal, it sounds like you know how to trade. Future indexes aren't much different (T.A. standpoint), just need to implement different risk/$ management strategies. Something to consider implementing down the line if you haven't already. Good luck.
Hey Neke, Great journal and great trading! Looks like you are probably using excel for for your weekly trend chart... If you switch the left side (y-axis) to Log Scale it would make your progress clearer.. try it and see! Cheers, Zzoom
I did try setting the Y-axis to logarithmic, the result is attached. It is not precisely what I want to portray. The expected exponential growth turns to a straight upward line.