neke you have big big cojones... what a rollercoaster... this is better than soap opera drama.... i hope you do get your target.
If I could point out one thing that I am doing differently, it is keeping records of my trades. I do weekly summaries, classified by strategies. Over time it becomes clear what strategy and what habits are costing me. So the issue becomes to de-emphasize them or find a way to play them better, while emphasizing what works. Over time you start to get a feel about what trade might work at the point of entry. I started trading without so much as learning anything about strategies, or even stories by other traders. I started reading trading books about 2003/2004, read the Market Wizards - the three books, but especially Stock Market wizards, and realised I was not alone in having bitter initial experiences. Of course books alone do not change your trading mentality, but at least it gives you some encouragement to try. Even now, I am still full of faults, but I guess my good deeds (good trades times reward per trade) exceeds the sins (faulty trades times gravity of blunder), which is why the account is up. I keep trying to improve.
I'll check out Stock Market Wizards. Is there a book in which you base your trading style? The reason I ask is because I've been trading for 3 years now and have recently fallen into a huge downhill roll. No mater which way I trade, I can't get it right and am personally becoming skeptical to speculation and market timing long term.
Weekly Update for week 42/50 ended 10/31/2009 Ugly week, down 59K (9.3%). Gave back most of last week's gains. The market is begging for direction, and hit me with a wave of bigger moves than anticipated, catching me on the wrong side. Three successive days of 20+ pts uni-directional moves in the S&P500. Down Wed, Up Thurs, Down Fri. Was hit really hard on Wed and Thur, and sat down to reflect on Friday. Wed, what started as an automated trade in GRMN turned into a discretionary averaging down disaster as the stock failed to bounce back. Finally capitulated @ 12:51, selling 20220 at the market when I could bear it no more. The stock was then trading at 31.08; Got filled at prices between 30.85 and 30.94. That was the low of the day: somebody knew the last combattant had fallen! Thursday, loaded up on FSLR puts sometime after the open after their bad earnings. Wrong timing of entry(waited too long) and exit, as the market roared to close the day up more than 2%. Gave up 45K. Cut down on my automated size to minuscule level after Wed: the strategies do not like big uninterrupted moves. Code: Opening Balance: 634,991 Net loss for the week -58,994 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 575,997 Number of Trades 34 Number of Profitable Trades 17 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2009 - 10/31/2009 Opening Balance: 320,064 Net gain (Less Margin Interest) 255,933 (Up 80%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 575,997 Number of Trades 1132 Number of Profitable Trades 716 Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE BIDU 2009-10-26-17-50-48 2009-10-27-09-31-55 827 296604 319677 23044 SHORT QZNWX 2009-10-26-10-02-30 2009-10-26-11-35-53 30000 203570 216000 12021 AMZN PUT ------------------------------------------ PVTB 2009-10-26-12-06-47 2009-10-26-15-35-07 22470 291311 270491 -20862 LONG GRMN 2009-10-28-11-11-50 2009-10-28-12-51-27 20220 660963 625419 -35616 LONG QHBWE 2009-10-29-09-51-32 2009-10-29-11-16-10 40000 272000 228000 -44547 FSLR PUT
Neke: I am disappointed. How could you lose this week and by that much? Maybe you do not know how to read the overall market or the end of a trend and emergence of new trends? In the absence of an explanation, I would start to think that you have no edge. PS: I know I was watching GRMN among other stocks that fell hard. I think I traded it on short side, but I did NOT cover at the bottom if I did trade it--- So I did not take your money. This week I was in other problem stocks such as FSLR, BIDU, and some others I do not even know what they do.
Gee, I guess I have no edge either as my 16 week winning streak came to an end this week. Must of all been luck. Damn!
You mis-understood what I wrote/meant. If others than you got the same understanding as you, and if they ask me to re-explain I would redo it-- otherwise your comment is an outlier.