Neke, I hold no illusion youâll listen to me â but Iâll post my thoughts just the same Reading over the last several pagesâ arguably the best, most competent traders â this site has to offer â are posting the same message If you donât see itâ¦, if it isnât registeringâ¦, then your ego is amuck and overshadowing your trader sensibilities⦠Without exception they have your best interest at heart â itâs reflected in their message Listen to them â Pleaseâ¦.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At times we are prone to taking trading too personal â and it is at those times specifically we are most susceptible to doing ourselves the greatest damage For once trading becomes personal â it is the hardest for us to step back â be objective â and dispassionately assess what weâre doing..., and the results our efforts are having⦠Please step back â and objectively assess your results as of late⦠------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By the very nature of our business traders are a cut throat bunch â but we still have a heart â our heart aches when we see a colleague running headlong into blow up⦠Youâre not a bad trader â Youâre simply trading badly â we all do on occasion â weâre only human ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- imho Even if by chance you recover without modifying your current trading approach â youâre going to be right back in this same situation at some point â itâs inevitable (one of the lessons I took away from Livermore) Respectfully RN
1. '09 was pretty much one straight line up from march lows. You lean the right way with leverage and you're liable to knock things out of the park. I don't know if you can blame market conditions today, but you can likely account for market conditions as a tailwind last year, even if neke is primarily an intraday trader. 2. To quote one market wizard, "There are old traders, and there are bold traders, but there are no old, bold traders." This is the intraday timeframe we're talking about here -- I've never heard of anyone who would increase their leverage based on the open profit of one daytrading position. Blaming volatility for losses is wrongheaded; like many others have mentioned neke is trying to trade a 500k account the same way he traded a 50k account -- you are MUCH more liable to have positions reverse against you the bigger the line you swing, as it is that much more difficult to enter, then exit those positions favorably.
Just out of curiosity Neke (or anyone who knows his system)... Do you use even something as basic as S/R levels? Do you use simple trend lines at all? Your leverage example is ludicrous to say the least if even the most basic price action tools are used....
neke ,i don't know your age ,nor your history with wealth,but it's very common to shoot youself in the foot to allow your ego to regain control,if its never seen wealth before and has lost control of neke ,or any of us
i don't think age is the issue here .. coz neke is not just fresh out of college 21 or 22. I know many good traders that are consistently making millions each year are in their 30+. I believe it's the Character and Attitude (ego) that play very important part in success trading or any fields that we chose to excel in .. neke is a full-time Professional and part-time Daytrader?... i hope he can do well in both but it's not going to be easy! RN, JustDongIt, lescor, illiquid and ammo give out very good advices to neke and i hope he can at least try to listen to them.. like RN said - They have your best interest at heart.
Here is what I see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWy_0_r3pJI Still big fan of yours, neke. Good Luck!
Yes it was just an example to illustrate my point. Even if you do 102 to 100 to 102 (2%) there is still leverage handicap (much smaller, but compounded over scores of trades, it adds up to a significant draw-down when operating on leverage). Of course the moves doesn't have to be the same stock on the same day, and plenty of trend traders (not gamblers) can short a stock that is already down 2% (timeframe not specified). Leverage is of course part of risk management. So I see no basis for disagreement. Also when I say leverage, I am refering not to the total portofio size, but the percentage of account on a trade. Yes when you use heavy leverage (more than 100% account) on a trade it is inevitable you need much more than 50% batting to break-even. If the edge is there (say 70/30) it could increase the account speedily, otherwise it could batter the account, which has been the case this year. The onus is on me to size down. The original intention was to use big leverage when rare high r/r set-ups show up, but I haven't used it for those: it has been more of impulsive averaging down on mediocre set-ups. The initial size has never been a big problem for me. It is the averaging down that brings size to levels that shouldn't be. What I am trying to do is size down so after the initial entry, there will be no room for averaging down. I think my ability should be based on how good the initial entry is, not try to turn things around by averaging down: it has been impulsive and it has been a bleeder. My automated trades is currently at about $70K a trade (30% of account, 7.5% of DTBP), my discretionary will be set to about $140K (66% of account, 16.5% of DTBP) for stocks. I do not make many trades a week (average 25 trades roughly evenly split between auto and discretionary, probably average of 3 positions open at any time), so dropping to 1/10 of the size like you suggested would be like ceasing trading
Neke I'll refrain from beating the point to death, but please take a step back and reassess everything. A lot of good traders have given you golden advice on here, so as Redneck said, please listen to them. It's the same advice you'll get from any Head of Trading Operations at any firm, except it'll be more of any order than an advice. You don't come off as a clueless trader, so please do the smart thing and reassess. I continue to root for you. Best of Luck. EKO
Weekly Update for week 33/50 ended 08/28/2010 Positive week, up 9.3K (4.4%). Small size plays all week, with decent win rate. Should have capped it up with a stellar day on Friday but it was not to be. Bought 70 SPYSEP 104 Calls @ 2.80 when the market dipped after 10am, but quickly decided to sell when the index rebounded a bit @ 2.98. Made 1.3K, and watched the market tear away all day. Easily left 7K on the table. Will keep focused on sticking to the sizing discipline for my discretionary trades (Max $150K for stocks, and contracts worth $750K for options). Code: Opening Balance: 213,404 Net gain for the week 9,313 ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance: 222,717 Number of Trades 16 Number of Profitable Trades 11 Since Inception of Thread 01/10/2010 - 08/28/2010 Opening Balance: 410,000 Net loss(Less Margin Interest) 187,283 (Down 46%) ------------------------------------------------ Net Balance 222,717 Number of Trades 1001 Number of Profitable Trades 529 BREAK-DOWN BY AUTOMATED/DISCRETIONARY Number P/L Best Gainer Worst Loser AUTO 5 3,314.90 2,685.40 -1,121.70 DISCR 11 5,997.90 3,081.40 -1,592.30 TOP/BOTTOM DISCRETIONARY TRADES TICKER ENTRY DATE/TIME EXIT DATE/TIME QTY PURCHASE AMT SOLD AMT GAIN/LOSS TYPE SPYSEP182010105.0CALL 2010-08-25-09-49-42 2010-08-25-15-39-34 5100 12801 15963 3081.4 SPY CALL -------------------------------------------------------- SPYSEP182010106.0PUT 2010-08-24-10-30-20 2010-08-24-11-29-43 6000 18540 17040 -1592.3 SPY CALL