LOL, no guts, no glory! You sure are not afraid to lose big. Of course, you can't make big bucks quickly without taking some serious risks.... Best of luck and keep it going!
Wow piling shares into that trade was something, I hope you had a strong basis for executing those trades and weren't flying by the seat of your pants...question, are your withdrawals necessary for living expenses, ect? Keep up the journal, this is very fascinating.
Yes, I agree the DNDN trade was a bit "crazy". I initially intended to short a little of the stock, there were no shares available. So there I was watching for 30 minutes, and the stock was acting strong and not pulling back appreciably even as the volume increased. So I "nibbled in", buying 1000 shares. The rest of the trades were in "defense" of the first trade (very bad idea, you should never add to a losing position, lucky I got out whole). I withdraw monthly for all the reasons: to meet tax obligations, or provide for capital projects (last year I actually did a more aggressive withdawal because of a project. This year I intend to build up my trading capital, so not much withdrawal).
+27% on your account just last week? That's pretty impressive. Care to share with us any of your more successful trades?
OMG! That is crazy! I made $500 of DNDN's 1st reversal between 9:35 & 9:45 and then tried again a few minutes later and was down $1500! I also bought at about the $13 mark after the big 11:30 reversal and freaked out because of the volatility and sold in a panic 30 sec. later. If I would have kept the trade on for 3+ min or more I could have sold basically any time later in the day and made up my loss. You got some serious guts of steel to be able to risk almost $100k, 1/2 of which was in the red and just keep pluggin' away at work. Nice job.
This is not a good thing. Trading that way will probably lead to a blowout, just a matter of time. Just because neke happened to come out even this time doesn't mean he did a "good job." It's just complete chance. I'm not saying his trading in general is due to change or luck, but that one example certainly was. If trading on that scale, using that method, was used over and over, it would lead to a blowout...so getting out at breakeven once shouldn't be worthy of praise. It'd be like congratulating someone on a job well done after elluding a bullet on the first pull of Russian roulette. I'd rather hear about neke's other trades that really made him money...
My experience tells me that you have the wrong goals. Maybe your goals should be on mastering trading skill, rather than some number. When you master the skills, you will be able to set number targets. If I am wrong, fantastic...I am wrong many times a day..so that's ok.
Thanks for sharing your experiences with everyone. I'm new here but have been lurking for a little while. Research on MM tactics initially brought me here but this site is a gem! I am gradually getting back into trading after taking several years off. I lost a lot on margin on stem cells when GW decided to leak his speech while I was taking my wife on a celebratory dinner at Berns in Tampa. Lesson learned -- no dinner while on margin. Good luck to all. There seem to be a lot of bright people in here. Donny
Weekly Update for week ended 4/6/2007 Just checked back on DNDN, and it was reading a close of $18.05. If I had stayed on with my trade of last week, I could have been up 26K ! Of course I do not stay that long in a stock. So I am OK with my break-even result. The results for this week is given below. I have also included my top and bottom discretionary trades (disclosure of my automated trades is a no-go for now. I do not want anyone front-running or piggy-backing on my trades.) Happy Easter everyone. Code: Balance B/F: 113,197 Profit for the week 12,039 Cash Withdrawal -6,000 ------------------------------------- Balance C/F: 119,236 Number of Trades 19 Number of Profitable Trades 11 Since Inception of Thread 2/25/2007 - 4/6/2007 Balance B/F: 76,636 Net Gain (Less Margin Interest) 55,600 Cash Withdrawal -13,000 ------------------------------------- Balance C/F: 119,236 Number of Trades 140 Number of Profitable Trades 92 Top/Bottom Discretionary Trades for the week TICKER,ENTRYDATETIME,EXITDATETIME,QTY,PURCHASE AMOUNT, SOLD AMOUNT,NET GAIN,TYPE MTB,2007-04-02 10:01:32,2007-04-02 15:27:50,2000,213718,211462,-2289.3,LONG RACK,2007-04-05 08:35:09,2007-04-05 15:47:20,5000,70879.8,76856.4,5945.5,SHORT
Neke, you are a wildman! Can you disclose your average risk per trade as well as some of the indicators you follow?