This was my first week daytrading in a long time. I mixed some daytrades in with some daytrading entries and holds overnight. (I only hold winners) Why did I start trading again. The arguments about t/a fired me up. I had time this week and ... am committed to learning how to spread tread but I was getting nowhere. I have spent a few months looking at some spread charts and they were lifeless to me. I felt like I had no edge. If you are not participating in the markets... I might agree that it is hard to find an edge by looking at charts. So, I got my charts going. I got my login situations working I had very low expectations. I figured I would chop around and maybe lose after commissions. I rarely made much in the summertime when I was doing this full time. I expected to see lots of choppy markets I could not read. I was wrong. The es and ym took my money. But some currencies, an energy market, and stocks in the news traded beautifully. When the volume was on... some of the swings were textbook. Just like in the old days. (which is all you really need to make money) Perhaps this week was unusual. I do not expect another week like this week during the summer. But for those of you who say t/a does not work. To my surprise my eye says otherwise. (so far) One caveat. My nut is far larger now than it was when I was single and lived off my trading profits. I do not expect to be able to trade full time. I now have other businesses. So why my monthly expenses are large and therefore the source of some stress (I have 4 kids and a golf habit and office space and marketing etc.) ... the fact I have other income may turn out to be good for my trading. Week one conclusion - When volume is on T/A still works in multiple markets. In fact even if I dont make money doing this. Its absurd to say t/a does not work. If you can't see support and resistance in action on a chart... you are not trying. Your next step is to figure out had to trade support and resistance.
Sure, you can see support and resistance after the fact. It's as clear as day. Please don't say that TA works whether or not you are profitable. This is delusional. If you are profitable then you can say TA worked for me. Regardless, keep a clear head and I hope you do well. I'll be following along. Good luck! surf
They tend to...um.....be projected into the future... Looking forward to seeing your journal unfold, be nice if it does not turn into a place for the newbies and clueless to argue instead of learn a thing or two.
Ok I am not sure if this will be setting a precedent as I do not sure how much pressure I want on this journal but Surf I was able to make enough projections to make a little bit of money this week. My account was at about 31,600 on Monday. Right now it is 32,944. I currently have a 20,000 currency position and 6 calls of a stock. I took about 30 trades. Typically 400 to 800 shares of stock or 1 and 2 futures contracts or 25000 or 50000 dollar trades in the currency. I expect my future sizes and stock sizes to get larger in the fall. I really like the small currency trades - lets me trade off longer charts.
Really? I know that's the theory behind it, and sometimes it works other times it doesn't. Just like any other line drawn on the chart. Fibonacci or otherwise---
Just like those price drivers, some times they work some times they dont but from what I have seen of price drivers the signal to get out comes so late its at major cost in comparison to ta ~ and there we have it case closed Rock on journal!
Put your 30K into ES contracts, say 25. Annotate and log. This is the first 25 bars of Friday in the first week of a beginner group. They can only trade 1 contract. This is his second log and chart. Can you carve those c turns on the chart? No.
I am hoping to take tomorrow off. So here is the early report. Account is now at... 33,201. (plus a few dollars for the week) Week was kind of slow. Today was interesting. I really wanted to report an up week. So I worked my ass off. Last night I reviewed my trades for the week. I was up a few thousand in stocks and down in everything else. So I focused on stocks today. I was up about 700 or 800 for the day by lunch time. (on my intraday trades) (breakfast for me in CA) I had few positions on - short and long... I watched all my positions come in. I closed out for about a 450 dollar profit. --- The stock vs futures and currency situation... I think is all about trade management. I do not mind taking lots of small profits in stocks... while I try to hang on for big winners in futures and currencies. I let at lest 3 currency trades go from over 400 plus dollar winners to come back to stop me out for small losses. (earlier in the week) Working hypothesis. I really think I could do this for a living again... but I really do not want to unless I can make 2 grand a day or more. Luckily I do not have to quit my real job as I continue to see what happens. Unless I can really scale up a very consistent approach in the fall.. I will spread and swing trade. Day trading is a lot of work.
i hope you move to sim trading soon,markets change fast and even if they hadn't,you still need to knock off the rust and put a little oil on the chain,air up the tires, before you try to ride the bike further than the corner store