Day 36 focus on ONE MARKET... # of Disasters: 8 (Since I tend to stick with my trading plan, I decided to redefine disaters as anything that I would do over the course of the trading day that I am not satisfied with.) Disasters: 1) Do not take trades at those places where you are not supposed to take trades. This tend to happen because I wasn't paying much attention and thus missed out on a trade I was supposed to take. Then the trade becomes a make up for the trade I missed and often times end up being an impulsive trade at the wrong time. 2) I need to protect profits when the potential profit is 2x the amount that I am risking. I also need to take profits as early as possible if I am negative for the day to stay above water. 3) Profit of a 2x amount risked stopped me out. I let the profit get away yet again. I need to protect profit and don't let it get away. I need to pay more attention to a trade and work the trade based on what I see. 4) You cannot let profits get away. TAKE PROFITS, and get back in. Use a trailing stop. 5) Be extremely alert at those support and resistance levels where an sudden and abrupt move could go againt you. 6) When trading a small countertrend move, the goal is to TAKE PROFITS on whatever you can get your hands on. You cannot let that profit get away. Must have a trailing stop. 7) Stay consistent with the number of contracts, and the targets that I have set for the day. Do not even entertain a thought of deviating from these prethoughtout trading plans. Stay consistent at all times.. even in adversity. 8) I cannot let a limit order sit there and let it get filled after a while when the conditions are different from when I placed that resting order. I should not take a trade without a trigger. It is not the price levels that matter, but what matters is a trigger. I need to pay more attention, and I need to simply stay on task at all times.
Day 37 we need FULL TRADING DAYS... # of Disasters: 5 1) I need to wake up at 7:30, and be my trading desk at 7:55. For that, I need to go to sleep early, not 2 o'clock. I need to hit the bed at 1:00, or at the very worse at 1:30 am. I need a consistent daily routine that I can repeat everyday. 2) You need to SEE it with your eyes before you do anything. You need to see the trigger happening for yourself. The fact that there is a potential to see the trigger isn't good enough. I need to see it to TRIGGER. 3) When you take those countertrend trades, you have to TAKE PROFITS, you cannot hold onto your winnings too long. It sucks even more when you turn a profitable countertrend trade into a loser. 4) I need to protect profits. Any time I am up 2x what I risked on a position, I need to make use of a trailing stop and protect my winnings. 5) When you are up a lot for the day, you have to let the profits run a bit. But, you have to also protect 2x profits when they are there. You cannot let those come back get you stopped out. PROTECT PROFITS first and then let them run. Pay attention even on a great trade so that you can get out of it when the tide shifts. I NEED TO TRADE for the WHOLE DAY, yesterday I lost my connection and today I woke up late yet again.
Hi Ripley: 4) I need to protect profits. Any time I am up 2x what I risked on a position, I need to make use of a trailing stop and protect my winnings. 2x is quite small btw, only allows a small margin of error if you only have a 1:3 I usually hit opportunities with a mininum of 1:15 Alarm clock, I got a good alarm clock I wake up @ 8:30 for prepartion now. But trutfully I think you are losing motivation which is why you are waking up less. You need to find some new edges so you can increase confidence and motivation where you are really excited to come to work yesterday. In Fact I work up @ 6:30 today just sat there in the bed thinking about the money I will be making today which I did make. so its all about motivation and edges and confidence
Ripley, What these "rules" of yours show is that you have no plan and are making it up as you go along. That also means you don't have and don't know what your edge is. Sorry, but doomsday awaits.
I read 118 pages of "Secrets of the Investment All-Stars" by Kenneth A. Stern. That book had me captivated and since it is organized just like the Market Wizards, you just finish one chapter and go on and on to find other investors. My goal is to finish this book tonight. I am finding out that I am actually an Investor and not a day trader.
I made 36 trades today (Should've been a lot more). Of course, I haven't reached the Wizard levels yet. Thus, I am bound to make some mistakes on some of those trades. It is also different because I am scalping or swinging for such short term profit goals that the bottom line for me is TAKING PROFITS each and everyday rather than following my rules and holding on till a specific resistance level is hit or so.. etc etc.
Here is my attempt to recall all the DJIA components from my memory: 3M Alcoa AIG American Express ATT Caterpillar Citigroup Honeywell Home Depot Merck McDonalds E.I. DuPont IBM Pfizer Walt Disney Wal-Mart Boeing UTX Verizon 19/30 ...not good.... The ones I missed: Altria Group Coca-Cola Exxon Mobil GM GE HP Intel Johnson & Johnson JP Morgan & Chase Microsoft Procter & Gamble Co.. Crazy.. I missed the some of the most well known companies out there. Microsoft? GM? ... GE??
Day 38 DISAPPOINTED # of Disasters: 4 1) I need to wake up early so that I can prepare and be ready to trade. I cannot stay up till 2AM anymore. Then again, I like to stay up till 2am. But, if I do that I won't be able to wake up at 7:30am so that I can be at my trading desk at 7:55am. What I do need to do is go to sleep at 1:30am and wake up at 7:30 am. Thats more realistic I guess. 2) When you wake up late, you just don't have the time to prepare. And if one or two things go wrong, then you're fucked for the whole day. Wake up early, and make sure that everything is set up right and ready to go. By waking up early enough, you have enough time to fix something if it needs to be fixed up. 3) I need to be COMPLETELY aware of everything, every single thing when I am trading against the trend etc. Also, quick on my feet and ready to bail if the move just isn't there. 4) GDP #ers came in this morning. But, I wasn't there or knew what was a good number or what wasn't. I have to be aware of those economic numbers etc. I also didn't know that SBC was changed to T on the Dow. I knew that that was going to happen by watching CNBC etc, but I wasn't aware that there was going to be a change in the Dow due to that change. Had I knew my Dow components well, I would've known that. I need to LEARN.
Day 39 Trade the PLAN (at all TIMES) # of Disasters: 1 1) Taking a trade just out of the reach of my entry setup caused me to break a lot more of my trading rules. That is what happens, you take a small misstep which leads to an avalanche of mounting mistakes. The fact that I took a trade that was a so and so trade isn't the issue. The isssue is there are some fundamental rules of trading that I should never break. Consistency, even in the face of adversity is the key. I have to be consistent with following rules.