Trader P/L 2005

What I do is ALWAYS sell half my position at 1 percent profit on a I play the second half according to the strength of the market, and the momentum of the stock. If the 2nd half turns against me...I sell at break even, or get out earlier.


I trade momentum with the direction of the market...and use my trade ideas scanner 40 plus or 40 minus scans according to direction of first 5 minute candle...than adjust from there on 2 minute candles.

I only go with very high relative volume movers long or short.....usually at least 2.2 relative volume increase.

I sell iniitial losers real fast usually at half percent max.

I usually only trade the first 2 hours of the market, and sometimes last hour. I sell my shares into strength, and buy back my shorts on continued weakness.

I buy at market and sell at market.....mb trading gets very good fills and pricing at market both long and short.

Where I have problems is sometimes on retracements off momentum, or with sudden reversals of direction of market.....that moves the stock against my positiion.

I above all just try to keep it simple.

 

I feel the need to further explain my situation given your assumptions to (hopefully) give you some understanding of why i believe in what i am doing.

I am 20, and i dont have 'real money' to trade. I know lots of people bash swift because they hire young to churn commisions and have everyone quit.... rinse/repeat yada yada yada. My opnion of this is that it is entirely up to me to control the outcome of the situation. I can hope for the best and come in everyday right before the market opens and go home right at 4 and try to copy what everyone else is doing and blah blah blah, but i dont. I come in early and leave late, i constantly read whatever i can get my eyes on, and am always looking for new trading ideas.

I have been trading since may 4th. The first month was basically learn the keys, the second month i scalped $1050, and last month $2001. I have moved from 100 to 1500 share lots on scalping, and a variety of lot sizes for other types of trading.

I live in a low cost area. I dont need to make a lot of money each month to cover my expenses. I am a few hundred per month from making enough to survive. I consider this a sucess. My personal goals were to develop a strategy where i can make enough to survive on, and then continue to experiment with other styles of intraday trading to increase my wages over time. I am not in a rush at this point in my life, and i consider, in the mean time atleast, that time is on my side. I understand that the trading environment changes, and although it would be foolish to say that i have experienced enough changes to make myself some sort of verteren, i feel that if i can develop a strategy that makes me enough to survive in 2 or 3 months, why cant i do it again? Right now i would say that i have 1 solid way of making money, and 2 developing ways (or strategies whatever) of making money. I am confident that i can continue to refine and develop more techniques to diversify my trading day and not be wiped out by change.

I guess the point of my babbling is that im not a monkey that sits at a prop giants screen and smashes keys all day on 100 share lots in the hopes of one day making it big with 10k lots. My manager doesnt tell me how to trade, he encourages us to think up new ideas and work to refine our REAL trading skills. I think swift gets really caught up in flavour of the month trading, and i want to make sure from teh start that i am working on developing versatile trading skills and not keyboard speed and competing for the same money with 500 other people.

Bottom line is i love trading and i want to make sure im doing everything to make this a career for myself. I worked at a bank for a year before starting out at this job, and i cant believe how happy i am that i made the move. My days have gone from boring and gay customer service to taking the bull by the horns.

I think of everyone who gives me feedback as gutter blockers on kids bowling lanes, keeping me on the path to the strike. I know im young and inexperienced at this yet, but i am either to stupid or actually right in thinking that by experimenting with other peoples money and learning as much as i can, i am going to make a living. Who knows who is actually right though, time will tell.

 

Given the fact that you are only 20... i guess it puts things in a different perspective..

 

This reply is to "Szeven"

I have only read the last couple of pages of this long thread and do plan on reading all the pages as my time allows. I just now read your last post and wanted to tell you that if you continue to keep the good and positive attitude you now display along with continued hard work (getting there early and leaving late etc) you will make it as a trader and you will be successful for yourself.

 

i think you are going about it the correct way.

 

You're THIS consistent since may 4??!! That means outta the box, you're more consistent than 85-90% of the traders here already.
Do what you've been doing. Learn risk control & money management. Take your time, and keep scaling up. As soon as you've got some decent capital together, go retail. Prop shops haven't ever made long term sense to me, but they are a place for some to start.

 

Szeven,

I am going to tell you something you probably don't want to hear, but it's for your own good.

You should try to get a job right now, any job. Even if you are sure trading is what you want to do and it turns out you are right, the best move for you right now is to get a job.

Why?
1) You need money to live on and trading capital to trade. I know you have a dream of starting small and building it into millions, but try and argue with yourself for a minute. What kind of returms would you really need to achieve and how long would it really take? Be frank with yourself.
2) What if you fail? Where do you go then? Trading at a prop shop or for yourself, no matter how hard you're working or how difficult it is or how much you've learned, will not get you any credibility with employers. Yes, you probably deserve a lot of credit for the sweat and tears you put into it, but nobody is going to care. People will not give you any credibility for personal prop trading unless you have actually become a millionaire. Have you read some of the ET threads about people trying to get a job after doing prop trading?
3) You are not giving up your dream of trading by getting a job right now. It's still in the works! You just won't be able to watch the markets every minute, that's all. You can still trade, learn, read what you want to read, chat on ET, pay your bills, and save some money at the same time.

I hope you don't take this as harsh criticism, i'm just giving you what i think is good advice instead of just agreeing with you which may actually turn out to be bad for you.

lastly, you said you are 20 so i'm not sure if you graduated from college. if you haven't and you're not in school, then forget everything i said above and go back to school my friend. everything will be easier after you do that first. look at it like this. why would you give a chance to someone who never graduated from high school when there are so many other people who have? why would you give a chance to someone who never graduated from junior high, elementary school, or kindergarden? see my point.

 

What wizard is saying may be unpopular with the board....but what he says is right on.

I also want to add....to make it in trading you HAVE to have trading capital, and you have to be able to short.

Shorting requires margin and day trading margin requires at least a 25,000 plus account.....unless you are overseas trading.

I play alot of poker....and I have found you can spot players coming from low limit to higher limit.

The bigger the money involved the more pressure.....certain people react differantly to pressure

Until you get your feet wet with real big money trading, a low limit trader just will never really grasp how they react to the added pressure.

I suggest get your bankroll up and than approach this as a possible business.

 

stopped out. for the 5th day in a row. At least I almost made it until noon today. DO was the culprit... the crazy stock gapped up 27 cents (i was short) while my market order was pending so I canceled it, and got out 15 cents lower. Which was pretty much the low after the gap... fun times.....

enjoy your afternoons everyone!

mnx