Trading size kill

Discussion in 'Professional Trading' started by innovest_11, Sep 23, 2008.

  1. Try trading 1000 size on over $100 stocks last 2 days, and it cost me a bomb, -$3700 and -$2300, the size make me hold too long for cut loss, take profit very quickly, very stressful, now in a state of shock...:( :(

    Anyone has any advice as to the road to recovery after strings of losses?
     
  2. anytime it happens, trade smaller size.
     
  3. Darshan

    Darshan

    cut down if your not comfortable. I trade 200 shares, if I'm net pos, next day go up to 300, if net pos go to 400..etc. etc. if I'm down a day I cut my max down by a hundred. This seems to work for me
     
  4. You can't trade size until you have proven yourself on 100-300 shares.

    As your capital increases reward yourself with a higher size slowly, work that psychology.

    As far as losses, cut them short asap, as far as winners let them run, scaling out works, so consider perhaps 200 shares.

    Make an effort to enter in places that are "Lines in the sand", that way if you are wrong, the stop just won't be a loss but also informative.

    In the beginning you want to kill it, but unless you know what you are doing, they will kill you.

    Size is earned.

    Anek
     
  5. Thanks for your advise, actually did have some profit previously trading 200 to 400, seldom 1000. Even if i trade 1000 previously, i buy incrementally, and not buy 1000 in one shot.

    After 2 days of trading 1000 size, i'm in a state of whipsawed and shock, that 6k which i so painstakingly accumulated using 200 size evaporated so fast before me within 2 days that i still find it difficult to accept this fact...

    I just feel like taking the monitor and throw it

     
  6. Don't confuse "some" profit with consistency.

    Anek
     
  7. Monitors are cheap, $200 give or take. Throwing it MIGHT save you more in the long run. Think about it.

     
  8. ninety

    ninety

    You might want to consider using an Expectancy driven approach that will help you also determine an appropriate position sizing. That way, you will not have to guess and play around with size. Such an approach will yield you consistent profits. You will be less frustrated and a happier and richer trader!
     
  9. used to trade 500 shares on a small account, got that account to almost 0 before trading 100 shares. now that im at 100 ive had 1 losing day out of the last 3 weeks. i plan on trading this low till i get 3 or 4 months of consistency, then up to 200 for a couple months. i expect in about 2 years(including drawdowns) i have the potential of trading 400 to 500 hundred share lots, consistantly profitable of course. But if im still at 300 in 2 years atleast im still in the game, learning and surviving.
     
  10. Hello

    I've been a member for a long time, but I don't post a lot, because I see thing different them other day/swing/long traders. I believe when it comes to size, I always think about how sure I'm about the trade.

    exp: I watch opec cut oil yesterday and PDO, GEOI went up, so I brought 200 shares of each stock per-market to see them both go down. I was not 100% sure about them ever though I trade them on a regular base. because the markets are down across the boards I feel that most stocks are not acting like they did before the morgage problem, so most of the trades I do now I'm not 100% sure about, so I don't push like I would in the past.

    exp: two weeks ago I watch FNM, FRE go down and I knew that the goverment would bail them out, so I brought 31,000 share at $1 per share. and the first week I was down $15,000 (I'm a true daytrading, so I don't hold any stocks over night) but I knew it would turn around. Some would call me a fool and the other ones would call me lucky, I would like to believe I was just smart and have been for 10 years.

    I don't know how long you have been trading, but if its over 2 years and you do this full time them you must go with more them your charts. IMHO


    I've been trading full time for 10 years and I go with my feelings more them I do with my charts, I never try and out think the market.
     
    #10     Sep 24, 2008