I'm going to be posting my day trades not only to analyze them and see what I'm doing right and wrong, but mainly to get feedback and advice from this trading community. Please inform me if you see something that I haven't noted in terms of what I can improve! Thanks!
October 20 - 4/1/3 +$265/-$104.25=$160.75 BABA (+$103) / CRSR (+66.50) / CBLI (+$18) / WEI (+$77.50) / BBBY ($0) / DKNG (-$96) / RUHN (-$8.25) Takeaway points for the day: Enter closer to key level Don't buy on red 1 min candle to enter Wait for pullback (if entering during trend) Don't buy on red 5 min candle, even if 1 min candle is green. Don't sell at breakeven if uptrending. Don't chase the trend. Confirm pullback breaks previous high. Take profit at 1R Don't chase the breakout. BABA (+$103) Entered after 1st bullish candle from ECI breakout / overall uptrend / rising from dip / held VWAP / broke premarket high. Exited near VWAP upper band / break of previous swing high. Enter closer to key level CRSR (+66.50) Entered at VWAP (false) breakout / ECI indicator / Top indicator. Sold half at first Top target / premarket high. Bought more at dip / VWAP bounce. Bought again at premarket high break. Exited at today's high. Wait for green 1 min candle to enter CBLI (+$18) Entered at ECI break / Top. Entered again at dip. Sold half at VWAP break. Exited at breakeven. WEI (+$77.50) Entered with steady 9EMA trend. Took profit at new highs of day. Wait for pullback (entering during trend) BBBY ($0) Entered at dip / green / ECI / Top. Sold half at breakeven. Bought again during uptrend. Exited at breakeven. Don't buy on red 5 min candle. Don't sell at breakeven if uptrending. Don't chase the trend. DKNG (-$96) Entered at pullback, after VWAP break (false) (saw the chart too late). Ideal entry - Break of first Top line. Confirm pullback breaks previous high. Entered at break of VWAP top band / prev. day close, target premarket high. Take profit at 1R RUHN (-$8.25) Entered during breakout uptrend. Stopped out. Don't chase the breakout.
Vince, Thank you for sharing your journal. Good trading day. Couple quick questions: The capital deployed in each of these varies quite widely as well as the potential return. If the time it takes to analyze an opportunity is roughly the same for every trade, it seems that risking more capital on the low cost instruments would net you a higher expectancy profit overall ... possibly getting more bang out of your time ... (assuming there is no discernible risk difference between instruments). What is the methodology are you using to set the capital amount to risk per trade? What is the trading software package is this? Best regards, T
I'm using a paper account for now so for these first weeks I'm going to be more focused on finding and executing good trades rather than worry about the values of the stocks. I'm basically just buying 100 shares per trade regardless of the stock price. My risk per trade will be 1% of my account, which is quite a bit smaller than the starting capital of my paper account, so for now I'm just choosing key levels for stops without factoring in the size of my account. When I get more comfortable executing trades I'll work on getting the numbers just right and I'll probably reduce the paper account capital to my real account's capital to better approximate how I'll really be trading. I'm using Thinkorswim.
October 21, 2020 - 2/1/8 +$140.70/-$177.50= -$36.80 MRIN (+$81.70) PYPL (+59) ASTC (-$60) TQQQ (-$48.50) MRIN (-$27) DKNG (-$21) NKLA (-$9) PLIN (-$6) GAB (-$5) BRN (-$1) Today my timing was off and I struggled to find good setups. I've also been letting some losing trades run since I'm only using a paper account so I've been losing more than I would in a real account. I think I'm going to stop this and abide by my stops. I've been using Trade Ideas scans on youtube live streams because I'm afraid Thinkorswim's scans are subpar. However, there's a slight lag in the youtube streams so it seems I'm always a bit behind. Maybe I'll try Thinkorswim's scanners tomorrow. Today's takeaways: Don't enter with overhead resistance very close Enter closer to VWAP/9 EMA. Enter closer to 5 min Top Don't chase the trend without entrance signal Don't enter overextended from 9 EMA Don't enter after bullish candle Don't enter without setup on 1 and 5 min charts I'm not sure about the following ideas. If anyone can share some insight it would be appreciated! Don't enter at the top of a large candle? Wait for 1 min pullback? Don't enter over VWAP top band? For more context, see the attached file. It's a bit time consuming to upload the images of the trades to a website and then link each of them here in this post, so I'm simply attaching the document with the charts if you're interested to see the trades.
I too have tried my share of scanners and haven’t found them consistently helpful. Tradestation’s HotLists are interesting, but most have already exploded and are not worth chasing. I am slowly weeding down to a smaller universe of instruments with reasonable, lower frequency volatility so I can skip the time scanning to concentrate on entries/exits on familiar companies/ETFs. As for waiting for large candle pullbacks ... I have found that my delays locked me out of too many trades entirely as price It seems that few of my stocks dally after an entry signal price runs away ... that ended flying up for hours of me kicking myself. It seems that few of my stocks dally/retrace after an entry signal. I’ve started going in quicker with half size and exiting ASAP if it sniffs against me. Adding the second half not to far in or half way down to my stop if price fades and doesn’t stop me out. BTW ... in your charts what is the multiple, yellow dot support/fib-like indicator called in TOS? Haven’t seen that one. Cheers!
mr VinceField, Looks like you are crafting your process. Hats off. Once in a while you might want to browse the ET thread "...what belongs in a Solid Trading Plan" written by your fellow traders. Different posts there will speak to you at different milestones along your journey. Some are blood simple and others are highly sophisticated and cannot be put together without tons o time spent on the trek. This particular gem imho is a great touchstone for Traders at Any Level - any Timeframe. It remains valuable enough of a reminder to keep front and center over and again for when things get a little wonky along the trail. Tape a copy of it under your keyboard, lol. see message #36 Mar 9, 2020 - https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...solid-trading-plan.340340/page-4#post-5031706
The yellow dots are from an ECI indicator which signals price contraction which is usually always followed by a breakout in one direction or another. The yellow dots are areas of past contraction. Present contraction is indicated by a green and red band which turns into the dots after the contraction period is over.
October 22, 2020 3 winners, 6 losers Takeaways: Enter closer to key levels Take some profit at 1R Pay attention to buy/sell buttons It seems a bunch of the trades simply didn't go my way. I can't identify anything that I did wrong so if anyone sees something that I could have done better, please let me know!
I realized that I didn't provide any information regarding my trading style and strategy. About my setup: 9 and 20 EMAs 50 and 200 SMAs VWAP ECI indicator (yellow dots - indicates price contraction, usually followed by a breakout but doesn't indicate direction) Top indicator (indicates possible breakout with target levels) Trend pivots CSA indicator (multi-indicator with trend painting function) I am experimenting with various strategies, mainly momentum plays, including: ORB Bull Flag ABCD Ascending Wedge MA/VWAP retracement/bounce MA/VWAP trend Reversals At the open I'm looking at stocks that have gapped up with high volume for ORB or momentum pullback trades. Then I'm watching scanners for HOD moves to enter with the momentum, on pullbacks or when steadily following trend. I'm also looking for oversold LODs for potential reversal trades. I look for key support and resistance levels and half and whole dollars to inform my decisions. I'm only paper trading for now so I'm not worrying about values and share size- I'm entering with 100 shares of each stock regardless of value. My stop loss is right below key levels depending on the setup. I'm selling half at 1R (a key level, ATR or the value of the stop loss) and raising the stop loss to breakeven, then selling the rest at 2R or letting it ride if there's no resistance. Right now I'm trying to formulate and solidify a winning strategy. When I get more comfortable executing trades I'm going to limit the paper account size to the capital of my real account (quite small) and work with more realistic values and share sizes.