Pretty good day today Most of all the trading was done within the first hour but I did have one small trade later. WCG gave a great gap up setup today. It appeared so good that I entered in early which ended up ok but my results would have been better had I waited for the fulfillment of the signal. + 923 GRMN gave two different buy signals during the day and I made some nice gains of both. As it was a long trade and with a new revision of an old signal I used very few shares. Looking at the chart I think its pretty neat that the signal provides for > 50 cents moves long when the chart looks like its almost straight down. + 238 RHB was one that several times I wanted to go with some large size in the trade but stayed small. I made two trades with it. one was based on a gapup signal and the other on a newer signal of resistance. both where of small size. + 100 Now flat + 1262 + 1873 Month
Hi Taclander, Crazy?? hmmmm can crazy people know if they are crazy? Several reasons for going back to school. One, I had perfect timing in selling my last business. Any sooner or later and I would not have received anywhere near what I did get. Shortly after I did so i watched more than one friend/acquaintance go out of business when the downturn hit. I am getting older so the window of opportunity was closing fast. Next, I have a lot of downtime during the day (when I should probably be doing backtesting etc...) and so I felt I would be able to study while in my office (that hasn't turned out to be as true as I thought so I study 7 days a week) I always wanted to be a lawyer and so thats why I am picking that path. I could blow up my account but once you have an education you can't lose that. Plus maybe litigating will turn out to be more enjoyable than trading but both have been my passion since as early as I seriously thought about a career. Best to you Robert
Mostly just traded the open I had two trades at the open. Along with CVS and a short with FSYS. Both turned out pretty good. FSYS stayed strong in the open for a long time before retracing. When it did retrace it went right to my cover trades at 41.03 and bounced off the round number and continued higher for much of the day and as we go into the closing it appears it will close at or near the HOD. + 606 CVS took a hard and fast move down in premarket trading and continued for a small amount once the bell rang. I went long shortly after the bell and from start to finish was in the trade for about 8 minutes. I listened to part of the conference call and management did not seem polished at all. Totally sounded like they were being beaten over the head with a bat and they wanted to curl up in the fetal position in a corner somewhere. Normally these guys can tell you the sun is coming up in the west tomorrow in a somewhat plausible way but not CVS today. + 330 + 937 + 2810
Pretty small day today SAM gave me a gap up signal but its so thin that I stayed very small + 92 MGA gave me a overbought right at the open but I put my offer in about 10 cents above the signal point and missed the entry by about 3-5 cents. It came back to life later in the day after perfectly retracing the first move. I was still conservative with the trade even though it was a much better than average setup. I was also a little more conservative with the cover price as my target was just under the 50 mark and I did not want it to bounce off of 50 and start moving back up again without covering. So I placed most of my covers just above 50 and let 100 shares ride it to 49.85 which did get hit to close out. I did add a few extra shares at 50.73 but I wanted to really add a lot more. This signal is pretty rare but I kept my risk very low and the return was still really good vs. the amount it moved against me. + 404 + 496 + 3306 Month
Increased size a bit and took a hit REV gapped up this morning and I tried to fade it and it never retraced until it then later on gave a overbought signal. The actual overbought signal turned out to be fine but it was too late and more importantly Interactive brokers didnât have shares for me to short. I did start to cover some at a loss during its one and only retracement and that actually lowered my total loss. REV moved back up and I covered most of the rest near 14.55. some thing of note, the daily MAs really donât offer much support for the trade to begin with and in dollar amounts the gap was not that big either so I will be backtesting to see if this requires a change in requirements or this was just one of those I have to take with the good ones. My biggest frustration was the lack of shares though as others in the chatroom where able to short. - 6115 EWBC was much like REV in that it moved up a lot today but the trade worked out well for me. This was a gap up trade as well. + 345 TRW was an trade based on being overbought. I am still short and carrying over until tomorrow. I made a mistake in size and corrected it with one trade near breakeven. I expect to be in pretty good shape with this tomorrow and its possible I could end up covering some in AH as I left my bids live. + 1 RSH was a gap up trade that I stop loss exited with. It actually met my target but I was looking to see if it would give more and when it didnt and when back up I exited out. + 19 So it was a setback today but not great compared to how I have done in the past 7 weeks. - 5749 - 2442 Month
Ok I understand your day now, you're a reversion to the mean trader so of course trend days are going to be the hardest. You might want to add an early warning system for trend days to your system. Not perfect but might help you with the big drawdowns. Good journal.
Probably he did nothing wrong assuming he honored his stops and is profitable over the year, there is no way to win 100% of the time. Most people don't post their losses so it may seem like everyone here makes money, its not true. Also, remember, he decided to increase size today and sometimes you just get unlucky since if he had been doing the same size throughout the month, his loss for the month would have been less.
I'm not bashing him, just saying one should look at ways to improve one's system, that's all. I'm always looking for ways to diminish drawdowns and maximize profits. Only way to get better.... and hey, I post my losses.