chewed apart with SEED today I was considering not trading SEED today due to the very limited shares available to short. I should have used caution more than I did. Several times I could have walked away with a gain had I been able to properly trade my system but sure enough when I needed shares they were not avaible. So the dips down which would have provided for an exit or at least a partial cover so that I could work my price higher was never available. Never had a chance with this one and just when I thought I could see a nice gain it stopped falling about 11 cents above me basis. I did actually cover a very small amount above my basis but it was not enough to make a huge difference but at least it helped some. Thought about holding some overnight but the overbought signals also retraced like they should so there was no reason other than the gap up signal and that's not valid to carry overnight. Took the loss and flattened out for the day. - 13624 ALL was a tend trend line break new signal that I am working with. only 100 shares and worked out +18 shorted LNY but IB again ran out of shares so I just bailed at near BE. should have been a good trade otherwise. +28 Shorted some SEED 10 Jan calls for an overnight hold. sold on the ask and the spread is a mile wide at about 15-20 cents. -13576 - 11939 month
Thanks, I will be back to smaller size again tomorrow.... once I build it up again then I will push it up once again. Robert
Thanks, It wasn't a day of guts but a day full of mistakes. I went to large to quick and did it with the wrong stock. I learned a lot from today so it wasn't a total waste I will come in tomorrow and try to do a better job. Robert
I respect everything you've done Robert, but I do not know how to say this another way. Haven't you noticed the trend with your strategy? Sure it can work quite often, however when it doesn't, it wipes everything you've made and sometimes more. I am curious how many more blowup days you are planning on going through before contemplating a new strategy with a "safer" risk/reward. This journal is the only one I actually check in on most days just to see how your strategy is coming along. I've traded the way you do, and have been burned like you. But I realized its a losing strategy in the long run and changed strategies and have not looked back since. I wish you the best and I am only trying to help a fellow trader.
gap up is not the signal to go short. 50% gain or 100% rally is not the signal to go short. trading is all about inequilium between buyers and sellers. SEED was trending very well today. I will look for support to buy in this kind of runaway crazy market. your ego is too strong. before the market, we as a trader, need be humble, we must know when we are wrong and negnate our wrong view, reverse ourself and befefit from the market. you are afraid of "no shares to short". I have this experience, back to 2005, I remebered I was shorting CAAS, scottrade (at that time I was with) just had 500shares when I decided to go short, so I naiively toke the short, CAAS went from 6 to 8, then 9, and I tried to short at that price, scottrade killed my old short becuase it met scottrade's short selling margin limit(over 20% or 3 dollars, I do not remeber, they will kill it for you), I was mad, lost $1.6k+, glad they do not have shares for me to short in the rally, otherwise, I got the same results as you. you need think in a little bigger picture, one day's rally is just a tiny bar in a monthly chart. if seed shoots another 3 points tomrrow, it will not be a surprise, just a tiny bar! if you just trade intra-day chart, then must define your timeframe within 5minutes or 1 minutes bar, if how many bars passed, the market is still not in your favor, that means yoour trade is invalid. good luck
Trader David I can assure you that Robert has been around longer than you in the trading realm. Your post I find a tad insulting to the man. However I will give you the benefit of the doubt that English is not your first language. So go back and Read all of Roberts posts over the years and you will see he is a professional. In fact you can see this from his last post on this journal... All the Best John
I am a naturanlized u.s.citizen just last year x'mas. English is not native language. that is true. but that does not mean in trading I am not good at. I traded 5 years+ so far, I struggled two years, then from third year I started to make profit. this year I was down before july because I switched to Future trading, did not get the idea of high leveraging trading, I overtraded and lost, . then I turned around from this september, I traded with patience and discipline, I almost doubled my account this year. I know Robert has lots of experience in trading, but yesterday's results prove he is still an amteaure, sorry, Robert, if that offends you, please accept my apology, I really want to help you. a trader need think out of the box and think in the box. when in a trade, think outside of the trade. when not in a trade, think in the trade.
I have to agree.... Robert your losses are too big and they are wiping you out. You obviously have a large amount of capital to trade with but listen to this carefully. You are overworking it, underperforming the markets returns, and doing your family an injustice by trading like this. I understand you have a new baby and are also going to school. That is a lot of pressure. Don't let that get control of your trading. You obviously are smart. I just hope you are smart enough and detached enough from trading that you can either let go or treat it as a hobby. Day trading your own money does not make sense. You will be better served by trading your money using modern portfolio theory and adding tactical approaches to timing the rebalancing of your asset classes. If you really want to trade and think you have a system that works then stop using your money and join a prop firm that can give you enough intraday leverage to make money. Take 25k and open an account with Bright or some other prop firm. They all offer 15:1 long and short leverage. If you can make that work than your system works. But using straight up money without leverage to underperform the market returns makes no sense. The market will eat you up. I can already tell, you are thinking..."a day full of mistakes." I can fix those and get back to profitability." Sounds like to me, you need a break. You are letting your self get consumed by the trading. You are taking on bigger positions as your losses continue....STOP IT!
Robert only needs to do 2 things and he'll be fine. stay small as he seems to win when he's small and STAY AWAY FROM SHORTING LOW FLOAT ILLIQUID STOCKS. good luck robert