not in any order Warmer than Wisconsin no state income tax close to population centers without being in one time zone to trade I think its better I like the gaming industry and would like to someday under the right conditions own a casino greater amount of wealth than the Northwoods of Wisconsin. Its past midnight so I am probably forgetting others but these are the big ones for me
Hello Deadwood, I love that name. Deadwood SD is a place that my wife and I have gone to twice and thought it was great both times. I want to thank you for your post and the time / thought you put into it. I respectfully disagree that "signals" are stupid. I would agree that some are stupid but every trader that I have known or read about uses some form of a signal. If you buy the SPY because over time it has gone up than that is a signal. I have a signal "B series" that has made probably over 300K this year and has a total of perhaps 10K in losses (I don't think its even that high) and was equally profitable in percentage terms last year. Granted the actual trading for it is a small time sample but the results are about as good as anyone could hope for. I am unsure I totally buy into "knowing what is driving price action". Knowing why a price is moving seems to be secondary to knowing the odds of it continuing or retracing and at what prices/time #3, can't agree more with you. I think that is spot on #4 I agree with you totally with SNDK. I should not have traded it. Simple as that. It was a mistake regardless of the financial results. My "reason" did not justify that actual risk of money. Staying with it at any point that it was not profitable was totally wrong and poor trading on my part. #5 I agree. I don't consider a $15 gain a winner and I while technically untrue I do agree its breakeven. I have had a lot of them lately due to the testing of a new signal that includes a tight stoploss. I want to develop a signal that uses tight stop losses to get in the habit of getting out quickly when things are not going in the correct direction right away. I am unsure if that will improve my results as getting out when a trade is going bad is not as good as not taking a trade in the first place when the trade is not mechanical (in my case) to begin with. #6, I understand your thoughts and don't totally disagree. I believe that understanding what the buyers and sellers are most likely to do if X Y or Z happens is much more important. Understanding crowd behavior and economic behavior I believe is more important that trying to understand a company. Without having at least a really good understanding of a company or a really good understanding of what can be expected of the price adding to losers is a very bad idea. Even when you do know one or the other (or both) it can be a bad idea. Thanks again and I wish you the very best. Also please note that while I say I disagree I only disagree to the extent that when I am trading the way I should and by the rules I have I do very well. Its when I stray that I have caused every single loss of importance. Most days I do not entertain the idea of making a trade that is not already a firm fully calculated trade. I do on any given day though get several trade ideas that appear to be winners and what I need to do is move from almost always ignoring them to always ignoring them. discretionary trading has caused huge amounts of losses, stress, and sleepless nights. Even so I get several trades that I want to make every single day based on discretion. I have moved much further in the last five months to being a better disciplined trader but I have further to go to plug some leaks that I have. I hope your 2009 was a good year for you and that 2010 is even better. Respectfully Robert
Robert, The times I have done well in trading are the times I have followed the trend like a coward. The times I did this there was a strange feeling I actually did not like. A feeling of I should be following my belief and instead of blindly following.. There seems to be reduced emotional gratification trading in the direction of the market than top/bottom picking. I think this kills most traders and has made my futures trading attempt this year 5 times as difficult as it could have been. Making money off a move even one that is "wrong" is ok. This is something I plan to repeat to myself every morning in the coming year. Assuming ANYTHING is possible and S&P drifts to new highs by March the better trader is the one that made more money as that is the only way I know of to judge a traders skill. Kills me to see your recent week after settling down to small wins. Now I know how some felt as my journal account dived last year. A simple 5 period Moving Average as a screen would have kept you out of SNDK as are some here on ET that are shorting GOOG and AAPL... Regardless of how good a day-trading "system" is it will VERY likely improve with a daily trend screen. WHY ARE WE TRADING??? I repeat, WHY ARE WE TRADING??? Wish you the best in the coming year.
In theory, we trade to make money, but so often a trader gets addicted to finding the wholly grale or solving the markets puzzle that the goal of making money actually gets lost. The ups and downs of making and losing 10 grand a day becomes meaningless. The addiction takes over, you're up to 2:00 am reprogramming your trade signals, and before you know it you find yourself posting on elitetrader to complete strangers on christmas day.
Hello Oracle, Thanks for your post and I do believe that signals that show positive results in the same environment as a current stock may provide an edge. Your right about the emergency stop as well. I entered SNDK because I "thought" it should go down. I was actually right at first and was holding a gain. But even if I made money it was a bad trade for me as I did not have a valid "reason" to enter. This is something I am working on. using SIM at first sounds like a very good idea. I wish you the very best into the end of this year and to the next. Robert
Hello Appleseed, Thanks very much. Your posts are more than welcome. I agree with you about SNDK. Talk about an on fire stock. I did short it today though. I had a valid short signal and took it. I also had a stop loss so that if it kicked me again today it wasn't going to be really bad. Your link is neat. I am going to spend some time looking at it. Its a bummer the quotes are delayed. Still looks like it could have some real value. I also agree with you about TD. I changed my trading after reading his books and look to fade instead of jumping on and hoping the trend keeps going. I guess it doesn't really matter what someone does as long as they have an edge. Have a happy new year and I wish you the best in 2010 Robert
Hello Illiquid, I too agree that Deadwood's post is good advice. As I replied I stated where I don't totally agree in my case (I can only speak of myself on any trading idea) I did reply but not right away. I was busy with Christmas. I have never 'avoided' a post and have always replied provided I have time to do so I wish you the best and have a happy new year Robert
Last days of trading for 2009 I did not get any gap up or overbought signals today. I did get several WW signals but was stopped out of most of them right away. I have also scalped C while I continue to hold it. SNDK I received another short signal with SNDK today. (I originally did not have a signal but I did have one on Thursday as well that was a loser). I traded it as well as scalped it in the begining. Trade went very well but I did get stopped out a little sooner than I had hoped for. + 856 TSTC WW + 59 TER + 8 RMBS + 13 NEM + 4 GMCR was tough for me today. I traded it three times with the first two stopped out at losses and I made some back on the third. â 78 C + 14 AMED I traded this both long and short. I did well with the short but stopped out about even with the long. + 204 + 1081 -3955 Month
Hey Robert, Nice work! I see that your winning slowly keep getting bigger and bigger. I hope in 2010, we'll see more of those +$1000+ day. PA