back story: pretty much lost everything i had awhile ago gambling, then slowly built my life back together with hard work at a regular desk job.... decided to put some $$$ into the market after stabilizing myself 2009: deposited 30K in early 2009 because i had notion that Smith and Wesson was undervalued.. i was a gun enthusiast and stores were sold out of everything because of obama's election... earnings were released for SWHC and i made about 75% on my very first trade in about 3 weeks....... took proceeds and bought BAC and C on margin for huge gains and finished year up close to 200% 2010: another big year (+100%) with big gains in MON, AAPL and RIG 2011: acct is all time high in February (appx 350K) company closes in spring and i decide i want to give trading a shot, so i join a prop firm i allocate some capital to firm and continue to trade my own acct.. YTD i am down 40k from day trading with about 5k equity left and my original acct is sitting at appx 140k.. i still have some small cash reserves since i have bills to pay, but basically this is all i have to work with i refuse to give up and despise the thought of going back to a 9 to 5......... I will begin posting my trades and positions if there is any interest in this thread ......... i have zero training or mentor since my firm advocates scalping and im convinced that strategy is unprofitable, so i pretty much keep to myself there I hope the answer to thread title is not train wreck, but it seems to be heading that way
9/19/11 Daytrading results below: Symbol SHS P/L unreal PL notes TNA +176 SOXL +104 HPQ -10 FCX +154 MGM +82 POT +4 total profit +493 current long positions FCX 500 HPQ 500 MGM 1000 S 4000 SOXL 300 I am biased long into the fed minutes
9/20/11 Day trade P&L: -18.48 some uneventful scalps earlier... then went short SPY too early and was shaken out for a small loss... was able to recover by going long VXX when market dipped..... major mistake was covering SPY short wouldve been profitable trade since i was short 1k shs POSITIONS: MGM 1000 shs S 5000 shs TZA 400 shs sold all positions for small loss.. dont like the weakness of non tech sectors.. .will see how market reacts to fed mins total equity 146K
should be interesting to watch. 145K is big enough to make some serious money without going over the tilt with the mental aspect of trading. Good luck!
I think you're better off putting everything but your original $30k into a lock box, and using it exactly like you did before, playing one or two strong hunches at a time. Just an IMO etc from someone not walking in your shoes.
9/21/11 Daytrading: -24.33 for the day.. made some awful mistakes not taking profit, though i dont think my head was in it since im going on vacation tomorrow.. DNKN +32 NFLX -99, was up $600 at one point TNA -231.. shaken out twice here TBT +184... went long around noon sold at peak before fed SOHU +46.5 VXX +36 Portfolio: still mainly cash, added a little MGM and S when it was showing strength which i regret....lost -600 intraday in NFLX.. TZA was up huge obviously... im a bit neutral right now and ill see how it plays out symbol shs PL MGM 1500 -43 S 6000 -602 TZA 400 +2592 total equity is still 146,932
This is the hardest environment to trade I have ever seen. Its gotten worse and worse since 2009 as uncertainity, bad policy, and reduction in participants have fed on themselves.