I do 90% of my trades at the open. Most of my activity is from 9:30-9:50. If I am still holding a postion I will wait it out until 11:30. At that point I will either exit my position or place my Stop Loss and take a break (lunch or workout). I make $$$ in the AM but not the rest of the day. I either give back or waste my time looking for trades to enter and end up working for little money. I know many will say just walk away after the open, but I don't want to do that. In the Summer I don't mind so much, but Winter sucks in Michigan and not a whole lot to do. I would like to continue to take $$$ out of the market if possible. If you trade the Open then what stocks do you decide to trade later? Same stocks, use scanning software, trade Top 10 Winners, Top 1O Losers, etc... I find if too time consuming to look at many stocks to see if they are "setting up for a certain trend." Any input would be appreciated. Mac
This is usually when most traders don't trade. Can I ask why this timeframe and what trade setup are you looking for? Mac
F-Trader... Daytrading is done by 10:30 eastern I also find giving money back if I go longer. So you must find something else to do! I am up in the north east and I have invested in a small library of Strategy Computer Games. SimCity 3000 (build, and maintain a city) Railroad Tycoon (Transportation tycoon) Tropico (Build out a small country like Cuba) In my college years the early versions of these games kept me occupied for days at a time. The latest version will keep you occupied for months at a time!
I agree that the Open is done by 10:30. I'm usually done by 9:50, I either made money or I didn't. I hang around if I want to still stay in that trade for whatever reason. I have better things to do than "play games." I'd rather have a Mistress on the side and play with her. She can play with my Joystick. Here were my trades today. 1,000 lots VTIV -.11 ET -.27 MNTA B/E GEPT +.25 FFIV +.51 Profit $400 minus commision. I've been sitting her since 10:30 starring at these friggin charts and watching MSNBC. I'm starting to think I should just Trade the Open and walk the hell away. My daily average profit is $600. My biggest one day gain this year was around $2,400 and my biggest loss was $1,400.
Looks like you are not giving away too much!!! and thus I just can't understand why you wouldn't trade the whole day. Anyway, I think you should strive to have a much bigger one day gain and if that takes trading the whole day, then so be it. I think the UPSIDE is there for you to trade the whole day.
I'm not sure if you were being sarcastic or not, but I try and keep my losses tight unless the darn market just blows thru my stops. I don't scalp, I usually look for .50 - .75 sometimes a dollar. Every once in a while a stock like HANS will run away and make me a nice $2.00 - $3.00, that's when I made my $2,400. I scale out as it keeps moving in my direction. I normally take about 3-5 positions at the open @ 1,000sh each. I stop trading when I make $2,000 or more for the day so it's hard to earn more when I am not trading, LOL. I'm thinking that if I want to make more $$$ I may have to trade higher lot sizes, say 1500-2000. I trade GAP UPs and FADE them. I normally have 8 charts up (1 min and 5 min) and my Level II ready to go with my trades preset. I wait until after the first 5 min bar low or an Inside bar that breaks to the downside. I only Fade, I will NOT go Long, sticking to my trading plan. I use Briefing.com and check the Post market trading from the previous day to see what trades UP. I then check Pre-market to see if the same stocks are still on the list, usually half are still there. I stay away from takeover, mergers, Chinese internet stocks, etc... I hate huge movers. I usually look to FADE what I call crap stocks that have Gapped UP. Friday I SS RRGB (Red Robbin restaurant) made over $1.00 and other stocks that are not industry leaders. I try and stay away from stocks that have traded over a $1.00 range in the first 5 minutes. I like to know when I'm wrong. Last Friday RRGB had a .21 cent range in the first 5min, I should have SS 2,000 sh but missed it. It's nice when your risk is .21 and you know your wrong. The range is the first thing I look for when trading opens. 98% of my trades are thru ECN's. I know a lot of guys trade NYSE but I never got the hang of it and I can't stand waiting 93 seconds for a F'n fill. About 3 weeks ago or so I was trading the Homebuilder stocks and I shorted a NYSE builder stock that Gapped Up (forgot the name). I was UP $1,000 when I placed my order to get the heck out, by the time I was filled I made a lousy $280. I was so F'n pissed off. My trade confirm shows my order was rec'd in one second and took 93 to fill. Mother F's. I normally cover my trade when I hit the 8 EMA on my 5 min bar, (I then monitor my 1 min to get the hell out) if it runs thru the 8 EMA I'll normally cover as it approaches the 20 EMA. About 60-80% of my trades are then done by 10:30, I place Stop Loss stops on the others and monitor them. This is when I get LOST and can't friggin trade. I am wondering if I should continue to monitor the Opening stocks and continue to trade them or look at others. I normally don't trade my OPEN stocks after I have exited my postion. Any other ideas? Mac