Beware of someone saying its a "shorters" market. I make money on both sides. You have to learn how to short....but its not the only side you can play. Remeber...your trying to be a trader...not a fundmanager, or some broker. You must trade both sides, and know when to do it. Only the sheep are shorting heavy now. risk controll.....Discipline and staying ontop of the market is key. Your coming in at a time that many traders are leaving. Breaking even as a rookie is good for now. It could take you a few more months or a year or two to put up sizable profits. It is hard to compare this to others who traded the bull. I know many idiots who put up numbers when things where going up and up ....however,,,,many of them are now back in the workforce... The key...LIVE BELOW YOUR MEANS FOR NOW. Build up a safty net of cash to live on. Do not believe the bullshit you read on this site, and always stay positive. er
The responses WOW! I wish I posted this question months ago! Great responses people! Thank you! So far the consensus seems to be short the market and go long when necessary since the prevailing trend has been down. I have been trying to master one side of the market, the long side. Not a good thing to do in this market! My choice when I first started should have been master short side. I will revise my thought process and implement the new rules! I will trade both sides. I will also keep a daily log as suggested by another member. The log will contain copies of the charts with entry and exit points. Thanks for the suggestion. Your all helpful and thanks! I really appreciate it. Keep the advice coming..
wtf are you talking about?? of course momentum traders short- like when a stock breaks a key support level....... you can't survive only going long- and thats ludacris to tell someone that. well, at least i sure as hell would never be an "only long" trader.
haha! what a classic! let me paraphrase that, "what you're doing now isn't profitable, but i know, increase your size!" man i am literally LOL! bro, with friends like these, who needs enemies, right? here's my .02 of advice: firstly, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt and believe when you say you've been at this for two years, trading off 1-minutes bars and never shorted AND use an email broker. (and you're only down 25% - thank your lucky stars!) secondly, why not read through the hundreds of pages of threads here on ET. you'll have to dig a bit, but there are some real gems in them thar hills.
... hmmm... read my post again... .. or maybe I should clarify : as momentum trader, I meant having a buy stp a few ticks above resistance, and sell stp a few ticks below support, if price broke, you're instantly filled, and go for this momentum. You could do that with futures, but not with stocks (short), due to the uptick rule, it the price broke support, you'll have to wait for retracement before shorting it. Cheers !!
Amkeer, if you are not making it with 60/40 ratio â my guess is that you have a large number of small winners and a small number of large losers. Mend your ways, sir!
Reading your posts and considering you have been trading for 2 years it seems to me you are pretty clueless on how to become profitable. I think you need a setup, that gives you an edge. You only need one to make a decent living. On the webite of Linda Raschke and at www.dacharts.com you'll find plenty of them. Good luck.
That has been a problem. I have kept that in check by eliminating the speculative trades or holding overnight. Thanks for the great posts and keep them coming.