yep.. i love oldtrader. (no i'm not gay)
Aphie's REAL Trading Journal
- Thread starter aphexcoil
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lol this is a great thread.
GREAT post, OldTrader. And very true, especially the part about the horse better waiting days to place a bet.
Often times my wife will ask why I didn't trade on a day like Monday when the market was up big and it was simply because I didn't feel comfortable trading "just because". Fact is, I'm a conservative daytrader and there wasn't anything that I felt I could make money on. So you skip the trade or day for that matter. Like the AMEX commercial says, "Opportunity made fresh daily".
Oftentimes the trades you don't take are just as important as the ones you do.
Often times my wife will ask why I didn't trade on a day like Monday when the market was up big and it was simply because I didn't feel comfortable trading "just because". Fact is, I'm a conservative daytrader and there wasn't anything that I felt I could make money on. So you skip the trade or day for that matter. Like the AMEX commercial says, "Opportunity made fresh daily".
Oftentimes the trades you don't take are just as important as the ones you do.
after reading some more, i gotta disagree with 2 things.
DON'T ADD MORE MONEY TO YOUR ACCOUNT. more money is NOT the problem, YOU'RE the problem!
some people say you don't have enough money to trade....well shit, he was able to LOSE 10% in 2 days. if that was possible, why can't he make 10% in 2 days? the size of his account is not the issue. the issue is, can he learn fast enough what he is doing wrong before he loses it all. starting with a drawdown is another roadblock.
DON'T ADD MORE MONEY TO YOUR ACCOUNT. more money is NOT the problem, YOU'RE the problem!
some people say you don't have enough money to trade....well shit, he was able to LOSE 10% in 2 days. if that was possible, why can't he make 10% in 2 days? the size of his account is not the issue. the issue is, can he learn fast enough what he is doing wrong before he loses it all. starting with a drawdown is another roadblock.
i agree with this guy. aphie, you're obviously not stupid. i think you're a bright guy. yeah, a little niave...but who wasn't when they first started.
like amkeer said, don't keep throwing money into your account while you don't know how to trade good. save it til you do. that's what i'm doing.
whoa guys! hold up for just one cotton pickin' minute... let's get a bit of perpective here.... the boy's trading career is nary a week old! i think we can hold of the congressional inquiry into aphie's trading for a just a little while longer, can't we?
aphie, obviously reviewing past performance to learn from any mistakes that have been made is the right thing to do, and i don't wanna discourage you from doing it, but it almost seems as if you're trying to pack 6 months worth of experience into three days. face it, you made mistakes and you're most likely gonna make a hell of a lot more.
that's really where the account size issue comes into it. are you gonna turn the corner before your account runs out? maybe, maybe not... but trying to do it with one eye on your equity levels while nervously watching every tick go past can't be much of a help... still, that's your hand and if you've gotta play it..
in any case, $5k, while it's the world to you right now, isn't really a lot of money. working a full time job, ANYBODY looking to raise a stake should be able to (easily) put aside $10k in a year.. so your next shot in a worst case scenario isn't that far off anyway...
just to throw another bit of advice at you... (in case you haven't had enough)... switch to the NQs.. here's why:
with ES, if you're gonna be using any meaningful stop, it's probably gonna be at least 2 points, and even if it's less, you might aswell assume it's gonna be 2. that's $100 risk/contract.
with nq, the same $100 risk is 5 points away. imho, a 5pt NQ stop is a bit more meaningful than a 2pt ES stop, in that it's further away from pure noise.
that way, you can actually trade some bona fide setups...and not get taken out by the noise... so if you DO end up losing, at least there is something to be learnt from the experience...
aphie, obviously reviewing past performance to learn from any mistakes that have been made is the right thing to do, and i don't wanna discourage you from doing it, but it almost seems as if you're trying to pack 6 months worth of experience into three days. face it, you made mistakes and you're most likely gonna make a hell of a lot more.
that's really where the account size issue comes into it. are you gonna turn the corner before your account runs out? maybe, maybe not... but trying to do it with one eye on your equity levels while nervously watching every tick go past can't be much of a help... still, that's your hand and if you've gotta play it..
in any case, $5k, while it's the world to you right now, isn't really a lot of money. working a full time job, ANYBODY looking to raise a stake should be able to (easily) put aside $10k in a year.. so your next shot in a worst case scenario isn't that far off anyway...
just to throw another bit of advice at you... (in case you haven't had enough)... switch to the NQs.. here's why:
with ES, if you're gonna be using any meaningful stop, it's probably gonna be at least 2 points, and even if it's less, you might aswell assume it's gonna be 2. that's $100 risk/contract.
with nq, the same $100 risk is 5 points away. imho, a 5pt NQ stop is a bit more meaningful than a 2pt ES stop, in that it's further away from pure noise.
that way, you can actually trade some bona fide setups...and not get taken out by the noise... so if you DO end up losing, at least there is something to be learnt from the experience...
I've got to sort through all of this advice. Oldtrader, I owe you a response, but I'll do that a little later.
What I need to do now is figure out what all of this means. There are a lot of views here and they all could be right coming from their source -- but not be applicable to me and my psychological make-up.
I am going to review all of this and determine what I'm going to do come Monday.
Hmmmm ...
What I need to do now is figure out what all of this means. There are a lot of views here and they all could be right coming from their source -- but not be applicable to me and my psychological make-up.
I am going to review all of this and determine what I'm going to do come Monday.
Hmmmm ...
good stuff. this is obvious to us all, but it gets overlooked. i'm 24, but i still can notice differences in me. there are some things a few years ago that would make me do a kneejerk reaction. more and more now, i still want to do the kneejerk reaction, but i 2nd guess it. i control it and act more wisely...although i still feel it.
Originally posted by dojibear
way to go Alphie! first future trade !! I still remember mine !!
Like everyone said, go slowly, wet your feet, one toe at a time, that way, you don't get drowned!
The emotion in trading is very strong, be it profit or loss, it will take time to get used to it.
Cheers!!
Too bad the Aphster couldn't have started in '97 - '98. I remember starting with the same $5,000 and with the same daytrading visions. The first day, made $78 and then left for work about 11 AM. Continued to make a few hundred here and there. An incredible feeling of making money, seemingly from nothing, an extreme rush. Pumped up and couldn't get enough of it.
At the end of that first week, got ready, had done the picks and was ready for action. 9:20 AM getting a little tense ... 9:28 AM adrenalin is pumping. 9:30 AM . . . Wait . . . What the fu....! Nothing's moving . . 9:33 Zip . . . It was Saturday morning.
So THAT's why the premarket's been so quiet this morning. . .
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