Aphie's REAL Trading Journal
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Do yourself one favor, and try to avoid options expirations as a beginner...In past years, you had better "runs" into expirations...1999 comes to mind as a year that had cleaner action...Same thing with 2000...But nowadays, in this bear market condition, options expirations(especially the Thurs and Fri of the expiration) are filled with hidden agendas, pins to strike, programs to upset the balance...WIth your limited amount of capital, unfortunately, selectivity is your best friend...As you have seen from the quick drawdowns, trading the minis with 5k in a market with this much program trading, "noise", etc. is a beast...Either you need more capital or you need to find a way to make solid decisions that are not going to shakeout you out with every uptick and downtick...
These are the kind of small yet important details that give traders an edge.
This is the kind of thing I need to do by putting two and two together.
If MSFT is coming out with their earnings in a quarter where everyone is looking for guidance, and suddenly MSFT moves strong afterhours and there is a divergence between MSFT and YM or ES or NQ, then the smart trader would capitalize on that.
These are the small things that go beyond a simple mechanical system, IMO.
Aphi
Just a few comments:
1) You seem to have given yourself "permission" to lose, as has most everyone else posting to this journal! Kind of like it is to be expected, like it's the norm. Don't know about anyone else, but I don't enter into ANYTHING expecting to lose, ever. I EXPECT to win, period, or I don't do it. Maybe that's the first lesson you need to learn, that you don't have to lose.
2) How do you keep from losing? You start with some type of plan. Without a plan you're a loose cannon....and from your journal it's obvious that you're a loose cannon. If you're going to do that just write me a check...I'll save you the time. But if you want to win you start with an end in mind...you start with a plan.
3) What is a plan? It could be REAL simple, starting with what to trade? Now Aphie, for a supposedly smart guy you're pretty dumb. Why on earth would you be trading securities with a $5K account? You're break the Day Trading Rules right off, and then be restricted. Why bother? Either pick the ES or the NQ, or give it up...you're just donating. The NQ is a somewhat smaller contract, so maybe it would be easier to involve yourself with it...but if you were going to use a 3 point stop in ES, you'll need a bigger one in NQ...let's say 5 points or so...which is $100.
4) Think about it....with a plan let's say you're going to risk $100 per trade. That means you have to make 20 unsuccessful trades to lose $2K.
5) Design a plan which when you're wrong losing $100-$150 let's say, but when you win makes you let's say $250-$300. Think about it....if you're only right half the time, you still WIN.
6) Can you design a plan which WINS half the time? I can't answer that. I thought that was what you were doing for the last couple of months. But maybe you were telling the truth...you were just masterbating! In any case, drop that little thing of yours and design some type of plan BEFORE you make ANY more trades.
Now Aphie, I don't want to read any more in here about these option trades with a one lot for God's sake...a credit spread at that which creates a 5 point risk to make .50....lol...give me a break. I don't want to read how you made $5 after commission. What I want to read is how you made 4 trades today, 2 right, 2 wrong, and made $200 before commission.
Once you've designed a plan, test it against the market, see if it works IN THEORY before you commit your money to it. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but YOU have to be able to execute it PERFECTLY. So if it isn't designed for YOU, YOU won't do it.
Now frankly, I'm not that big on "systems". But I'm not you Aphie...I've learned some discipline...and discipline seems to be the quality you're mighty short on. A system that keeps you and your emotions under control is the ticket for you right now.
Again, do it before you lose. Losing is NOT OK. And it's NOT necessary.
OldTrader
Just a few comments:
1) You seem to have given yourself "permission" to lose, as has most everyone else posting to this journal! Kind of like it is to be expected, like it's the norm. Don't know about anyone else, but I don't enter into ANYTHING expecting to lose, ever. I EXPECT to win, period, or I don't do it. Maybe that's the first lesson you need to learn, that you don't have to lose.
2) How do you keep from losing? You start with some type of plan. Without a plan you're a loose cannon....and from your journal it's obvious that you're a loose cannon. If you're going to do that just write me a check...I'll save you the time. But if you want to win you start with an end in mind...you start with a plan.
3) What is a plan? It could be REAL simple, starting with what to trade? Now Aphie, for a supposedly smart guy you're pretty dumb. Why on earth would you be trading securities with a $5K account? You're break the Day Trading Rules right off, and then be restricted. Why bother? Either pick the ES or the NQ, or give it up...you're just donating. The NQ is a somewhat smaller contract, so maybe it would be easier to involve yourself with it...but if you were going to use a 3 point stop in ES, you'll need a bigger one in NQ...let's say 5 points or so...which is $100.
4) Think about it....with a plan let's say you're going to risk $100 per trade. That means you have to make 20 unsuccessful trades to lose $2K.
5) Design a plan which when you're wrong losing $100-$150 let's say, but when you win makes you let's say $250-$300. Think about it....if you're only right half the time, you still WIN.
6) Can you design a plan which WINS half the time? I can't answer that. I thought that was what you were doing for the last couple of months. But maybe you were telling the truth...you were just masterbating! In any case, drop that little thing of yours and design some type of plan BEFORE you make ANY more trades.
Now Aphie, I don't want to read any more in here about these option trades with a one lot for God's sake...a credit spread at that which creates a 5 point risk to make .50....lol...give me a break. I don't want to read how you made $5 after commission. What I want to read is how you made 4 trades today, 2 right, 2 wrong, and made $200 before commission.
Once you've designed a plan, test it against the market, see if it works IN THEORY before you commit your money to it. Again, it doesn't have to be perfect, but YOU have to be able to execute it PERFECTLY. So if it isn't designed for YOU, YOU won't do it.
Now frankly, I'm not that big on "systems". But I'm not you Aphie...I've learned some discipline...and discipline seems to be the quality you're mighty short on. A system that keeps you and your emotions under control is the ticket for you right now.
Again, do it before you lose. Losing is NOT OK. And it's NOT necessary.
OldTrader
Geez,Originally posted by darkhorse
You may well be right nitro- I hesitate to give trade specific or method specific advice to people since methodologies and personalities are such individual things. In recommending a mechanical beginning, I may have strayed from that discipline. But the reasoning for it was not to promote one style of trading over another, but more in the interests of initial discipline and intuition development.
Remember the Karate Kid? If the market is Mr. Miyagi, then starting mechanical is kind of like 'wax on/wax off, paint the fence' imho.
Walking the path of excellence is like walking a balance beam; lean too far to the right or the left and you fall off- maintain equilibrium and you move forward. Some people are too overeager to jump in before they can swim and trade wildly from the start; others are overly cautious and rigorous to a fault, hesitantly moving forward an inch at a time and fighting their fears every step of the way.
So, good advice for Jim might be terrible advice for Joe and vice versa. It was my impression that Aphie had such a surge of emotion that it was like getting clopped over the head with a sledge hammer made of silly putty, and that he was responding to it by reaching out hither and thither (the salad bar analogy).
The advantage of starting with a mechanical approach as I see it, even if only for a short length of time, is that it gets you through the adjustment phase- like training wheels on a bike. Emotions might always be an issue for some traders, but no matter what they will always be more of an issue in the very beginning and tone down a bit later as newness is replaced w/ experience. Thus following a rigid system for a little while- getting a few dozen trades under your belt, executing under a set of systematic rules- gives a chance for that initial fear / euphoria blast to wash itself out while protecting the newbie from anything too crazy or dumb (as long as he is following the system).
It also seems to me that we learn by riffing off other ideas and putting our own twist on them. Great novelists grow up reading other great novels; great musicians have heavy musical influences from other great musicians etc. A common question from the beginning trader is "where the @#$% do I start?" I say, why reinvent the wheel? Find something that appears to work in real time, something robust enough and straightforward enough that it's very hard to screw up, then just observe it in action for a while.
Observing a simple system in action, and thinking about it constantly as you observe, is like planting a thought garden- ideas will spring up over time, and those ideas will help move you in the right direction as defined by your skillset and mindset rather than anyone else's. Some might get even more mechanical, others much less so. Some might move to even shorter time frames, others to longer time frames etc. But you have to actually trade and observe in real time- books and simulations don't count- because You are a key element of the process.
Maybe it's like a science experiment. There are three chemical compounds: the market, the method, and YOU. What happens when all three are mixed together? This has to be found out through real time experimenting, but you want to do so in such a way that the lab (your trading account) doesn't blow up.
p.s. I personally am in the discretionary camp by most anyone's definition, but what I do feels mechanical in a lot of ways because there is so much structure to it. Dichanical? Mechscretionary?
You sure are convincing when you put it that way - were you in debate team?
I see what you are saying...my only fear is that, if you would allow me to quote a famous movie, is that once you start down the dark side, forever will it rule your destiny...
nitro
Aphie, let me start out by being perfectly blunt. You have annoyed me, and others to the max. But letâs put the past behind us....
But let me continue to be blunt. You ainât too good at this â and youâre not alone. Itâs hard, and full of pit falls. You have received much good advice, but even that you simply are not ready for.
You are losing your hard earned money, and you are making a fool of yourself. Yes alphie, you have a lot of good, decent traders trying to help (traders helping traders : )), but you have even more cynical old bastards like me, laughing our heads off.
And while itâs fun, it ainât right. What you need at this point is discipline â real honest to god discipline. You need focus. You need undeniable rules. You need a system/method that requires almost no room for your input.
There is such a method posted right here on this board. One that fits the above criteria, and one that truly works. Quahâs SVS.
Look kid, cut the crap. All the attention may be nice, but profits are a lot nicer. Itâs time to end the pity party. Itâs time to stop with the pseudo intellectual âtrader talkâ. Swallow your pride. Do what you have to do. Disappear for as long as it takes you to pull it off.
So let me conclude by being more blunt...I hope that you donât take the advice, because I look forward to your inevitable demise, and laughing along all the way. I donât like you, aphie. But I also know that you really arenât âaphieâ, but rather some kid named Joe, or Bill, or whatever. So my advice is for the real you, not the little obnoxious bullshitter you have created.
Think about it, kid.
But let me continue to be blunt. You ainât too good at this â and youâre not alone. Itâs hard, and full of pit falls. You have received much good advice, but even that you simply are not ready for.
You are losing your hard earned money, and you are making a fool of yourself. Yes alphie, you have a lot of good, decent traders trying to help (traders helping traders : )), but you have even more cynical old bastards like me, laughing our heads off.
And while itâs fun, it ainât right. What you need at this point is discipline â real honest to god discipline. You need focus. You need undeniable rules. You need a system/method that requires almost no room for your input.
There is such a method posted right here on this board. One that fits the above criteria, and one that truly works. Quahâs SVS.
Look kid, cut the crap. All the attention may be nice, but profits are a lot nicer. Itâs time to end the pity party. Itâs time to stop with the pseudo intellectual âtrader talkâ. Swallow your pride. Do what you have to do. Disappear for as long as it takes you to pull it off.
So let me conclude by being more blunt...I hope that you donât take the advice, because I look forward to your inevitable demise, and laughing along all the way. I donât like you, aphie. But I also know that you really arenât âaphieâ, but rather some kid named Joe, or Bill, or whatever. So my advice is for the real you, not the little obnoxious bullshitter you have created.
Think about it, kid.
What gets me is all this talk about trading being equated to war or battles or samurai, or some freakin Ancient Chinese Secret. Like it's some noble quest akin to slaying dragons. Hey, if helps you to believe you're on a battle field taking casualties and kung-fooing your way to stardom, then by all means, bombs away.
Metaphors aside; you sit behind a monitor (pit traders not withstanding), watch some pretty blinking lights and numbers and squiggly lines, and push a few buttons based on what you see and feel. Not a whole lot to get worked up about.
Maybe if we accepted trading for what it is instead of blowing it up into the second coming of Christ, some of the baggage may be eliminated.
I hope you do well aphie.
Metaphors aside; you sit behind a monitor (pit traders not withstanding), watch some pretty blinking lights and numbers and squiggly lines, and push a few buttons based on what you see and feel. Not a whole lot to get worked up about.
Maybe if we accepted trading for what it is instead of blowing it up into the second coming of Christ, some of the baggage may be eliminated.
I hope you do well aphie.
reading all these post, it's amazing how people make trading so difficult
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