Aphie's REAL Trading Journal

[Trend Fader]

Originally posted by aphexcoil


I read Allen's journal. He does a very good job controlling his emotions in my opinion.

Honestly, and I don't mean to sound like I've discovered everything from two days of trading -- but it seems to me that trading really is 90% emotional control / discipline. You could take any system with a slight edge and use some creativity to get ahead *IF* you can master your head.

Before I started trading, I told myself I'd be calm. Well, you can't just switch off your emotions. Many of you are experienced pro-traders and probably have a lot more control over your emotions than I do right now. However, I sometimes get this feeling that, when I get in the market with ES, that some great pit will open up underneath me and the market will fly away from me and I will get hurt bad.

I don't feel anxiety trading SPY or QQQ. I don't understand it. I can sit there and calmly trade QQQ and SPY and make small scalps effortlessly, but as soon as I enter into the market with ES, I feel like there is a loaded pistol pointed at my head.

Brother,

Its the leverage. You really shouldn't be trading such big size. The smaller the size and less significant the loss.. the easier it will be to follow a system.

I had a friend that started trading an ES contract and was scared shitless whenever he took a loss.. and never ended up following his game plan for this reason. He had a $7,000 account and each loss was $100 and the gain was $300. Thats %1.5 of account per loss.. 3 losses.. woops his account is down %4.5.

Then he started to trade another instrument with much smaller size.. $25 loss and $75 gain. What a huge difference it made. He ended up following his rules and turned out to be a good trader. He really didn't mind taking $25 losses.. so it was easy for him to take the loss. $100 loss was big for him.. he was young and can not afford it.

THe point is.. you should not be trading the ES or NQ.. you really should not be day trading at all. Your best bet probably would be swing trade very small right now given the $5k in your account.

When you get more $.. like $50k then you should be daytrading or playing the ES. Remember one thing... the only way to follow a trading system or plan.. is to take your losses so small that it doesn't even have the slightest effect.

Obviously, this is not the case with the ES or NQ... ( and don't try to tighten your stops.. because you will die from a thousand cuts). Remember ES is around $45k a contract. %10 drawdown and you are finished.


---MIKE

 

[nkhoi]

Originally posted by Trend Fader

you really should not be day trading at all. Your best bet probably would be swing trade very small right now given the $5k in your account.
---MIKE

stocks to trade http://www2.barchart.com/padvance.asp

 

[dojibear]

Originally posted by aphexcoil
I just spoke with my father and there is the possibility that he will give me 25k in January. Perhaps I should just do small things do I can add this 5k to that 25k and then get serious about daytrading stocks, futures, etc.

I may also add an additional 10k to that amount and work with a 40k account.

In the meantime, I will continue trading lightly.

I will keep you all informed.

Aphie,
Please, promise me (us) that if you lost 15K on that 40K, you'll stop trading and get a job untill you get another 15K. ok? please, promise me that.
I don't want to be negative, but it's not if, but when you will lose it. The journey is long, and 15K is a very small fare one has to pay.
It's ok to lose your money, but please, don't lose your family's money.
I don't want to put you down, I don't want to make any jokes, I just want to speak my mind.

Cheers!!

 

[nitro]

Originally posted by Trend Fader
...
Obviously, this is not the case with the ES or NQ... ( and don't try to tighten your stops.. because you will die from a thousand cuts). Remember ES is around $45k a contract. %10 drawdown and you are finished.
---MIKE

Bingo!

nitro

 

[aphexcoil]

Originally posted by soes_bandit
I have a question. Do you have a job, career in something else? How do you spend your time? Obviously you are not a professional trader (yet) Did you inherit an estate of money, or are your parents just very well off? You seem fairly intelligent so it is confusing as to what you are doing here. It seems you need some direction. If you had top grades in a top college then i recommend visiting hrld.com. What you are doing here is something you can get into after several years on an extensive wall street trading floor. As for now, at your stage you need to be a part of something established, large and where real traders are...not these bozos on ET. I will not bother to respond to flaming responses from the idiots here either. Another thing to you....real traders are here, but lurking. anyone who has a (system) or can trade for a damn will NOT share his secrets because why create extra competition for yourself. The people that are responding to you are all novices and sheep.

I have a decent job and I still attend college. I'm doing this because it is something that I'd like to put my heart into and learn and evolve.

I agree with you that a lot of people on ET don't have anything of value to offer, but as you can see in this journal, a lot of people do have something valuable to offer.

I will have to work at this for some time until I find my edge and then exploit it. The market has always been a passion of mine. The first time I watched MSFT on level II, I was just taken back by the beauty of a free market.

We see all these bids and asks and they are coming from all over the world -- from the offices in Chicago and New York and from a farm house in Iowa that has DSL. To me, the market is an apex of art, science and chaos. It is beautiful to watch and a real bitch to trade with emotionless execution.

 

[aphexcoil]

Originally posted by Dr. Zhivodka

No junior, what separates you from some here is that some of us have spent YEARS learning and honing our craft to a fine edge before we even uttered the first word about our own trading.

And I'm not talking about some three year NASDAQ love-fest. Some of us have been in the markets for 15-20 years. I have seen people like you you come and go.

You on the other hand post and pose and pontificate all without even the slightest idea of what YOU are made of under fire. This is leaving aside your complete lack of understand of the market. The way YOU react in the face of uncertainty is now abundantly clear, you freak.... then you take a loss... you freak again....

And now that you are embarrassed that you've exposed your own naiveté, you act as though you are a freshman in the sprit club who's been felt-up on prom night.

It is ok, you're still a virgin.

Now back up, go away, read, learn, think and then in three months come back to the Big-Top and try your luck again.

The humility to secede is innate in some, in others it’s learned; in others still it’s never found.



Peace,
Dr. Zhivodka

You wouldn't by any chance have taught economics at UMBC, would you? Are you that same professor that was teaching efficient market theory and driving a 1990 Honda Civic?

Let's see your account statements, oh great one.

 

[aphexcoil]

Originally posted by dojibear


Aphie,
Please, promise me (us) that if you lost 15K on that 40K, you'll stop trading and get a job untill you get another 15K. ok? please, promise me that.
I don't want to be negative, but it's not if, but when you will lose it. The journey is long, and 15K is a very small fare one has to pay.
It's ok to lose your money, but please, don't lose your family's money.
I don't want to put you down, I don't want to make any jokes, I just want to speak my mind.

Cheers!!

Thanks Doji but 25k isn't going to break my parent's bank.

 

[dottom]

Originally posted by aphexcoil
I will have to work at this for some time until I find my edge and then exploit it. The market has always been a passion of mine.

I thought you already found your edge with your sophisticated program that was backtested, forward tested, and paper traded on the simulator? You rebuffed everyone's advice about what the system can and cannot do and insisted that you had a positive edge after slippage and commissions.

My question is why aren't you trading that system??

 

[Dr. Zhivodka]

Originally posted by aphexcoil


....1990 Honda Civic?

Let's see your account statements, oh great one.

Honda? You gotta be kidding me. I haven't driven a rice burner since the early '80's. But I did just take delivery of a X5.


Any time.

Next time you are on the West Coast come by the office and say hi to the boyz and me. I run a Hedge Fund in Santa Barbara. We're on State Street about 6 blocks off the Ocean.

Oh, except January is no good, I'll be in New Zealand for the month.


Regards,
Dr. Zhivodka


BTW: Here is some sincere advice. You sound like a good enough kid, forget this daytrading experiment. Get your ASS onto to one of the exchanges while you're still young. Go to the AMEX option floor or one the Chicago pits and grunt around and hustle and learn on someone else's dime. You'll be amazed at the opportunities that open up for you. If it doesn't work out you can always come back and be retail.

 

[Beer Man]

Originally posted by Dr. Zhivodka



BTW: Here is some sincere advice. You sound like a good enough kid, forget this daytrading experiment. Get your ASS onto to one of the exchanges while you're still young. Go to the AMEX option floor or one the Chicago pits and grunt around and hustle and learn on someone else's dime. You'll be amazed at the opportunities that open up for you. If it doesn't work out you can always come back and be retail.

Alpphonso-
This is the best advice youve heard just yet. Well after youve lost your first 5g's for your sake, you follow these ideas and your chances go much higher