The title is pretty self-explainatory.
But short story first: Got interested in day-trading 2 yrs ago, traded a little in 07 (mixed results), decided to go at it this year. Needless to say the results have been, erm disappointing.
So far this year I am down about $4,200 just day-trading. But what's worse is that the system that I have developed in response to my earlier losses is not working outside my Excel spreadsheet.
The system seemed almost 'bulletproof' during paper-trading. I figured that I'd just take signals from Stock Picker RT, enter above 10:00 High (by $0.10-0.50 depending on the price of the stock) and set a 1.5% Trailing Stop. Since the SPRT stocks could go either way after 10AM, I would also set Short Buy Orders and set Trailing Stops on the Short side. Throw in some ProShares (also buying over 10AM High) and I'm golden I thought.
Not quiet.
This Monday (9/22) I have made $100 on 3 small positions (about $6000 each, about half of what I anticipated I'd do), and sky seemed the limit. However, I have skipped Tuesday (which according to my spreadhseet would have been hugely profitable) and yesterday and today...well, nothing works.
I have opened a total of 11 positions in those 2 days and none was a winner.
NOT A SINGLE ONE.
This is just from today (all Long):
AMT. Entered at 36.69, lost $24
CMCSA. Entered at 19.95, lost $60
DIS. Entered at 32.88, lost $75
ARO. Entered at 31.83, lost $70
PL. Entered at 32.55, lost $132
MYGN. Entered at 68,63, lost $61
And it goes on.
I can only blame lack of preparation and overconfidence. Right now I feel like I am on a raft that is falling apart in the middle of the storm that is getting fiercer.
I am skipping again tomorrow and I guess it's back to the drawing board if next week keeps going like this...
Thanks for reading. I seriously needed to ventilate this.
But short story first: Got interested in day-trading 2 yrs ago, traded a little in 07 (mixed results), decided to go at it this year. Needless to say the results have been, erm disappointing.
So far this year I am down about $4,200 just day-trading. But what's worse is that the system that I have developed in response to my earlier losses is not working outside my Excel spreadsheet.
The system seemed almost 'bulletproof' during paper-trading. I figured that I'd just take signals from Stock Picker RT, enter above 10:00 High (by $0.10-0.50 depending on the price of the stock) and set a 1.5% Trailing Stop. Since the SPRT stocks could go either way after 10AM, I would also set Short Buy Orders and set Trailing Stops on the Short side. Throw in some ProShares (also buying over 10AM High) and I'm golden I thought.
Not quiet.
This Monday (9/22) I have made $100 on 3 small positions (about $6000 each, about half of what I anticipated I'd do), and sky seemed the limit. However, I have skipped Tuesday (which according to my spreadhseet would have been hugely profitable) and yesterday and today...well, nothing works.
I have opened a total of 11 positions in those 2 days and none was a winner.
NOT A SINGLE ONE.
This is just from today (all Long):
AMT. Entered at 36.69, lost $24
CMCSA. Entered at 19.95, lost $60
DIS. Entered at 32.88, lost $75
ARO. Entered at 31.83, lost $70
PL. Entered at 32.55, lost $132
MYGN. Entered at 68,63, lost $61
And it goes on.
I can only blame lack of preparation and overconfidence. Right now I feel like I am on a raft that is falling apart in the middle of the storm that is getting fiercer.
I am skipping again tomorrow and I guess it's back to the drawing board if next week keeps going like this...
Thanks for reading. I seriously needed to ventilate this.