Continue or Bin it?

[Brianharvey]

Unfortunately, its hard to say anything with this much data. I think you need data for at least 3 months, before any conclusion can be drawn. I agree with dom993 suggestion that aiming for bigger moves and lesser number of trades might yield better results.

I wish you the best!

Cool. I guess I'll see how i'm looking after a few more months.
I'' working on the 'less numbers of trades thing'.
I have about 5 trade setups/patterns, and recently i've been leeping statistics of the best perfoming ones and only trading them which is bring my average number of trades down a little

Saw your pnl numbers, it's hard to provide any meaningful feedback because there's a lot of missing information, like which equities and what's your risk/reward structure, etc. If whatever strategy you're using was working on ES futures, I suggest you go back to trading them.

For equities you need to consider each stock differently--they're not all created equal, and the ones with higher risk (higher Beta, higher IV) will give you better opportunities to catch a move. You can trade the slower moving stocks (lower IV, lower Beta), but you'll have to hold the position longer. You'll also have to adjust your stops (or whatever other risk control you use) accordingly, look at daily ATR (Average True Range) to get a general idea of how much the stock might move. Of course there's a ton of other things to consider but it all depends on your trading philosophy.

I've been trading NYSE and Nasdaq stocks. Looking for high volume stocks priced between $20-$50 or so, and then using charts/TA for entry ideas.
Stops are typically around 20c and targets are typicaly a little bigger.

I traded the ES using different patterns (typical trendline breaks etc) but I done even worse than my current equities attempts!

are these your first 200 live trades? then congratulations on above break even.
Are you day trading? if so, it will take thousands of trades to get a hang imo.

as gsmt says get the least commissions. if you are day trading commissions are quite a significant portion of your PnL. Can make or break in the long term, platforms are easy to get around with.

My first 200 live trades on equities, yes. A yes, daytrading.

Certainly gonna look into IB.

However, I'd like to trade CFD's with IB.
Has anyone got any experience of them with IB? (pretty sure it's still only 0.5c per share but how are they otherwise?)

 

[Brianharvey]

Had my worst day since starting on Friday just gone, but had one of my best days today.

5 trades today
+95cents profit.
(all trades have a max stop of aroud 15cents and target of around 30cents)

 

[EsKiller]

I've been trading NYSE and Nasdaq stocks. Looking for high volume stocks priced between $20-$50 or so, and then using charts/TA for entry ideas.
Stops are typically around 20c and targets are typicaly a little bigger.

I traded the ES using different patterns (typical trendline breaks etc) but I done even worse than my current equities attempts!


)

What I've learned is a good ES strategy will also work on other markets. Trend lines are only a confirmation tool, and should never be used as an entry IMO. There's no edge in trend lines that I ever saw. Once I got good at trading ES, i was able to move this strategy over to other markets that are much more profitable.

Just my 2 cents. Keep looking at those charts. It's a long journey.....nothing u can master after only 200 live trades.

 

[Brianharvey]

What I've learned is a good ES strategy will also work on other markets. Trend lines are only a confirmation tool, and should never be used as an entry IMO. There's no edge in trend lines that I ever saw. Once I got good at trading ES, i was able to move this strategy over to other markets that are much more profitable.

Just my 2 cents. Keep looking at those charts. It's a long journey.....nothing u can master after only 200 live trades.

Thanks.
For what it's worth, i'm convinced that the answer to true consistently profitable trading isn't in the charts at all. i've had this hinted at me a number of times from people who make money.
But since I don't know what they are referring to (they've told me what it's NOT though) I can only work with what I have (charts)

Regarding 200 trades.
I should have made clear, I've probably placed more like 10,000 trades or so!
Most of them have been on indicies, FX, oil, etc.

The 200 refers to the number of live trades on equities so far (which im now too)

regards.

 

[EsKiller]

Thanks.
For what it's worth, i'm convinced that the answer to true consistently profitable trading isn't in the charts at all. i've had this hinted at me a number of times from people who make money.
But since I don't know what they are referring to (they've told me what it's NOT though) I can only work with what I have (charts)

Regarding 200 trades.
I should have made clear, I've probably placed more like 10,000 trades or so!
Most of them have been on indicies, FX, oil, etc.

The 200 refers to the number of live trades on equities so far (which im now too)

regards.

U can become consistent in trading with charts although it's not the only way. It takes years of studying how a market moves to get good at it. My advice to u is to stop trading, and choose a market u want to master and study years of past charts with no intention other than observation. Flip flopping from market to market is not the answer, nor will it ever be. U need to master a market. 6-9 months of pure observation of past charts or until u start to see something worthwhile.

 

[Wide Tailz]

Just give up already, you already convinced yourself it's impossible and surprise - you produced just enough of a disappointing result to maintain this belief.

 

[Brianharvey]

U can become consistent in trading with charts although it's not the only way. It takes years of studying how a market moves to get good at it. My advice to u is to stop trading, and choose a market u want to master and study years of past charts with no intention other than observation. Flip flopping from market to market is not the answer, nor will it ever be. U need to master a market. 6-9 months of pure observation of past charts or until u start to see something worthwhile.

I certainly hope it's possible with charts alone(because they're all ive got! ) although i've seen very little proof that that's the case in the last 5 years or so on various trading forums.
But Hopefully I WILL make it with charts alone

The method im implementing now is the result of 6 months or so of live market/demo trading/testing etc.

Just give up already, you already convinced yourself it's impossible and surprise - you produced just enough of a disappointing result to maintain this belief.

thanks for your input

 

[Brianharvey]

Including today.
523 cents profit since inception.
(not sure how many cents profit good traders make in a typical day trading equities.
100+??)

Maybe i'll adjust my numbers/do a comparison using 0.5c per share commissions rather than 1c per share I currently pay.

 

[Spearhead]

I certainly hope it's possible with charts alone(because they're all ive got! ) although i've seen very little proof that that's the case in the last 5 years or so on various trading forums.
But Hopefully I WILL make it with charts alone

Why do you think you ONLY have charts? Personally, I'm in the camp that thinks charts-only won't cut it. With the time you spend staring at charts, you could be studying the impact of news flow, get familiar with company fundamentals, etc. As for charts, I think they're useful as well, but for me personally it's definitely just an auxiliary thing.

 

[Brianharvey]

quite tough, but green.

8 trades though.
4 winners, 4 losers.

I'm trying to keep it down to 6 max at the moment, really.