Day In, Day Out
- Thread starter tzheng
- Start date
COMS 8.7, stop 8.95, now 8.85, -$180
FAX 6.42, stop 6.52, stopout -$50
CK 7.64, stop 7.75, stopout -$140
BBA 7.9, stop 8.1. now 8.03, -$160
ENMC 8.9, stop 9.11, now 8.89, -$40
EXLT 7.7, stop 7.86, now 7.84, -$170
ARRY 7.62, stop 7.84, now 7.37, keep
IMCO 8.7, 8.95, keep
ACAI 9.48, stop 9.74, no shot
BITI 7.3, stop 7.5, no shot
CHRS 6.13, stop 6.25, no shot
CDE 6.1, stop 6.23, no shot
DCEL 7.5, stop 7.73, no shot
HL 8, 8.25, no shot
INGP 6.7, 6.92, no shot
FAX 6.42, stop 6.52, stopout -$50
CK 7.64, stop 7.75, stopout -$140
BBA 7.9, stop 8.1. now 8.03, -$160
ENMC 8.9, stop 9.11, now 8.89, -$40
EXLT 7.7, stop 7.86, now 7.84, -$170
ARRY 7.62, stop 7.84, now 7.37, keep
IMCO 8.7, 8.95, keep
ACAI 9.48, stop 9.74, no shot
BITI 7.3, stop 7.5, no shot
CHRS 6.13, stop 6.25, no shot
CDE 6.1, stop 6.23, no shot
DCEL 7.5, stop 7.73, no shot
HL 8, 8.25, no shot
INGP 6.7, 6.92, no shot
Looking back, the short positions are perfectly good ideas in Jan 26th, one day before the fast down slide starting from Jan 27th. I didn't make money shorting because my short strategy was still in research, but mainly because I screwed up big in Jan 27th. Funny thing is that January of last year I was making money left and right during the downslide.
On Jan 27th, I had four long positions all making good money, then Greenspan hinted the chance of rate hike, market crashed down, my sizable gain is gone. I came back from lunch around 2:30 and I was stunned at the now disappearing profit. Then I noticed my email alert is broken, sub-consciously denying the fact I should have set up at least some trailing stop, I went ahead to repair the email thing.
I fixed the email, tested it, and it worked great. I said to myself you are damn good and checked my positions. Shit! Now the break-even turns into a loss.
Next day, which is Wendesday, I brought myself together and began actively managing the stop and limit. Unfortunately I can only make one order at a time, so I have to switch back and forth between the limit and the stop order. Close to noon my computer caught up with something and run extremely slow and soon, damn, the brokerage site totally went down. It did not recover until the next day. Now a loss turns into a big loss.
I became very depressed.
On Jan 27th, I had four long positions all making good money, then Greenspan hinted the chance of rate hike, market crashed down, my sizable gain is gone. I came back from lunch around 2:30 and I was stunned at the now disappearing profit. Then I noticed my email alert is broken, sub-consciously denying the fact I should have set up at least some trailing stop, I went ahead to repair the email thing.
I fixed the email, tested it, and it worked great. I said to myself you are damn good and checked my positions. Shit! Now the break-even turns into a loss.
Next day, which is Wendesday, I brought myself together and began actively managing the stop and limit. Unfortunately I can only make one order at a time, so I have to switch back and forth between the limit and the stop order. Close to noon my computer caught up with something and run extremely slow and soon, damn, the brokerage site totally went down. It did not recover until the next day. Now a loss turns into a big loss.
I became very depressed.
I knew the market had changed since three weeks ago. It changed from a trendy market, which favors the momentum setup, into a rangy market, which favors swing setup. But I wasn't prepared yet.
Two years ago I had made one scan which would have worked nicely in this environment, I backtested intensively with good results, and I traded with real money for a few months with break-even results due to my poor execution - wrong sizing, blowing through stop etc. Well, break-even is not bad given all the other misktakes I made, then all of sudden, the scan dried up, weeks after weeks there is no opportunity.
That was catastrophic, because I had built some expectation for monthly income and the fact that this scan no longer works drove me crazy. I then tried new things, experimented with real money, before I could make my new setup good enough, I blew the stops again and again, but this time the setup was not there to save me. Tens of thousands of dollars were lost.
Now think back, what happened was the market had just morphed from a rangy one to a trendy one (just opposite of what is happening now). This time I am better prepared, but still quite maniac and lost some money as I have to do lot of research and testing on new setups in addition to just preparing the daily routine.
Two years ago I had made one scan which would have worked nicely in this environment, I backtested intensively with good results, and I traded with real money for a few months with break-even results due to my poor execution - wrong sizing, blowing through stop etc. Well, break-even is not bad given all the other misktakes I made, then all of sudden, the scan dried up, weeks after weeks there is no opportunity.
That was catastrophic, because I had built some expectation for monthly income and the fact that this scan no longer works drove me crazy. I then tried new things, experimented with real money, before I could make my new setup good enough, I blew the stops again and again, but this time the setup was not there to save me. Tens of thousands of dollars were lost.
Now think back, what happened was the market had just morphed from a rangy one to a trendy one (just opposite of what is happening now). This time I am better prepared, but still quite maniac and lost some money as I have to do lot of research and testing on new setups in addition to just preparing the daily routine.
I am scrambling to put together a plan for trade for tomorrow, got some idea, but now it is already late and I am far from finish yet. I guess I have to pass.
In the last few days, the research I did two weeks ago on shorting started to pay me back some. My execution is now better. One of the most frustrating thing is that I could get my prediction right, get in the right stock, and the stock is moving as predicted, but I still didn't make money or, as it had happened a number of times, I even lost money.
The idea I got for tomorrow is finding high-beta, low-price, small-cap, high-growth, down-big stock. I did a scan using msn.com, which has good fundamental data to use in a scan and found 24 results.
However what to do with it -- risk/reward, how many days to hold, stop-loss, sizing ? I still need a couple days to sort it through.
This morning my email alert gave me 7 signals, the least of which would return 5% in the first hour as the market spiked. I am glad that my pick of the stock wroked well in today scenario, but guess what, I only got the money on one and missed all others, three of which have much bigger gain.
What happened is that after I did all the back testing and setup for the alert, it was already too late. Consequently I got up too late and missed the entry.
At least I made some money.
In the last few days, the research I did two weeks ago on shorting started to pay me back some. My execution is now better. One of the most frustrating thing is that I could get my prediction right, get in the right stock, and the stock is moving as predicted, but I still didn't make money or, as it had happened a number of times, I even lost money.
The idea I got for tomorrow is finding high-beta, low-price, small-cap, high-growth, down-big stock. I did a scan using msn.com, which has good fundamental data to use in a scan and found 24 results.
However what to do with it -- risk/reward, how many days to hold, stop-loss, sizing ? I still need a couple days to sort it through.
This morning my email alert gave me 7 signals, the least of which would return 5% in the first hour as the market spiked. I am glad that my pick of the stock wroked well in today scenario, but guess what, I only got the money on one and missed all others, three of which have much bigger gain.
What happened is that after I did all the back testing and setup for the alert, it was already too late. Consequently I got up too late and missed the entry.
At least I made some money.
I made money in every week of the four weeks of February, with each week a little bit more than previous one. I am happy that I regrouped myself after the shock in the last week in January when market changed face.
Where is the market now ? the market is now at the stall of the bounce of the correction of a bull market. The force of bull and the force of bear is evenly matched at this moment.
The default background force is up, so it is going to be directionless drifting with a bit of upward bias until the Friday of next week when employment data is to be released.
Where is the market now ? the market is now at the stall of the bounce of the correction of a bull market. The force of bull and the force of bear is evenly matched at this moment.
The default background force is up, so it is going to be directionless drifting with a bit of upward bias until the Friday of next week when employment data is to be released.