DaytraderDave's Trading Log

What's the difference between "scaling in" and "averaging down"? He seems to be taking a 5K position in chunks of 1K each 5 cents down. Is that "scaling in" to a 5K position or "averaging down" on a losing 1K position?

But I have to wonder if that stop isn't too close (6 cents below the final 1K) to allow for a decent chance of making out on the trade, though we don't know what his target is for the move. If it is 2 pts up like the last move DTD posted about that stop seems very close to me.
 
1. I'm not hyping the stock. I'm in a 1000 shares. The stock traded over 250 million shares today. I doubt that me stating that I'm in a 1000 shares at 4 is going to influence anyones trading decision. I see this on numerous message boards when someone puts in a recommendation, get real EliteTrader, Yahoo Finance and every other single message board on the internet probably couldn't total over 100,000 actual shares traded. And ARCA, INCA, REDI and ISLD all have shown this size hundreds of times over the day. This board probably doesn't even have the buying power to match my 1000 shares, well I'm streching it, but my guess as a lot of other people on this board who actually trade is that the majority of this board doesn't trade. Not directed at anyone in perticular.

2. Yes, it can gap down tommorrow. Is it likely, maybe but will it GAP down another 30%, probably not. How do I know, experience.

3. I'm going to lose all my money. Yes, my entire account value is in $4000 worth of stock. I hope this turns out alright, or I won't be able to pay my rent, pay my phone bills or my child support.

4. I enjoy people saying good trade, bad trade. I wouldn't have posted my trade if I couldn't handle it. Its kinda fun, especially since the board has slowed down a bit of late.

5. If your going to dog the trade, make some sense when you do it. Half the stuff doesn't make sense to me, your going to go broke, I'm gonna buy it at zero, blah...blah blah blah blah.

6. I love a challenge, so if you don't like my trade, post an actual trade into the message board. And for all those people that want to post after the market closed, I bought here, sold here, thats fine, but most of us have internet connections during market hours, and with such a slow market of late, you've got time to cut and paste your confirm.
 
I agreed with trader Dave. Posters could post their trades, and other could gather and discuss it giving constructive comments, but not blatantly shoot it down with no explanations... We're all different, we don't all have the same tolerance to risk, nor same way of trading.
It's bad enough to be punched by the market, we don't need anymore punching each others here on the board. We're all traders, no? good trades, bad trades, good decisions, bad decisions, we're all been thru' good time and bad time togheter.

Loosen up guys!! :p



Cheers! Spring is here!!! :cool: (however, it snowed this morning here !!!:mad:
 
I think the difference between the two is that for the first you have and intention to put on a certain size trade. Let say 5000. But you take 1000 share nibbles at a time.

Whereas I interpret avg. down as a trader/investor hoping and wishing that by lowering their adjusted cost base they somehow increase the probability of getting out at a profit.
 
Originally posted by Babak
I think the difference between the two is that for the first you have and intention to put on a certain size trade. Let say 5000. But you take 1000 share nibbles at a time.

Whereas I interpret avg. down as a trader/investor hoping and wishing that by lowering their adjusted cost base they somehow increase the probability of getting out at a profit.
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Based on that criteria I'd have to say Dave is looking to scale into a 5K position in a range where he would like to be filled.
 
Originally posted by DaytraderDave
. I see this on numerous message boards when someone puts in a recommendation, get real EliteTrader, Yahoo Finance and every other single message board on the internet probably couldn't total over 100,000 actual shares traded.

.
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ummmm.....I've had days where I've traded over 250,000 shares a day. Pretorian2 has posted about 50,000 shares positions a few times and anyone who has seen him in a chatroom knows he does do this. I know some of the other posters on this board. There is a trader on the board here who does over 1 million shares a day.

don't underestimate the audience on this board
 
Originally posted by DaytraderDave
Stopped out for a $260 loss. Oh well.
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WCOM calmly opened at $3.98 and headed up to $4.23 before turning south. With that kind of action I would have figured you to have brought back your 1,000 shares at every nickel strategy as the gap risk was gone after the first few minutes of trading. Not callin' you a fibber but it smells kind of funny that you would have thrown it out the window for no good reason.

Just FYI I didn't rag on you here because I like socking it to other traders, but only because I think there is a time and place for certain strategies and this was not one of them. In a sloppy, seesawing market that has been going back and forth for weeks, with little interest from the small guy and a general gloom hanging overhead, it's not the time to be looking for dot bomb comeback plays. In my own sarcastic way I was trying to help you more than just rag on you because I hate to see money flushed down the toilet.

And for those of you who say yeah but what if the trade worked,
a) it didn't
and
b) I still would say the same thing even if WCOM popped here because this is an odds game, it's never about one trade, always about the long run series of trades, and the odds for that kind of play plain suck under these conditions.

The way to evaluate whether a trade setup is good or not is to hypothetically imagine you had a chance to do execute that setup ten times a day, day in and day out, would you want to do it? Would the gains offset the losses? In the case of long shot cracked company comebacks, the answer is no no no. If you want to look for turnaround plays after a market gets beat up on, go for something that is at least still holding its 50 day MA, or at least the 200 for pete's sake. Coincidentally, my long beartrap plays (like G and TOL for example) are knocking the cover off the ball today while WCOM hits new lows. Think about it. Respect the mo!

Just trying to spread a little of what I've learned in the school of hard knocks over the years. But why do I bother? Maybe that's the real question. Note to self: allocate message board time to games of freecell instead...
:D
 
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