From Persistent Foozler to Disciplined Trader
- Thread starter foozler
- Start date
I realize you are "daytrading", but also from the Jesse Livermore files...
- The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money every day, as though they were working for regular wages.
- No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.
- If a stock doesn't act right don't touch it; because, being unable to tell precisely what is wrong, you cannot tell which way it is going. No diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.
- The speculator's chief enemies are always boredom from within.
The take away is that you are not working for daily wages, so don't think you have to trade every day. If your pattern doesn't develop the way you planned it to, then don't trade. Realize you can go many days at a time where you don't trade because the pattern is not there. The danger is you may get bored or scared you are not making money and that can cause you to make trades outside your planned parameters.
Of course I have to be honest and say that I do not daytrade very much because I get bored sitting in front of a computer waiting for a particular pattern or price level to develop. Therefore I usually take overnight positions and trade smaller to reduce risk to my account.
- The desire for constant action irrespective of underlying conditions is responsible for many losses in Wall Street even among the professionals, who feel that they must take home some money every day, as though they were working for regular wages.
- No man can always have adequate reasons for buying or selling stocks daily or sufficient knowledge to make his play an intelligent play.
- If a stock doesn't act right don't touch it; because, being unable to tell precisely what is wrong, you cannot tell which way it is going. No diagnosis, no prognosis. No prognosis, no profit.
- The speculator's chief enemies are always boredom from within.
The take away is that you are not working for daily wages, so don't think you have to trade every day. If your pattern doesn't develop the way you planned it to, then don't trade. Realize you can go many days at a time where you don't trade because the pattern is not there. The danger is you may get bored or scared you are not making money and that can cause you to make trades outside your planned parameters.
Of course I have to be honest and say that I do not daytrade very much because I get bored sitting in front of a computer waiting for a particular pattern or price level to develop. Therefore I usually take overnight positions and trade smaller to reduce risk to my account.
First I want to thank each of you for your suggestions and comments, as I have taken something away from each of them that led me to make the following change: For the next ToBeDetermined # of trading days, I am only allowing myself to make one trade per day. If it is in-plan, I manage it, according to plan, and once I exit the trade, I am done - no more trading. If it is out of plan, then the moment I realize this (or I should say, "admit" this to myself, I must exit the trade with a market order and I am done for the day.
I sim traded according to this restriction on Friday. I bought UPRO as it presented a DBP around 11:30, and I held it until nearly 3:15. The low of the DBP was 94.46, I bought at 93.64. UPRO rallied to a HOD of 94.86, and the fill on my stop out was 94.64 which allowed me to take 1 point out of the 1.40 point move.
I was going to extend my weekend, but the Boss had different ideas and so I had to be in my office today. Same restriction as Friday - one trade only, and once the exit was made, I was not to trade any further.
Around 10:20 I bought VIPS at 116.18 as it concluded a DBP from its session high. It rallied to a lower high at 118.24, and then pulled back to 116.98. Again it rallied, made yet another lower high at 18.08, and ranged between 118.08 and 117.64. Around 1:00, I was stopped out with a 117.60 fill. The DBP low to rally high range was 2.59 points. My portion of that range was 1.42.
Here is the chart soon after I was stopped out:
Here is the chart at the end of the day:
And here is the table showing the trade itself:
I still think that it would be best for now if I were not to post a daily recap, but rather to post a week-ending summary. Also, I have a client meeting tomorrow afternoon which is scheduled to continue on Thursday morning. I suspect that this may affect my ability to trade on these days.
I sim traded according to this restriction on Friday. I bought UPRO as it presented a DBP around 11:30, and I held it until nearly 3:15. The low of the DBP was 94.46, I bought at 93.64. UPRO rallied to a HOD of 94.86, and the fill on my stop out was 94.64 which allowed me to take 1 point out of the 1.40 point move.
I was going to extend my weekend, but the Boss had different ideas and so I had to be in my office today. Same restriction as Friday - one trade only, and once the exit was made, I was not to trade any further.
Around 10:20 I bought VIPS at 116.18 as it concluded a DBP from its session high. It rallied to a lower high at 118.24, and then pulled back to 116.98. Again it rallied, made yet another lower high at 18.08, and ranged between 118.08 and 117.64. Around 1:00, I was stopped out with a 117.60 fill. The DBP low to rally high range was 2.59 points. My portion of that range was 1.42.
Here is the chart soon after I was stopped out:
Here is the chart at the end of the day:
And here is the table showing the trade itself:
I still think that it would be best for now if I were not to post a daily recap, but rather to post a week-ending summary. Also, I have a client meeting tomorrow afternoon which is scheduled to continue on Thursday morning. I suspect that this may affect my ability to trade on these days.
Attachments
I have to prepare for a meeting, and so while I did manage my trade today per my plan, I did have to exit it early, as I do not want an open trade when I am unable to monitor and manage the position.
I bought ILMN on its DBP, my entry price was 170.92. I held through it reaching new highs, not only for the session, but all time highs, I believe. My per-plan stop point would be trade back below the morning's 173.16 high, with a hard stop at 170.69. As stated, however, I exited early, with a fill at 173.91, for a gain of 2.99 points.
I'll post an EOD chart tonight, but for now I have to run, so here is a screencap of the ILMN chart soon after my exit, as well as a table of the trade.
I am now up 4.41 points after these two trades since I imposed a one trade per day limit on myself. It has certainly allowed me to relax and to stop looking for other, potentially out of plan opportunities.
I bought ILMN on its DBP, my entry price was 170.92. I held through it reaching new highs, not only for the session, but all time highs, I believe. My per-plan stop point would be trade back below the morning's 173.16 high, with a hard stop at 170.69. As stated, however, I exited early, with a fill at 173.91, for a gain of 2.99 points.
I'll post an EOD chart tonight, but for now I have to run, so here is a screencap of the ILMN chart soon after my exit, as well as a table of the trade.
I am now up 4.41 points after these two trades since I imposed a one trade per day limit on myself. It has certainly allowed me to relax and to stop looking for other, potentially out of plan opportunities.
Attachments
Today is Day 3 since I imposed my 1 trade/day limit (I did not trade yesterday as I was in a client meeting all morning), and Day 7 overall (10 weekdays - 1 holiday - 1 workday - 1 paper trading day).
Here is the end of day chart from the ILMN trade on Wednesday:
And here is the chart of my one trade for today, REGN:
And here is a table of the trade:
This was a DBP from the early session high. This was a case where price first popped higher before I could get my order in, and I had to waited with a 336.11 limit to get filled. After getting filled, price quickly rallied to new session highs, at one point trading briefly over 4+ points from entry.
The red line is drawn across the 338.84 early session high, and that become my barometer for managing the trade. I ultimately exited the trade with a 338.25 fill on my stop out, for a gain of 2.14 points.
This brings my three day total to +6.55 points, which, when added to the total of my first 4 days of live trading last week to +10.83 points.
Next week, I will allow for more than one trade/day, but I will only allow myself to be in one trade at a time. Furthermore, I will not look at any other stocks for potential opportunities so long as I am in a current trade.
Here is the end of day chart from the ILMN trade on Wednesday:
And here is the chart of my one trade for today, REGN:
And here is a table of the trade:
This was a DBP from the early session high. This was a case where price first popped higher before I could get my order in, and I had to waited with a 336.11 limit to get filled. After getting filled, price quickly rallied to new session highs, at one point trading briefly over 4+ points from entry.
The red line is drawn across the 338.84 early session high, and that become my barometer for managing the trade. I ultimately exited the trade with a 338.25 fill on my stop out, for a gain of 2.14 points.
This brings my three day total to +6.55 points, which, when added to the total of my first 4 days of live trading last week to +10.83 points.
Next week, I will allow for more than one trade/day, but I will only allow myself to be in one trade at a time. Furthermore, I will not look at any other stocks for potential opportunities so long as I am in a current trade.
