Getting my act together

This is my first post on this forum. I've been following gold, silver and palladium for about 6 months or so. I got interested in futures trading and am in the very early stages of learning all about this. I'm glad I found this journal, it's quite interesting. One of the questions posted was about his trading strategy, another mentioned VWAP. I looked and found the following information. There is a treasure trove of information on this site!

VWAP
Definition

Volume Weighted Average Price. A measure of the price at which the majority of a given day's trading in a given security took place. Calculated by taking the weighted average of the prices of each trade. The method is used by institutional traders, who often break a given trade into multiple transactions.


institutional investor
Definition

Entity with large amounts to invest, such as investment companies, mutual funds, brokerages, insurance companies, pension funds, investment banks and endowment funds. Institutional investors are covered by fewer protective regulations because it is assumed that they are more knowledgeable and better able to protect themselves. They account for a majority of overall volume.



Volume Weighted Average Price - VWAP
What does it Mean? A trading benchmark used especially in pension plans. VWAP is calculated by adding up the dollars traded for every transaction (price multiplied by number of shares traded) and then dividing by the total shares traded for the day.


Investopedia Says... The theory is that if the price of a buy trade is lower than the VWAP, then it is a good trade. The opposite is true if the price is higher than the VWAP. In other words, a trade that is made at a share price lower than the volume weighted average price is usually considered a bargain.
 
Nice work....keep on track and on plan.

In response to the advice on getting your health back and losing weight, you are doing fine. Cutting calories will allow you to lose quite a bit of weight. At some point, you will reach a plateau and that will no longer work, so you have got to add some exercise into the mix. If you can get yourself to go for a 15 minute walk, 6 days a week, for a few weeks, then gradually increase the time and intesity you will achieve the results you want in a relatively short time.

They key to losing weight and keeping it off is to get yourself to work at a level of 7 or above on a scale of 10. Initially walking will do it for you, add distance, or a route with hills. After a while, you will need to jog, or use an eliptical machine to get yourself there, but you can cross that bridge when you get there.

Once again, keep up the good work, you are getting your act together.
 
Quote from makloda:

gutsytrader, I know a thing or two about fat loss, here's what I know about losing weight:

Back to you Gutsy, I didn't mean to threadjack, sorry if it appears that way. Good luck with the trading, I love this journal, keep posting.
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Thank you for the post. I'm familiar with the need for weight training with cardio. Unfortunately my life doesn't allow for gym activities at this time. I do a 1 hr. cardio 6 nights per-week by mopping a floor followed by sweeping a parking lot. The other day (my day off) I exercise for a hour on a exercise bike I have.
I don't think you guys understand what my life is like Mon. - Fri.

11pm - 7am Work at store
7:15 arrive home
7:15 - 7:30 eat breakfast
7:30 - 8:15 change, shower, and catch a catnap
8:15 setup computer to trade
8:30 - 3:15 live in front of computer
3:15 - 3:45 wind down
4:00 - 10pm sleep
10pm - 10:40 get ready for work, eat a small meal
10:45pm leave for work

Not much room in there for the gym right now. I'm doing my best to use diet, exercise, and discipline to get rid of the excess weight. Someday I can tone and get buffed like your guy in the link. For now, I have to do what I can. My initial reason for getting started on weight loss was my right hip dislocated several times while walking around at work when I weighed so much. Now I'm in a pattern that works for me.

I'd be very interested in any links to keep my motivation up if you have any.
 
Quote from j_wentz1:

This is my first post on this forum. I've been following gold, silver and palladium for about 6 months or so. I got interested in futures trading and am in the very early stages of learning all about this. I'm glad I found this journal, it's quite interesting. One of the questions posted was about his trading strategy, another mentioned VWAP. I looked and found the following information. There is a treasure trove of information on this site!


Investopedia Says... The theory is that if the price of a buy trade is lower than the VWAP, then it is a good trade. The opposite is true if the price is higher than the VWAP. In other words, a trade that is made at a share price lower than the volume weighted average price is usually considered a bargain.
More...

Thanks, I had looked up VWAP on the web. If I had some more time with the pro I'd have tried to understand what he was getting at with VWAP. Here's something for reference on how institutions do their buying from what the pro taught me.

Large institutions don't do their own trading. Instead they use firms that specialize in price improvement. The general method they use is to first build a basket of the securities they want to buy. They analyze the current inventory of stocks and build another basket usually with 1-2 times the volume of securities they want to buy. They then develop the corr. to a futures index and come up with a weighting for the first basket. How many futures contracts for the basket to trade. Then they wait for a semi-quiet time in the market. They then sell the second basket to take out stops in the securities they want to buy. They also hope to trigger momentum short positions. Immediately after that they buy the futures contracts to lock in the total value of the shorted securities and the securities they plan on buying. Then a few seconds later they execute the first basket and buy all the securities they planned in addition to all the securities they just dumped. Then they exit the futures contracts once again hoping to have triggered some momentum futures traders on the long side. All this to avoid slippage.
 
Quote from mschey:

Nice work....keep on track and on plan.


Once again, keep up the good work, you are getting your act together.
More...

Thanks for the inspiration. I'll do more on the health side as soon as I can. I'm not ready yet to say I'm getting my act together. Hopefully there won't be any distractions during Oct. and I can make some significant progress.
 
I hope to take some more steps toward getting my act together during October.

For weight loss my goal is to lose another 8 pounds and get down to 237 by the end of the month. I'll do this by calorie restriction, exercise at work, and as much exercise as I can at home.

In trading I have several goals.

1). Start trading with 2 contracts. I can't make significant progress toward becoming a fulltime trader without multiple contracts. I plan on putting on 2 contracts as much as possible during the month. If I'm not to sure of a entry I may put on 1 contract and use the other as a second entry if I get a stronger confirmation of a trade signal. If my nerves start going crazy I'll suspend doing 2 contracts until they calm down. Once calm I'll try again and again until I can confidently trade with multiple contracts.

2). I plan on trading every day during the month of October. I need to keep putting on trades so I will force myself to take at least one trade per-day. Hopefully this will also help calm my nerves a little.

3). I will try and hold my winning contracts until either a clear exit signal or it is clear I'm exiting the position late. By exiting late I give my trades a chance to capture trends (if I'm lucky enough). Right now I have happy feet and I'm exiting trades too early. I need to capture what's available in a trade if I'm going to improve much.

4). After exiting a trade I'm going to calm myself as quickly as possible through deep breathing and a 5 min. break from the computer. Once calm I'm going to start stalking the next trade for the day and not give up unless my energy level is too low to trade well, or it's past 3:40 and I have no trade on. I'll do my best to ignore my current P/L and stay in the moment to capture multiple trades per-day. To boost my energy I plan on eating a banana 1 hour into the trading day if I have no trade on.

I think if I make much progress on these goals my dream of someday becoming a fulltime trader will be much closer to reality.

Anybody have other goals I should add?
 
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