Going for prop money

A mixed day. Feeling a bit lost. I re-read "Trading in the Zone" and am going to be spending my evenings going over my trades in detail, but am not sure yet what exactly I'm missing. Today, I'm technically positive, but that's just because of one monster, flukey trade which compensated for my otherwise unrelenting string of losses.

Not sure if it's the desire to learn, or the desire to stop losing, or the any-port-in-a-storm reaction, but I've signed up for Don Bright's three-day class at the end of the month. Hopefully he'll have some real training, but at the very least I'll get a few days in the Vegas sun.

#trades: 64
#shares: 9000
adj net: 2.62
gross: 11.00
 
Finally a clearly profitable day. I don't want to draw any long-term conclusions from one day, but it was a pleasant change to have a few winning trades :)

#trades: 91
#shares: 17200
adj net: $27.09
gross: $39.00
 
foible,

this is slightly dated, however in reading thru the posts, your response to the brilliance that steve 46 spewed is worthy of praise.

i too work at the 'said' prop firm and wrestled with many of the same obstacles you've mentioned. i survived and have been there a little over a year but at times feel like i just walked in the door yesterday interms of some of my trades.

my recommendation is not to beat yourself up over trades. groundbreaking i know. but incredibly important and a good thing to learn at the start. second, i'd suggest learning the S+P's. i started to progress when i began to understand the market more. said prop firm does a terrible job at teaching you fundamentals. take that upon yourself and you'll be well on your way. well until you reach the next roadblock.

as for EWJ, try to ride it for a few more pennies. there's never a need to punch out of it, and since you're still in small share lots, you're not going to get hurt in it.
also, i'd lose the rebating style. it hurts you down the road and as i'm sure you can attest, isn't the most stimulating of styles.

cheers,
 
Forgot to write my stats down today. I ended up down about $25 for the day, though.

I lost most in F in early trading as it spiked sharply after retracing back to its open. I lost the rest trying to find an entry into GLW. Twice went long, twice got stopped out. Didn't go back in and sat on the sidelines and watched it scream for glory. Bleh.

Blasted Lines - thanks for the tips. I will say that this losing spell has (finally) taught me some equanimity. I'm starting to remember Mark Douglas, that the market is actually unpredictable. We may spot trends, increase our odds, but there's no way to be "right". It will take a while to fully believe that, but it's helping me to not stress the losses :)



Well, I did sign up for Don Bright's 3-day extravaganza in Las Vegas! It isn't that much money and it'd sure be nice to have a chance to pick the brains of people that are actually making money.
 
Where is my head? I'm dealing with some big girlfriend issues, but that can't be the only reason I sucked so badly today. Where is the trader that was consistently growing profits, patiently waiting for entries and working on his position sizing?

Maybe it's greed. I keep seeing these huge moves and I can't pass them up. AMD, for instance. After lunch, it was just bleeding out money. It seemed too volatile, so I stayed away, but was paper-trading it in my head. After passing up $100 in paper profits, I finally shorted it. First time, I made a few dollars going for a quick trade, but it was dropping fast so I jumped in with dreams of quick riches, only to find it flip up $0.50 in two minutes. I had to exit with a market order and even on 100 shares, took a huge loss.


I need to get my head back in shape. Screw the glamour of finding these exciting moves. Far more glamourous to be making money! My tape-reading skills and speed can't stand up to the crazy stuff that is going on in the fast-moving stocks. They're whipping me out and not teaching me anything. The sooner I admit that, the sooner I can get down to making money and developing some skills.

I'm going to cut back on my trades, find higher probability entries and use more shares. It's much easier to find a few 0.01-0.02 moves for larger order sizes than to find the 0.10-0.20 ones.

#trades: 42
#shares: 4400
gross: -39.00
adj net: -42.41
 
Have you ever sat down to think about what intraday indicators you are using. Trendlines, support and resistance, oscillators, moving averages, etc. Do you look at the yearly chart to see long-term support and resistance that might be hit intraday.

Are you using any of this to make entry and exit determinations?
 
I do not understand lol, should be using them on all days you trade. If you take the time to apply different indicators and test which ones work for you consistently then you can develop the skills to have better entry and exit signals instead of just jumping in randomly. Of course it will not be 100% but the indicators will help you become more emotionless and consistent which is what you need to put more winning days together.
 
I should be, I agree.

I think I have some sort of gunslinger, shoot-from-the-hip, Natural Born Trader sort of idea which is screwing with me. When I am able to put this aside, keep my patience and wait for good entries, then I am able to make money. When I'm not, then sometimes I am able to make money, which is the big problem.

I've also got an idea that people make money by knowing the movement of one or two stocks very well, and just knowing where they will go. The reality is probably that they have found stocks that are slow enough moving that they can load up and try to capture the spread but go flat if the price breaks (e.g.: LU), or are sufficiently correlated with the futures, that they can retail in big when the futures pop, and then close for a quick profit. I dunno, maybe people can make money by just knowing a stock, but if so, that's not something I can do. Not now at least.


So, maybe wait for the 3-month, 5-day and intra-day trends to line up. Confirm that the 1-minute, 3-minute, and 10-minute charts agree on an entry point. Don't enter a position at a point of resistance until it has been tested. Pick stocks that have relatively low volatility and allow me to exit with minimal losses.

I'm not using many indicators as few seem very reliable for scalping. Right now, just the 20, 40, and 200 EMAs to help find inflection points (rallies in a downtrend, dips in an uptrend).
 
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