Half way through life and not close to being consistent

[gamblingman]

If you want to be successful, you do whatever it takes.

Thanks for the support, I'll need a lot of help to get back on track.
Basically nothing is working right now and life sucks. At least I am back to 187 pounds so that's a small success. Must be cause every time I look at my P&L I'm throwing up.

Down 24k4 for the week and basically where I started 2014 (right now up 3k for the year). If it continues like this I'll hit negative territory on Monday.

This bull market is crushing my balls !!!

 

[MrN]

Its a short squeeze market. Very dangerous. Take it as a learning experience and move beyond it.

For example the expected value for a market with little to nothing in the way of a correction is historically bullish.

http://paststat.com/blog/meaningful-decline-10-days-row-spy-overbought-bought/

Also u can scalp around a core position or bias with short-squeeze patterns.

I'm not trying to rub salt in the wound I was in the same situation in fall of 2009 - getting crushed in short positions. It sucks but use it to become something more. If it gets too bad u can always make your money back on some other trading sequence - hindsight is 20/20 but useless - and remember the first law of trading - survive.

 

[failed_trad3r]

This surely know this market is doing about to go down. Cell in may!

 

[gamblingman]

Hang on gamblingman! It is darkest before the dawn. In your honor I have decided not to change my underwear until we get a down day. Last time it only took 3 trading days.

Sorry you'll have to do this over the weekend
I hope for the 3 day turn around

 

[Mo06]

Gamblingman, I assume that at some point in the past, you were a consistently profitable trader ?

We are in a very powerful bull market. For months, the market has been very good for equity traders, in fact maybe some of the best trading conditions for years.

Any trader who has not made money during this period would be well advised to reconsider/rethink their trading strategy imho.

Anyway, good luck.

 

[gamblingman]

Gamblingman, I assume that at some point in the past, you were a consistently profitable trader ?

We are in a very powerful bull market. For months, the market has been very good for equity traders, in fact maybe some of the best trading conditions for years.

Any trader who has not made money during this period would be well advised to reconsider/rethink their trading strategy imho.

Anyway, good luck.

Consistency depends on its definition I guess.
Yes I've had typically winning years other than 06 and 13. I haven't broken it down to winning month but I would assume it's close to 75/25, however the 25 % month that are not winning are typically significantly worse (loss wise) than a normal winning month based on the way I trade. Since this is my money and I don't need to justify decisions, I'm more focused on total returns than consistency so if I see opportunity I will put risk on regardless if it messes up my "winning month or year".

Now to your second statement, you could have a monkey pick stocks the last 5 years and he would have done well (Imagine what that makes me look like when the monkey not only outperforms me in 2013 but I end up with a big loss and the monkey with a ok size gain). Having said that I don't really think that traders appreciate this type of market. Investors love it, fund managers love it but the way I look at trading I want volatility and two sides. I don't mind a strong bull market if it has some minor corrections that let me catch up but if it shoots up straight (like the last couple of years) and doesn't ever pull back it's hard for my trading style to make any money (also that's not a very typical market). So yes, I can't outperform a monkey over the last couple years but I'd take that challenge any day.

 

[gkishot]

Consistency depends on its definition I guess.
Yes I've had typically winning years other than 06 and 13. I haven't broken it down to winning month but I would assume it's close to 75/25, however the 25 % month that are not winning are typically significantly worse (loss wise) than a normal winning month based on the way I trade. Since this is my money and I don't need to justify decisions, I'm more focused on total returns than consistency so if I see opportunity I will put risk on regardless if it messes up my "winning month or year".

Now to your second statement, you could have a monkey pick stocks the last 5 years and he would have done well (Imagine what that makes me look like when the monkey not only outperforms me in 2013 but I end up with a big loss and the monkey with a ok size gain). Having said that I don't really think that traders appreciate this type of market. Investors love it, fund managers love it but the way I look at trading I want volatility and two sides. I don't mind a strong bull market if it has some minor corrections that let me catch up but if it shoots up straight (like the last couple of years) and doesn't ever pull back it's hard for my trading style to make any money (also that's not a very typical market). So yes, I can't outperform a monkey over the last couple years but I'd take that challenge any day.

Have you considered mirroring of people who are successful traders?

 

[gamblingman]

Have you considered mirroring of people who are successful traders?

Sure, how do I do that?

 

[dealmaker]

I hit the magic 40 a couple of month ago and things are not where I thought I'd be at that time. Married with kids (at least that's working as far as I know), broke 190 pounds for the first time in my life and after having a terrible trading year last year this year isn't looking much better.

I'm starting this journal as a motivational tool and hope that over the next 7 month I'm 20 pounds lighter, in better shape and have collected 80k via my trading.

The last eight trading days have been brutal to my P&L and you don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out that my main position is short the market. I typically trade a lot of options but with low volatility I reduce my size so right now we're in single digit contract territory.

Good luck to you all, it's rough out there !!

Do you see yourself as a gambler or a trader? Trading is like pitching its measured, whereas gambling is like throwing ie you put it out there and hope for the best...

 

[Mo06]

OK I hear you, but it's not as though we haven't seen some decent pull backs during the bull trend is it ?

I don't know what your trading timeframe is (intraday, swing or medium term) but if your trading is not making money, then it needs to be analysed and the necessary modifications made.

I'm trying to be constructive here by the way.

Consistency depends on its definition I guess.
Yes I've had typically winning years other than 06 and 13. I haven't broken it down to winning month but I would assume it's close to 75/25, however the 25 % month that are not winning are typically significantly worse (loss wise) than a normal winning month based on the way I trade. Since this is my money and I don't need to justify decisions, I'm more focused on total returns than consistency so if I see opportunity I will put risk on regardless if it messes up my "winning month or year".

Now to your second statement, you could have a monkey pick stocks the last 5 years and he would have done well (Imagine what that makes me look like when the monkey not only outperforms me in 2013 but I end up with a big loss and the monkey with a ok size gain). Having said that I don't really think that traders appreciate this type of market. Investors love it, fund managers love it but the way I look at trading I want volatility and two sides. I don't mind a strong bull market if it has some minor corrections that let me catch up but if it shoots up straight (like the last couple of years) and doesn't ever pull back it's hard for my trading style to make any money (also that's not a very typical market). So yes, I can't outperform a monkey over the last couple years but I'd take that challenge any day.