How I stopped making the same mistakes in 2010 and started to make more money

Quote from NoDoji:

Nice trading! I personally couldn't get over this problem, the "moving stop to b/e too soon" issue. The way I resolved it is I started referencing a 1-min chart for my entries and I now get into trades so quickly that I can safely move my stop to b/e, enjoy the wonderful peace of mind that brings me, and still have my trade move to target without getting shaken out. It used to be that .10-.20 cent delay between noticing a setup and putting on the trade that compelled me to move my stop too soon, because I didn't want to risk a winner turning in to a loser. Never mind the fact that I had a clearly proven edge and probability would work in my favor. It was just too stressful for me, so I worked around it with a smaller time frame for entries.

Keep it up! :cool:
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Thank you NoDoji for your comments. More I think about it, I think moving stop to b/e feels good but not very useful for my style of trading ( at least not when I think about it when market is closed :) ) My goal is to execute my positive expectancy but what I find myself doing in reality is that I'm trying to "improve" my numbers. However I need to go through my trades to see what kind of time stop might make sense. I think once I back test time stop I'll put this issue to bed.
 
Quote from gkotopou:

Quote from thinkfirst:


Good journal. Using PA, its tough to let your "thinking" go as different variables at different moments may change your thinking altogether in an instant about a setup so, like you said "thinking in probabilities" can help, or maybe enter 1/2 size and hold out for your target instead of piecing it out with full size. If full position makes you "unthink" in probalibilities i.e. moving your stop premmaturely then its prob the size thats bothering you. I feel you, though, the HFT causes alot of back and forth PA makes entries difficult I am experiencing similar problems. But we need to let the trade breath and see where that 5 min candle closes to confirm if entry is valid.. g
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I agree, I need to give my trades room. As far as size, I had 300 shares of AIG, as I'm trading small size right now. So it was definitely not the size of the trade but me not fully accepting yet the numbers game. I'll get there…
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Day 1

Interesting thing happened today: the thought of breaking my rules was more painful then thinking about taking a loss. That was new.
Before market opens I read my rules and notes now and get in the proper state of mind. This seems to help to keep me focused on execution only during the day.

RDN, PCX and MMR were pretty simple trades and all went to target. LRCX on the other hand just didn't want to bounce until late in the day.

-13
 

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Day 2

Was trading well today, focused on executions only and my plan. Just working the numbers now and spending all my free time on developing 2nd strat that trades more often with smaller profits. I feel like I "own a casino" where only 2-3 people stop by during the day. And somebody like lescor "owns MGM" with 1000s of people daily. A lot to work on. Luckily its not a chore and I love what I do.

Some trades worked today, some didn't, nothing special to write about today.

+347
 

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Day 3

I was a bit off today, just tired. I didn't break my rules (I know better than that by now) I was too slow and not focused enough to make trades. As a result I missed several good entries and didn't want to chase it. TSL, HOC and ESV come to mind. So I stopped trading, tomorrow is another day with plenty of opportunities.


-44
 

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Day 4

Traded well toady. Once I was in the trade I wasn't emotional about it wether it's a gain or loss. I was very pleased to notice that I truly didn't care about money today. I didn't care that it was end of the month also (I used to trade small or skip trades at the end of the month to preserve my profits).

However my trading plan still has some tiny holes. I see a lot more opportunities but only trade couple set ups, so I end up not participating a lot and missing profit opportunities.

Traded EVVV, UAUA and SWN. All RTM trades, EVVV and SWN went to target, UAUA had to close earlier due to price action.

Time to increase size I think. I'll start slowly next week.

+369

Have a good weekend everyone
 

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Quote from thinkfirst:

Day 4

Traded well toady. Once I was in the trade I wasn't emotional about it wether it's a gain or loss. I was very pleased to notice that I truly didn't care about money today. I didn't care that it was end of the month also (I used to trade small or skip trades at the end of the month to preserve my profits).

However my trading plan still has some tiny holes. I see a lot more opportunities but only trade couple set ups, so I end up not participating a lot and missing profit opportunities.

Traded EVVV, UAUA and SWN. All RTM trades, EVVV and SWN went to target, UAUA had to close earlier due to price action.

Time to increase size I think. I'll start slowly next week.

+369

Have a good weekend everyone
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I traded UAUA as well and it was my best trade of the day, just curious, what made you get into UAUA?

I got into it after noticing the corresponding index was rising, I rode the trend and exited near 17.12 after noticing some resistance from previous trendlines.
 
Hi TF,

Good point about the money. I stopped tracking my monthly results a few weeks ago. I find it to be less pressure especially when close to a round number.

I might just take the daily PnL off too. That may take some pressure off but I tend to push my trades further as a result and that usually ends up working by letting a winner ride a little bit longer

Have a great weekend and see you and the gang on Monday

BTW did you trade NUVA today?



Quote from thinkfirst:

Day 4

Traded well toady. Once I was in the trade I wasn't emotional about it wether it's a gain or loss. I was very pleased to notice that I truly didn't care about money today. I didn't care that it was end of the month also (I used to trade small or skip trades at the end of the month to preserve my profits).

However my trading plan still has some tiny holes. I see a lot more opportunities but only trade couple set ups, so I end up not participating a lot and missing profit opportunities.

Traded EVVV, UAUA and SWN. All RTM trades, EVVV and SWN went to target, UAUA had to close earlier due to price action.

Time to increase size I think. I'll start slowly next week.

+369

Have a good weekend everyone
More...
 
Quote from bigpapi:

I traded UAUA as well and it was my best trade of the day, just curious, what made you get into UAUA?

I got into it after noticing the corresponding index was rising, I rode the trend and exited near 17.12 after noticing some resistance from previous trendlines.
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Nice UAUA trend trade bigpapi. For me, it gave an oversold signal from the daily chart so I was shorting it on the way up.
 
Quote from Robert Weinstein:

Hi TF,

Good point about the money. I stopped tracking my monthly results a few weeks ago. I find it to be less pressure especially when close to a round number.

I might just take the daily PnL off too. That may take some pressure off but I tend to push my trades further as a result and that usually ends up working by letting a winner ride a little bit longer

Have a great weekend and see you and the gang on Monday

BTW did you trade NUVA today?
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No I didn't trade NUVA unfortunately. I rarely trade after first 2-3 hours on Friday, seems like things slow down quite a bit before weekend. I was in the office but stepped out for 10 min and came back couple minutes too late. Lesson learned: I'm adding sound to my scanners so when stocks like NUVA move I'll hear it just in time.

On the other hand we saw only couple of trades like this since January. It is important not to miss these opportunities however I think it's even more important to be able consistently extract money from the market from ave. trades. Then MIL and NUVA trades are just like icing on the cake.

See you on Monday in the chat room.
 
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