How I stopped making the same mistakes in 2010 and started to make more money
- Thread starter thinkfirst
- Start date
Day 3
Traded well today.
I followed my rules and I took all trades I had a signal. At one point I started thinking about money but I realized quickly I did it and moved on to executing my rules.
I'm still struggling with exits though. Not executing them but rather deciding which ones to use. I know I'm trying to have it both ways: taking a lot of small profits and let the winners run, so Iâm thinking about splitting my core system in 2 and have it both ways, or in other words increase position size and scale out. This is something I will try tomorrow. Also I'm working non-stop on adding another strat. I feel like I need at least 3 not correlated strategies, though finding one edge is hard enough.
+505
Traded well today.
I followed my rules and I took all trades I had a signal. At one point I started thinking about money but I realized quickly I did it and moved on to executing my rules.
I'm still struggling with exits though. Not executing them but rather deciding which ones to use. I know I'm trying to have it both ways: taking a lot of small profits and let the winners run, so Iâm thinking about splitting my core system in 2 and have it both ways, or in other words increase position size and scale out. This is something I will try tomorrow. Also I'm working non-stop on adding another strat. I feel like I need at least 3 not correlated strategies, though finding one edge is hard enough.
+505
Yes, this can work, thank you.
Day 4
Traded well REGN today, stayed small, followed my rules. Sure it's never perfect and I might exit couple cents before the actual target price but I usually have a good reason for it and I'm not trying to be perfect. I did poorly on GNW and didn't give it any room when I shorted however I was so tired and it was just time to walk away.
One thought is constantly in my head "how do I get to the next level". I wonder if I keep banging my head on the "wrong door" with my current strat but it's not that easy to figure things out when you are all on your own. I'm grateful for being able to get to where I am and I know I'll go further, it's just a question of When?
+662
Traded well REGN today, stayed small, followed my rules. Sure it's never perfect and I might exit couple cents before the actual target price but I usually have a good reason for it and I'm not trying to be perfect. I did poorly on GNW and didn't give it any room when I shorted however I was so tired and it was just time to walk away.
One thought is constantly in my head "how do I get to the next level". I wonder if I keep banging my head on the "wrong door" with my current strat but it's not that easy to figure things out when you are all on your own. I'm grateful for being able to get to where I am and I know I'll go further, it's just a question of When?
+662
Day 5
Traded well
Was too early shorting STT and CLF and didn't get another signal for entry. Same with CRA. Just got stopped out today.
More I get stopped out and look at these "stops areas" more I think I should be on the other side of these trades or not using stops the way I do. Something to think about over weekend.
-472
Traded well
Was too early shorting STT and CLF and didn't get another signal for entry. Same with CRA. Just got stopped out today.
More I get stopped out and look at these "stops areas" more I think I should be on the other side of these trades or not using stops the way I do. Something to think about over weekend.
-472
Day 6
Maybe I need to sign up to AA meetings to learn how to break bad addiction. I worked through weekend, I re-wrote my trading plan and I thought I covered everything there. Then bam, I could not follow my rules again. On the bright side, it's only one rule I have hard time with: moving stop b/e. I even wrote in my plan "do not move stop b/e" and I still did it and called it "I'm using a time stop". It's obvious my strat is missing time stop and/or b/e rule. Luckily everything else is in place and working so I can't complain.
What this journal is doing for me is helping to see my weak spots and helping to eliminate them though it's not as fast as I'd like.
I'm almost trading probabilities, almost there, but not quite. I think the fact is that I want to move stop b/e shows I'm still not trading probabilities and expectancies and more I do it more I understand how wrong it is. So I'll try again. I'm printing big sign "TRADE PROBABILITIES", let's see if that helps. Once I get to trading probabilities then I can increase my size.
IP went long near the bottom and exited b/e because I started to think that enough time passed by for it to work. Left $60 profit
RIMM went long, got stopped out, re-entered, sold at target
AIG was short, entry was good at 28.55, didn't move stop to b/e when it came back to my entry but about 10 min later I decided again to "apply time stop" that I don't have. So exit was b/e, left $ 170 in profits (it did go to my target)
PTEN long at 15.27 after being stopped out once. Didn't increase position size due to low volume and low price stock. Exit was good, right near target
SWM got stopped out, I didn't re-enter only because I was too busy with other stocks
CMC tried couple of times, last trade went to target
IOC got stopped out, had no reason to re-enter
TMO was my last trade and happened after I realizes my tendency to move stop b/e today. So I traded it very well. I scaled in and out and all according to my rules. Very nice.
FSLR and MIL didn't trade - again, need to inprint in my head that my job is to take EVERY signal and let the numbers do the work, not think whether it'll work out or not before entering. I really should change my name here to "don't think, TRADE" from" think first "
Overall I'm trading much better. I think if I could automate my trading it would be much easier since I can only focus on 1-2 stocks at one time. However since I'm PA trader it's harder to automate. Huge improvements in my trading are my exits, I'm finally capable of seeing and entering my target right after the trade. This gives me time to search and trade other stocks. Unfortunately my strat not very scalable unless I remove stops but I'm not comfortable yet of doing it.
Back to Day 1 tomorrow...
+656
Maybe I need to sign up to AA meetings to learn how to break bad addiction. I worked through weekend, I re-wrote my trading plan and I thought I covered everything there. Then bam, I could not follow my rules again. On the bright side, it's only one rule I have hard time with: moving stop b/e. I even wrote in my plan "do not move stop b/e" and I still did it and called it "I'm using a time stop". It's obvious my strat is missing time stop and/or b/e rule. Luckily everything else is in place and working so I can't complain.
What this journal is doing for me is helping to see my weak spots and helping to eliminate them though it's not as fast as I'd like.
I'm almost trading probabilities, almost there, but not quite. I think the fact is that I want to move stop b/e shows I'm still not trading probabilities and expectancies and more I do it more I understand how wrong it is. So I'll try again. I'm printing big sign "TRADE PROBABILITIES", let's see if that helps. Once I get to trading probabilities then I can increase my size.
IP went long near the bottom and exited b/e because I started to think that enough time passed by for it to work. Left $60 profit
RIMM went long, got stopped out, re-entered, sold at target
AIG was short, entry was good at 28.55, didn't move stop to b/e when it came back to my entry but about 10 min later I decided again to "apply time stop" that I don't have. So exit was b/e, left $ 170 in profits (it did go to my target)
PTEN long at 15.27 after being stopped out once. Didn't increase position size due to low volume and low price stock. Exit was good, right near target
SWM got stopped out, I didn't re-enter only because I was too busy with other stocks
CMC tried couple of times, last trade went to target
IOC got stopped out, had no reason to re-enter
TMO was my last trade and happened after I realizes my tendency to move stop b/e today. So I traded it very well. I scaled in and out and all according to my rules. Very nice.
FSLR and MIL didn't trade - again, need to inprint in my head that my job is to take EVERY signal and let the numbers do the work, not think whether it'll work out or not before entering. I really should change my name here to "don't think, TRADE" from" think first "
Overall I'm trading much better. I think if I could automate my trading it would be much easier since I can only focus on 1-2 stocks at one time. However since I'm PA trader it's harder to automate. Huge improvements in my trading are my exits, I'm finally capable of seeing and entering my target right after the trade. This gives me time to search and trade other stocks. Unfortunately my strat not very scalable unless I remove stops but I'm not comfortable yet of doing it.
Back to Day 1 tomorrow...
+656
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!
