Depends...I always scale, because my positions are usually too big to click them out at one price.
Is it time to throw in the towel?
- Thread starter TheDailyTrader
- Start date
Depends...I always scale, because my positions are usually too big to click them out at one price.
Was this real money? I guess 300 shares of TSLA would be the outer limits of the daytrade buying power in a $25Kish account.... but man if this was real money...you are friggin nuts to even consider 300 shares of TSLA in a 25K account.
Look I don't know what method you've learned... but just going by your post... its not going to work trading TSLA. First of all, you entered at $303.50 with a stop at $305.01... even if you are 100% right in the directional call, the bid/ask spread on TSLA can reach $1.50 (or damn close) in a blink. That close of a stop will be triggered (on TSLA) on a day when its in a flat-line coma, let alone 9:40 AM on a Friday.
So you go in with 300 shares.... and 5 trades later (paints on the tape) someone buys 100 shares at $305.10 as it moved up a bit and the spread widened..... the next offer on the book is $305.80... which is where you just filled. In this example you just lost $690.... damn near 3% of your account...and you could have been 1000% correct in that TSLA was heading down. 5 minutes later it could easily be $302 on the offer. But you're out and you lost.
I'm not telling you to throw in the towel, but man don't try cutting your teeth day-trading trying to scalp TSLA. Its a beast unto its own and you are no more than a wounded bleeding guppy swimming with sharks. TSLA loves the "news" trade. It takes people money on "news". Both long and short. Never trade TSLA intraday based on news.
Now that I said all that... while writing this I thought about it... and I am being dead serious here..... maybe you should cut your teeth trading TSLA. Real money. BUT... only use 10 or 15 shares. IB commission is like $0.35 tops, less if you add liquidity, but don't even worry about that, its tuition.
Why do I say this....because I already have a read on your personality. At this point in the game its not about how much you make, its about learning. So what if you only make $10 or $15 a trade; or lose that much. What you want to see is the color green on your daily balance. Period. Not the amount. The color. The sim doesn't get it, its useless for your style. You'll never learn on the sim.
Use real money with real trades. Try it for a week. Forget about trying to make a few $100/day for now. Don't look at it like that. Its not your goal. Only trade TSLA. BUT USE 10 SHARE LOTS. Consider a $20 win a MAJOR accomplishment, because it is and you should. If you can do this.... ie master TSLA... with a green balance at the EOD... you will be able to trade any other stock out there successfully and with size. I can't think of a more formidable foe for day-trading stocks than TSLA. Its the best and hardest to beat. And the action is there, everyday. Its never a sleeper.
You wanna be the best... then you train against the best. The only way you are gonna learn is getting in that ring. No mentor, no sims, no YouTubes. Get in the ring. 10 share lots buddy. As many trades as you want. Let me see you be green at the EOD 3 days in a row fighting TSLA.
G/L my friend, I hope you do this.
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Was this real money? I guess 300 shares of TSLA would be the outer limits of the daytrade buying power in a $25Kish account.... but man if this was real money...you are friggin nuts to even consider 300 shares of TSLA in a 25K account.
Look I don't know what method you've learned... but just going by your post... its not going to work trading TSLA. First of all, you entered at $303.50 with a stop at $305.01... even if you are 100% right in the directional call, the bid/ask spread on TSLA can reach $1.50 (or damn close) in a blink. That close of a stop will be triggered (on TSLA) on a day when its in a flat-line coma, let alone 9:40 AM on a Friday.
So you go in with 300 shares.... and 5 trades later (paints on the tape) someone buys 100 shares at $305.10 as it moved up a bit and the spread widened..... the next offer on the book is $305.80... which is where you just filled. In this example you just lost $690.... damn near 3% of your account...and you could have been 1000% correct in that TSLA was heading down. 5 minutes later it could easily be $302 on the offer. But you're out and you lost.
I'm not telling you to throw in the towel, but man don't try cutting your teeth day-trading trying to scalp TSLA. Its a beast unto its own and you are no more than a wounded bleeding guppy swimming with sharks. TSLA loves the "news" trade. It takes people money on "news". Both long and short. Never trade TSLA intraday based on news.
Now that I said all that... while writing this I thought about it... and I am being dead serious here..... maybe you should cut your teeth trading TSLA. Real money. BUT... only use 10 or 15 shares. IB commission is like $0.35 tops, less if you add liquidity, but don't even worry about that, its tuition.
Why do I say this....because I already have a read on your personality. At this point in the game its not about how much you make, its about learning. So what if you only make $10 or $15 a trade; or lose that much. What you want to see is the color green on your daily balance. Period. Not the amount. The color. The sim doesn't get it, its useless for your style. You'll never learn on the sim.
Use real money with real trades. Try it for a week. Forget about trying to make a few $100/day for now. Don't look at it like that. Its not your goal. Only trade TSLA. BUT USE 10 SHARE LOTS. Consider a $20 win a MAJOR accomplishment, because it is and you should. If you can do this.... ie master TSLA... with a green balance at the EOD... you will be able to trade any other stock out there successfully and with size. I can't think of a more formidable foe for day-trading stocks than TSLA. Its the best and hardest to beat. And the action is there, everyday. Its never a sleeper.
You wanna be the best... then you train against the best. The only way you are gonna learn is getting in that ring. No mentor, no sims, no YouTubes. Get in the ring. 10 share lots buddy. As many trades as you want. Let me see you be green at the EOD 3 days in a row fighting TSLA.
G/L my friend, I hope you do this.
Queue @Overnight posting a Rocky video now.
Queue @Overnight posting a Rocky video now.
Nah, I'm in Shatner mode at the moment, man.
Arf, sorry, carry on. lol
See Mr Tradenet-
Gurus really do catch people.
Seriously. Read books, develop your strategy. Do something concrete. have a journal, anything that can track your progress.
Think for yourself, go through your strategy and create perspective. How is my strategy better than average? What could possibly make my strategy bad? What's the core of my strategy? Do I really need a strategy? How much for a guru?
Gurus really do catch people.
Seriously. Read books, develop your strategy. Do something concrete. have a journal, anything that can track your progress.
Think for yourself, go through your strategy and create perspective. How is my strategy better than average? What could possibly make my strategy bad? What's the core of my strategy? Do I really need a strategy? How much for a guru?
It seems like TheDailyTrader has mislabel the person as "his mentor" even though he's always on Skype with him. No different than someone in this thread that gives specific advice when he talks about his specific trades (entry, exit, size, TLSA)...that too is not mentoring.
It will be like someone hanging out here at ET forum giving him advice in this thread about the specific trades, about what he should have done or what they would have done...analysis being shared and he then calls it being mentored.
For example, vanzandt giving advice @ https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/is-it-time-to-throw-in-the-towel.329591/page-14#post-4804158
The above is not mentoring but I've seen newbies here at ET call something like that as being mentored especially when someone consistently responds with the advice/analysis of any kind in someone's trade journal here at ET.
Regardless, a trader can not replicate (mimic/copy/piggyback) someone's trades on Skype, twitter, stocktwits, facebook, trade room or forum trade journal here at ET because they will not get the same fills and/or will not get a fill even if it was one on one (just the two of them in a private Skype conversation). In contrast, if his Skype buddy were to notify him of his trades long before the fact...
e.g. At 1000am est he saids...I will buy 300 shares of XYZ if/when reaches 78.52 and then around 1017am est the price hits 78.52
Those type of before the fact signal calls can be mimic/copy/piggyback. In contrast, trades that are posted in realtime as they occur are not "before the fact" signal calls will produce poor trade results or different trade results if someone tries to mimic/copy/piggyback realtime even if there was live screen sharing setup...the latter is problematic too due to the cognite decision making process that occurs when a person views real time info and then needs to make a decision to trade/not trade what they just viewed in real time...
All of which is further compounded because you're recommending such to a newbie trader.
Yet, as you noted that if he really does not have access to everything being used by his online trading buddy...he's blindly following his trading pal.
Also, my definition of everything is to be using the same trade setup, same trader chart configurations on the monitors, same broker/charting vendor, same trade execution platform, same news resources and everything else the same along with trading in a similar like at home trading environment...he may have a small chance to replicate the success of his trading buddy that he refers to as his mentor in error.
There's just too much information lacking about someone that he refers to as his mentor when the things he mentions about the person does not add up to as a mentor such as when he said the mentor is...
done trading most days by 11 and will stop back in at 2 to possibly take another trade and review his day. The last 2 days he only had to trade for 10 minutes.
How the heck does he knows what that trader is doing between 11am - 2pm ???
His trading buddy could actually be sitting there at his desk and eating a sandwich while watching streaming charts, CNBC and then watching porn videos on his 2nd monitor or doing yoga.
Seriously, I've had many trading days where I was only trading 10 - 15 minutes but spent the rest of the day watching/studying the charts like watching paint drying on the wall or getting a BJ from the spouse while someone thinks I'm sitting at the desk from 9 to 5.
Anyways, he has 60k and can easily afford a plane ticket to go spend time with his mentor...watching him trade in person for a week or so considering he's labeling the person as his mentor...he can even write off the cost of travel/hotel to his mentor as a tax deduction even though the mentor isn't charging him a penny to be mentored
Gotcha, as you noted, it just seems like he's just comparing himself to the other person and using it as a barometer. Yet, in my opinion, the so called mentor is most likely not aware of someone out there calling him a mentor.
I've seen such often here at ET when someone gets advice/reviews/analysis on trades here in their trade journal...later they go elsewhere and refers to that "advice/reviews/analysis" as mentoring from their mentor.
wrbtrader
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Even if the mentor is legit, maybe it is time to move on.
Emotional trading will result in bad decisions. Take a break......get another source of income then come back to trading...
Just came across your thread. I wouldn't reduce to 100 shares. I don't believe it makes a difference. You have to care about your trades. Selectivity and eliminating iffy set ups are what let you accumulate money. I would go back into research mode. Test your strategy, test modifications. Every time I've done that I've done well because of the empirical confidence it gives. That does not mean backtest only, it means backtest and then forward (real-time) test for a week or two. I've been through it all, if you really have a method, it will come through. My downfalls have all come from over leveraging and lack of discipline. Proper size allows you to make rational decisions. Let the results of your method be what they are. You are only a vessel for its application. If the results of your testing don't yield the results wanted, go back to researching. If you want to come from nothing to something, you must have conviction and self belief. Forget the 100 share half measure. It'll just slow the inevitable. Research, back and forward test, make positions that matter, and most of all eliminate lack of discipline and those mediocre set ups that are what kill your results. It truly can be done.
Wilt
Wilt