January Trading Journals
- Thread starter Hitman
- Start date
My trading is basically KISS... look at MSFT... I did an opening gap fill trade on MSFT with smaller than usual size as a result of it being an opening trade (shortly after 9.30am) and took a small loss when it was evident that the prints were predominantly red... I did the breakout to a new high of day which occurred after 10am (a pseudo-gap fill, in that it was delayed and didnt occur straight off the open)... the second trade was helped considerably by the fact that towards 11am DELL came out with good guidance [I didn't know about the guidance at the time, but it was apparent from the tape that something good had happened to DELL], spiking the entire tech sector [I did a very quick DELL scalp as my 3rd trade when I saw its action on the tape]... the 4th trade I did was the MSFT breakdown to a new low of day which occured after 2pm. There are no secrets... I play a variety of styles... the two styles above were gap fades and hod/lod breaks ... at all times I had my eye on the Nasdaq Futures for confirmation.
Hitman-Please don't ever mention my name again. You don't know jack about me except that I've dealt pearls successfully for 3 years and prior to that I owned a nite club. You know this because I told you so while I was with visiting you at Worldco-when you tried to recruit me. Truthfully-- I was so unimpressed with you I figured if they take this guy I really should look elsewhere should I want to go this direction. Furthermore- to be Frank- I was not really there to see you--I was hoping to get an opportunity to see and perhaps speak with the now"little witch" -Ms. D--She had left earlier as I remember. I feel like- but I'm not gonna lay you out here. You're finished-there's nothin left. You cooked your own goose. I've been telling this board for months-giving hints here and there as to your real character-or lack of it should I say--I'm sorry it's come to this-but as you say truth is best..You know nothing about my trading or my #'s. It might be best to start learning about hot dog preparation.
Love is not the greatest strength, humility is. Unfortunately this is something you are lacking of in spades. What started off as informative posts disintegrated into a brat throwing a temper tantrum because your not getting what you want out of the market and now are taking it out on well meaning members. Grow up son.
You know, all kidding aside, this is a fascinating thread. Lets do a pool. I will stake my life on the law of averages. Hitman had a decent year last year and it was not that great a year. Having a full year of results, 250 trading days, how can you bet against him? Not that I particularly like the guy but hey, I'm a business man.
Everyone that is being a bitch is not a seasoned trader. First off anyone who gets offended doesn't have the patients to trade for a living. Second if Hitman makes it through this year which I think he will. When the market picks up he will make seven figures judging from his trading style. I put my money on Hitman.
Hitman,
I have not posted once on this board, but rather have been quitely following from start of your trading journal....simply because it was nice to look at a new trader starting out, and developing his abilities. I was able to reflect back to when I was starting, and see the correlation to my own career as I started to learn.
Let me make a few points.......
1) You act like because you had one profitable year, that you know everything...I'm happy for that you made money..but in the scheme of things, a +70k year is only a start for truly great traders.
2) The market is not "bad"...it is/has changed tones..that is all. Stocks still go up and down...still plenty of money to be made.
3) When I read your daily journal, I almost feel that each future trade depended on the last..like you stare at your P/L all day...and you are trading strictly based upon that. Concentrate on setups/entry/exit..and the P/L takes care of itself.
4) Trading...no matter the time frame is about adapting and learning constantly..because the market is constantly in motion and always changing.
5) The mere fact that you dismiss helpful advice such as Threei's as "garbage" shows that you are out of your league. You are not willing to step back and evaluate yourself, and what you are doing, to determine if you need to change (maybe you don't). If you never figure out how to do that, you will never be successful long term.
6) I almost wonder to myself if it is because of the trading environment that you are in that causes you to almost "force" yourself to trade on a daily basis....because I trade for myself...with a couple of friends in a private office...and feel absolutely no pressure on a daily basis to do anything....which helps me to focus with a clear head on what the mkt is doing.
Best of luck,
cas
I have not posted once on this board, but rather have been quitely following from start of your trading journal....simply because it was nice to look at a new trader starting out, and developing his abilities. I was able to reflect back to when I was starting, and see the correlation to my own career as I started to learn.
Let me make a few points.......
1) You act like because you had one profitable year, that you know everything...I'm happy for that you made money..but in the scheme of things, a +70k year is only a start for truly great traders.
2) The market is not "bad"...it is/has changed tones..that is all. Stocks still go up and down...still plenty of money to be made.
3) When I read your daily journal, I almost feel that each future trade depended on the last..like you stare at your P/L all day...and you are trading strictly based upon that. Concentrate on setups/entry/exit..and the P/L takes care of itself.
4) Trading...no matter the time frame is about adapting and learning constantly..because the market is constantly in motion and always changing.
5) The mere fact that you dismiss helpful advice such as Threei's as "garbage" shows that you are out of your league. You are not willing to step back and evaluate yourself, and what you are doing, to determine if you need to change (maybe you don't). If you never figure out how to do that, you will never be successful long term.
6) I almost wonder to myself if it is because of the trading environment that you are in that causes you to almost "force" yourself to trade on a daily basis....because I trade for myself...with a couple of friends in a private office...and feel absolutely no pressure on a daily basis to do anything....which helps me to focus with a clear head on what the mkt is doing.
Best of luck,
cas
Magna
Administrator
My, my, all this controversy over Hitman just posting the truth as he sees it. If people would simply eliminate their need to be so damn helpful, and stop telling Hitman what they think he should do, or how they think he should respond to other people's advice, and just listen to what he's saying without all the emotion attached.....they would see that -- like him or not -- he tells the truth, no bullshit, no candy-coating, no kiss-ass. Doesn't matter to him who's offering the friendly advice.
I may not always agree with what he says or the way he says it, but I have alot of respect for his integrity. Twenty-two or not, he seems like a very honorable person, someone I could trust to tell me the truth. There's certainly room for that on this board, and in life.
Oh well, let the controversy continue...
I may not always agree with what he says or the way he says it, but I have alot of respect for his integrity. Twenty-two or not, he seems like a very honorable person, someone I could trust to tell me the truth. There's certainly room for that on this board, and in life.
Oh well, let the controversy continue...
Hallelujah Candletrader, now that is an honest post, that few can deny! I am still a newbie, but I watched MSFT all day, watched the DELL effect, as well as the sell off in the afternoon. Everything you said makes sense and concurs with my thinking and research, which is very close to a 24/7 endeavor. I did not take one trade last week because of the low volume, but I watch half a dozen stocks all day every day, watching to see how they move relative to the Nas Futures, plotted on a 1 min/ 3 min / 5 min chart with 200 PD MA on all three, and stochastics. You can learn a lot thru this exercise. These market conditions with low volume are very tricky, setups present themselves, but a lack of followthru kills it. In my newbie opinion these conditions call for sniper trading, not the shotgun approach. Overtrading under these conditions will result in too many stops. I am plugged into undergroundtrader, realitytrader and kingcambo every day, and I see the stops being taken, especially at undergroundtrader. Even shorts are tough because the selloffs are so darn slow and gradual, its more of an intraday swing or range trade. Anyways, all I really wanted to say was I liked the post by Candletrader.
Good luck and good trading to all!
--arky
Good luck and good trading to all!
--arky
As usual I will only reply to those worth replying to.
Candle: THANK YOU for the first meaningful post since Brandon told me I should be looking at longer time frame charts, I will look through those trades in detail and I will ask you some questions. Really appreciate it.
Bronks:
I don't need advice so bland and watered down. At least Tony and Brandon offered something specific about my trading other than all the psychological crap. Those may be well meaning but it doesn't mean I have to bow down in appreciation when Threei throws me something I can copy and paste from any trading book.
Cas:
You took your time and I will take my:
***You act like because you had one profitable year, that you know everything***
Nope, never said that, as a matter of fact anyone who ever joined my team can concur that I told them that I am a work in progress myself and as far as overall numbers and experience is concerned I am way behind most other team leaders. If you join my team, it will be about learning and growing together as I do not have all the answers.
If I say that to every new guy on board what make you think I would say otherwise on a message board? I don't know everything but I do know the difference between real advice and watered down crap.
***The market is not bad***
I predict that most of the traders will not have the success they had in 2001 (unless of course they start to trade substantially higher size than before), I also predict that 30% of the traders at my firm right now will tap out this year, and I don't mean newbies.
***There is money to be made***
Of course there is, the day I stop believing that there is money to be made I would stop trading for good. Adjustments are needed however. But I can tell you most will be hard pressed to make their 2001 numbers (assuming they had a succcessful 2001). Does that mean that I will "wait until the better times"? Yeah, but I need to make adjustments.
***Concentrate on setups/entry/exit..and the P/L takes care of itself.***
Useless advice again, if I think I am doing everything right and my P&L say otherwise then I need adjustments, I am not going to do the same thing over and over again until I blow out my account and say oops my techniques are obsolete. If I see a need for adjustment I do it, whether it is in size/tempo/aggression whatever.
***Trading...no matter the time frame is about adapting and learning constantly..because the market is constantly in motion and always changing.***
Yes, I know that already, thank you anyway, can you tell me what has been working for YOU?
***The mere fact that you dismiss helpful advice such as Threei's as "garbage" shows that you are out of your league.***
Read Threei's advice, READ IT, now go to amazon.com, go find the most popular trading books, look through them, you will find the exact same pieces of advice worded differently. When someone gives me something so bland and generic I don't appreciate it, even if he is Threei.
Chat room vendors are automatic when it comes to giving out cut and pasted advices. You ask them a question and you get one of the many pre-canned answers. At least Brandon offered something specific to my trading and even an example with UTY and that is something I am thankful about.
***I almost wonder to myself if it is because of the trading environment that you are in that causes you to almost "force" yourself to trade on a daily basis....because I trade for myself...with a couple of friends in a private office...and feel absolutely no pressure on a daily basis to do anything....which helps me to focus with a clear head on what the mkt is doing. ***
No, I have no volume numbers to match and I can go through days without a trade if I want to, unlike the common misconception of retail traders, no one is telling us what to do.
The real pressure is going into a 3 day weekend with a 3 games losing streak, I was so embarrassed with my performance this past week that I couldn't even call her through this entire weekend. I pretty much locked myself away and tried to sleep as many hours as possible to heal, and on Monday I will sure to do some exercises to put myself in the best shape possible for Tuesday's game.
Yes I know how to get myself ready for a game, thanks, now if you can tell me what you did on Friday it would mean a lot more than 2 cents to me.
Candle: THANK YOU for the first meaningful post since Brandon told me I should be looking at longer time frame charts, I will look through those trades in detail and I will ask you some questions. Really appreciate it.
Bronks:
I don't need advice so bland and watered down. At least Tony and Brandon offered something specific about my trading other than all the psychological crap. Those may be well meaning but it doesn't mean I have to bow down in appreciation when Threei throws me something I can copy and paste from any trading book.
Cas:
You took your time and I will take my:
***You act like because you had one profitable year, that you know everything***
Nope, never said that, as a matter of fact anyone who ever joined my team can concur that I told them that I am a work in progress myself and as far as overall numbers and experience is concerned I am way behind most other team leaders. If you join my team, it will be about learning and growing together as I do not have all the answers.
If I say that to every new guy on board what make you think I would say otherwise on a message board? I don't know everything but I do know the difference between real advice and watered down crap.
***The market is not bad***
I predict that most of the traders will not have the success they had in 2001 (unless of course they start to trade substantially higher size than before), I also predict that 30% of the traders at my firm right now will tap out this year, and I don't mean newbies.
***There is money to be made***
Of course there is, the day I stop believing that there is money to be made I would stop trading for good. Adjustments are needed however. But I can tell you most will be hard pressed to make their 2001 numbers (assuming they had a succcessful 2001). Does that mean that I will "wait until the better times"? Yeah, but I need to make adjustments.
***Concentrate on setups/entry/exit..and the P/L takes care of itself.***
Useless advice again, if I think I am doing everything right and my P&L say otherwise then I need adjustments, I am not going to do the same thing over and over again until I blow out my account and say oops my techniques are obsolete. If I see a need for adjustment I do it, whether it is in size/tempo/aggression whatever.
***Trading...no matter the time frame is about adapting and learning constantly..because the market is constantly in motion and always changing.***
Yes, I know that already, thank you anyway, can you tell me what has been working for YOU?
***The mere fact that you dismiss helpful advice such as Threei's as "garbage" shows that you are out of your league.***
Read Threei's advice, READ IT, now go to amazon.com, go find the most popular trading books, look through them, you will find the exact same pieces of advice worded differently. When someone gives me something so bland and generic I don't appreciate it, even if he is Threei.
Chat room vendors are automatic when it comes to giving out cut and pasted advices. You ask them a question and you get one of the many pre-canned answers. At least Brandon offered something specific to my trading and even an example with UTY and that is something I am thankful about.
***I almost wonder to myself if it is because of the trading environment that you are in that causes you to almost "force" yourself to trade on a daily basis....because I trade for myself...with a couple of friends in a private office...and feel absolutely no pressure on a daily basis to do anything....which helps me to focus with a clear head on what the mkt is doing. ***
No, I have no volume numbers to match and I can go through days without a trade if I want to, unlike the common misconception of retail traders, no one is telling us what to do.
The real pressure is going into a 3 day weekend with a 3 games losing streak, I was so embarrassed with my performance this past week that I couldn't even call her through this entire weekend. I pretty much locked myself away and tried to sleep as many hours as possible to heal, and on Monday I will sure to do some exercises to put myself in the best shape possible for Tuesday's game.
Yes I know how to get myself ready for a game, thanks, now if you can tell me what you did on Friday it would mean a lot more than 2 cents to me.