June Trading Journals

Hitman:

I am Storkelif

It is nice to have you posting in this forum. I have been participating here for morea than 2 years and have really learned a lot. There are a lot of successful traders here that are willing to offer their opinions and insights for the benefit of this profession.

hsanson
 
this is funny. Now I see why are so many are managing others
money or doing seminars, books etc. It will bring in the
"bacon" !! Larry Williams who is a "self promoter" but at
least a master trader (at least he used to be) writes;
"In trading futures (that what he does) you make not make
any money for seven months and than *bang* a big score."
He went into seminars because of that ! It better than
a dayjob ;)
 
After 3 straight check-less pay periods (while I was up second pay period in May, I was down $600 for the month so no check), finally snapped this nasty streak. While $200 is less than what you would make flipping burgers, it is important that I learn from my mistakes and start to play better . . . I hope I am "consolidating" and will soon get ready to take off into new high's . . .

Very choppy day, I had a decent start making my first two shots and found myself up $350 going into the dead zone. During the dead zone I was chatting with a member at Elite Trader chat room who is incredible with tape reading and he specializes in bottomfishing plays . . . (If you are reading this, I really really appreciate the tape tips you gave me, it is my fault for taking trades I am not comfortable with, but I learned awful lot today) I got really tempted so I started trading some of those plays. Unfortunately I don't have the nerve he has to not only long stocks falling like a rock but also averaging down when he is confident. Needless to say I got nowhere with it and chopped myself up on a few of my own plays (when you have a position you tend to feel like adding another one) . . .

A friend of mine who recently visited my trading firm is doing some point and figure charting on S&P futures, each day he sends me a nice little journal with support and resistance points. This morning the S&P futures failed to break 1220 on a squeeze which was a weak resistance point so shorting would have worked well, but I could tell the rally was running out of gas from volume alone. But just before the dead zone futures hit 1228 which is supposed to be super heavy resistance, went up to 1232 then came back in. That move cost me two very very good trades, for me, picking tops and bottoms never work, I would rather follow the trend, so all support/resistance are meant to be broken and I got be really careful about using those in my trading.

Finished the week down $300 . . . Put it plainly, I need to play my own game, it doesn't matter how good he is at his style, if I am not comfortable trading it, it will spell nothing but disaster for me . . . Fortunately I traded very light and at least finished the damn pay period in the black. I sure hope this is the end of my check-less streak and I will never see this kind of streak again . . .

Mrs. D. may be the first trader at my firm to start her own trading desk with less than one year's trading experience. She is absolutely magnificent and I will without a doubt be working on her team if she does sign the contract.

+88 before commissions, -63.88 after, 2 of 6 shooting on 6600 shares.

Pre-Market: Lots of downgrades, lone upgrade on SLB

9:30: BTK weakness, shorted CRA off the open and got a quick 70 cents out of the trade, OSX strength, took HP long for a 40 cents profit. Nice start, but who would have thought those would be my only winners of the day?

10:51: Waited for the market to show direction. Bought COF on BKX strength, got out for flat and missed a 1 point move because I thought futures will not break 1228, shorted ADI too, but the buy program kicked in and I ended up losing 15 cents in ADI and missed a big opportunity in COF. Took CRA long and made 30 cents on BTK rally . . .

1:15: Oh no, took IRF long and lost 30 cents. Took EME long and lost 40 cents. Have to give the guy in the chat room a lot of credit, he read the specialist flawlessly, I paniked and sold for a loss while he bought more . . . but this is not for me . . . Shorted NSM on futures sell-off but market reversed and no move . . . Super choppy market for sure, no wonder Mrs. D. left despite of it being a rare down day for her at lunch time . . .

3:00: Took IRF at 36.25, 1/4 above the low, too nervous when I bottompick so got out for a 25 cents profit, lost 30 cents on CVS so I am going to say no to this kind of plays from now on. My style is top->down (futures/sector/stock), which is what Mrs. D does, and if I can get some of her tape skills I will be golden, gotta avoid the distractions and focus on my strength . . .

I got start to make some progress, I am ashamed of my performance, I have the right strategy, the right ideas, yet everyday something happens and I can not seem to get that one or two extra plays to get myself a breakout game . . .
 
Hitman ---- Enjoyed your post again. I trade S&Ps exclusively, and might suggest three things:

1) support/resistance on index is tentative ----- Neither in trading futures or using the futures as a leading indicator for stocks would I recommend trying to pick a support bottom or resistance top until prices clearly bounce back off that level to confirm. That's when you reverse in futures and can regard the level as provisionally OK.

2) S&P and Naz support/resistance should generally be regarded as zones or areas, not specific numbers.

3) I don't know where you got 1228 as S&P resistance today---- we all used 1229.50-1231. Best free read of support/resistance levels on S&P and Naz are from Lewis Borsellino at teachtrade.com ------- Prices did stop exactly at 1231 ----

Enjoy your weekend and great trading next week.
 
Originally posted by armaniman

1) revenge trading (trying to get back losses or make up for missed opportunities) against the market almost always loses. Psychologically, you're in a position where you're grasping at straws, and rationalizing trades you probably wouldn't even have considered if you had your wits about you. I've finally learned that when I'm not doing well and am angry at myself and/or the market, just stop and get out for the day, hit the beach, see a movie, refresh my spirit, anything but the market. Then the next day or so you begin to regain confidence and desire, and can get back in the trenches in a much better frame of mind.
More...

I couldn't agree more with this statement. I've done this many times. I'm getting better at stopping when I'm not doing well but still, sometimes I let it get the better of me and start revenge trading.

It usually happens when I break one of my rules right off the bat and start the day off down.
And I'm sure that better than 95% of the times I do this I lose. And lose. And lose.
Like I said I'm getting better at this but still sometimes I just do it. It's amazing how long this game takes to learn.

You know all the rules. You've picked your strategy. You have your trading plan. You execute. You're successful. You've done this a hundred times. THEN BAM.

You have a brain hemmorage and break a rule. You know what you should be doing but you don't follow it. And it gets ya.
Because the market doesn't forgive your mistakes. Oh yeah, once in awhile you break your rule and it pays off. And pays off big. So the next time you're in the same type of trade you think (sometimes unconsciously)"this worked out the last time" and you get burned. Lost much more than you made on that big trade. So then you go back and reread your rules and start the game over. Only then do you get better. If you have learned your lesson.

I revenged traded yesterday and ended up losing $1,800 on one trade. That is alot for me. And I know better. But while I occasionally do this I am getting better and my losses are usually cut quickly.

The real funny thing about this is that when I follow my rules I rarely have a down day. I consistenly make money week after week and haven't had a down month in over 19 months.

I'm just letting everyone know that even while I'm fairly consistent in my trading I still have times when I put my brain in my pocket and trade with any empty head. Or should I say trade emotionally.

Hope this helps someone.

Kevin
 
Originally posted by Wirehead
Hitman,

Your words are a great inspiration to me as a daytrader. Thanks for all the time you put in your post.
More...

I agree. Hitman, I really find these posts helpful and I hope you continue to post them.

Also, what is the address of the Elite Traders chat room?

Regards.
 
A poor performance since I simply could not find my shot today. 4 of 10 shooting on 8000 shares, -$15 before commissions, -$200 after . . .

I am start to wondering if I should start to find some bottom->up approach to trading, my game has always been futures->sector->stock, in that order . . . in other word I anticipate futures movement, then sector movement, then stock movement. Perhaps I need to find some "mover of the day/week" and play those with some sort of a bottom-up approach . . .

I checked out http://www.teachtrade.com and it is a wonderful site. The support and resistance levels for S&P futures would have worked very well today, I guess on choppier, slower mornings it can be invaluable. You almost know that the damn thing will not break the support nor resistance, when it does bounce off that level you can be more confident.

9:30: Telecom weakness, not aware of the morning news, missed some potential opportunities there, but I have to ask myself when the futures went higher would I have held those shorts? Probably not. Still, would have took at least 30-40 cents off some of those stocks. Instead I opened the day up with REI long on UTY strength, I don't trade utilities much, but them seemed to have excellent intraday ranges and trends lately, stock was taking out sellers and made a nice intraday pattern, all of a sudden the damn BID dropped and I lost 25 cents in the trade. The seller wasn't done . . . Shorted MMC and lost 15 cents, IUX nearly made the reversal "U" yet it bounced right off the unchanged, wish I flipped the position when futures came back.

10:00: Double bottom on futures, took STT, PVN on BKX strength, PVN made a double bottom and volume spiked, I thought it would be a golden trade but again, bam, seller stepped in and knocked it back down and I got out of the trade for flat. Tried to bottom pick OSX a couple of times, fruitless, but all of a sudden the sector went vertical! Literally every stock I turned to was just knocking out an ASK and immediately showed large spreads, which I didn't dare to take. I only had VTS filled for a reasonable price and unfortunately it didn't move like it often does . . .

2:00: Afternoon was just pure churning, shorted ADI and despite of SOX sell-off it didn't want to give any ground . . . Just could not scrap my way back . . .
 
Appreciate your frankness and honesty. If there is anything I like about your trading is that you get out with small losses like a quarter or so. I think that is a good trait I NEED to do, but fail at. As a matter of fact, I was the one in the trading room who had that horrible, break all the rules JNPR trade on. I appreciate your comments in there. I actually broke even on that crappy trade in after hours, but I know next time I might get my clock cleaned. I need to take that small loss like you did instead. Best regards.

Trader01
 
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