Thanks for the responses so far. Keep 'em comin'.
***my First Post*** LONG OVER DUE UPDATE!!!!!!
- Thread starter I Trade 4 Money
- Start date
Glad to see you've come to this realization. I do remember reading your first post and thinking "oh boy, this guys in trouble unless he changes his attitude". Well, it seems you have. Good luck to you.
Good luck.
Well, 300 of it's from market data fees. Nearly half of them are from commissions. I realized, after analyzing my trades, I tend to overtrade a little too much. I guess I'm gonna have to remedy that. One positive thing I learned was holding unto my winners. My best hold ytd was Chevron for 1.5 points!!! I was ecstatic I could hold on a winner for that long considering when I first started off I was taking profits once I had between 5 and 10 cents!!! Majority of my gross losses was purely due to CHASING. That's my biggest downfall to my P/L. I just hate missing moves and whenever I chase I always get creamed. Chasing and overtrading are hampering my P/L.
Hey Steve. I consider you quite successful. Quick question. Can you go over what you went through in the beginning stages of your trading career and how you got to where you are currently? Thanks in advance man.
Well you've learned half of the secret, "let your winners run". The other half is keep your losses small. How much do you let a trade go against you before you cut it for a loss? Ideally you would like for your average winners to be 3 times what your average losers are. What is your money management plan in this respect?
Well, I try to look at key support/resistance levels. If it goes below or above those key levels by a few cents I cut it. My problem seems to be getting bad entry points due to chasing. I have to be ANTICIPATORY not REACTIONARY. As for the money management, I have to make a plan for that, LOL!!! I realized it one of the key aspect in trading. I have well over 6 figures in BP and currently use around 10,000-20,000 of it.
You need to come up with a risk/reward plan. From what you say you are doing, the key level at which you take a loss could be 50c away from your entry and the stock might only have 30c left in it's move. So you are risking 50c to make 30c, not a winning strategy. If the stock isn't close enough to where you will take only a small loss then you don't enter. Either you set an alert so when the stock moves closer to that key level where a loss from where you would enter would be small. Or you let the trade move on without you in it because you couldn't get a a good entry.
Thanks for the advice. I guess I'll use this weekend to see good entry points for the 50 stocks I track. I'm going to have to wake up real early Monday morning get into the office and set my alerts. Never set alerts before. It's going to be my first time. You gotta do what what you gotta do to make it in this business. I'm going to do whatever it takes, mark my words!!!