Barts, I agree with you 100%. I am actually planning to become profitable and not BE, but to quite some bitter guys who would start hanging on my balls for daring to state that I can be profitable any earlier than after 10 years and 100 000 hours of watching this, I am keeping low profile
I know I can be profitable because I see what I am doing and I know what I am doing.
I am new in stocks but I have some experience in Forex which is not that bad.
I do not compare both since they have differences but qualities to be trader are similar or practically same. It is just different games/ markets.
My stops not only 3-5 ticks. Those stops are exactly where I have my trade going wrong. I simply do not take trades where my risk is more than $5 to prove me wrong and the system we start trading has it that we enter only when we are proven absolutely wrong if p[rice moves $5 against us.
I am not that new to not knowing where to set stops. Forex or stocks but stop loss is where the trade failed according to time frame or set up I trade in.
I had few times winning streaks the longest one was 11 days in a row, but, my risk control was not that good and I tended to lose everything and then some in 1-2 days. so, I decided to concentrate for few weeks on absolutely controlling myself regarding losses.
So far I have been successful and reduced my losing side.
Now, I am working on profit side.
I need psychologically to be capable of entering any trade I perceive as opportunity according to the system knowing that if trade turns against me and my stop loss reached I will close position without any hesitation right away. I can do it now and I have not missed a single signal. Whenever I had signal prom my previous system I entered. Since yesterday I started trading different system which we are being trained to trade by experienced guy.
He even told us that if we see set up but doubt, call him, he would come and say, if it is what we are looking for. He did come yesterday. and I did really well.
There was a couple of trades on FHN yesterday.
First I got signal to go long. I set limit order, got filled, suddenly while in trade I got signal to go short. Seeing on Time and Sale and Level II that situation rapidly changing, I set limit order to get out at BE, got out. Waiting for the price to move in opposite direction to confirm, than set another short limit order at the level I saw on Time and Sales as being just under resistance. Got filled, set limit order and within few seconds was out at target profit. Price than dropped like a stone. But the good thing due to being sure I can cut loss at any moment and I was going to cut it at 2-3 ticks against me in this case after I saw signal in opposite direction, I could reverse immediately.
I sure liked it. It was my last win. Made $10 yesterday with added liquidity.
Quote from BartS:
Wrong.
If you expect to be breakeven you will be breakeven or a loser.
You have to expect to make money.
It's the dumbest thing in the world, but in the end you get what you wish for.
Shiko, I'm no great trader but I was dealing with your issues a while ago...
Go talk to your mentor, ask him questions, be proactive, actually be a pain in his ass until you get it and become consistent....
If your stop is 20c a day, you better know your stocks....and their levels.....you may not be right all the time, but if you're patient enough with entries you should be able to risk no more than 5-7c....and remember - it's not the dollar amound that makes a stop, it's the location of your entry that dictates what you're going to lose.....
