October Trading Journals

Easy as pie day but I was not aggressive enough after the first hour, left way too much on the table today but after yesterday I was not very aggressive. On any super rally day if you missed the initial move it is very hard to jump in later and once I realized I got out too early there were no easy entry opportunities as you don't want to chase. A lot of people struggled today, top 30 guy was just 13K bottom 2.7K, I guess no one wanted to go aggressive today after getting hit yesterday.

Should have took more shots, 3 of 5 shooting on 5300 shares, +1069 before commissions, +948 after, won 5 of last 6, +2500 for the pay period with 3 games left, and I want a streak.

Pre-Market: PPG downgrade prevented me from playing CEX which had some serious movers. Sometimes it may be better to ignore news when it is really light, PPG gapped down and was a great long.

9:30: IUX super strength early and this has been a super mover sector lately. Took ABK long and accidentally took 1400 shares instead of 700, immediately sold 700 for a 13 cents loss and took the damage of the spread because the BID was hit and no way in the world I am going to risk holding 1400 shares for a 50 cents drop. MTG gapped down and IUX was going straight up, as soon as the offer was hit I went long at 60.27, pared some out at 60.69 and pared others out at 61.60, great trade but I got out just in time as it sold off hard today. Took MMM long at 98.15 on futures pop and made a easy point, left 3 POINTS on the table, ahhhhhhhh! When the futures is that strong you have to be willing to hold.

10:02: Futures going up, why didn't I hold this? Took CMA at 48.73 and took a dime scalp and gave up 2 points, I am not good at holding stuff that slowly trend up at all, I get nervous when nothing prints and I tend to get out at dime shakeout's. Tried to bottom pick CYH and ended up flat, can't read him today, huge volume on the daily's. Missed PDX/GMT bottoms and didn't take anymore positions.
 
It is funny how today was a carbon copy of yesterday and I made more money on the downside than I did on the upside. 6200 shares each way on 5 of 8 shooting, +1161 before commissions, +952 after . . . 1 bullet.

Throw in the fact that Tony Oz, the author of 3 mega popular trading books offered to send me his books and some mentoring over the phone, it was a very very good day for sure. I am delighted that he has been reading my journals at Elite Trader, it is an honor to have a reader of his caliber.

What a difference a 6 of 7 streak can make, and I hope to extend it and finish last 2 games of the pay period strong. A few more solid games I will really start pushing up the size, tapping into my potential. Consistency rules above all. Last two games were gimmicks, I will not confuse skill and easy game, I must continue to play at this level and I can see myself break out soon. I miss those multiple K day's.

Pre-Market: Futures up a lot, I always play gap-up day's via lagging stocks/sectors.

9:30: Took HON at 28.81 for a easy half. CEX went down and then went straight up, took PPG off the open 48.4 with 1000 shares and eventually pared out for 35 cents profit, a big seller showed up and pushed it below my entry price, wish I took some down there as it went straight up after the seller was done. Took a little PGR on IUX rally and out flat (my stop was too tight) and missed 1 point move. Took SGY on OSX rally and made 50 cents, unfortunately I didn't take enough shares.

10:00: Missed a big fill on CB, it had a big offer and as soon as the offer was taken out I should have bought, a tick too slow there. No infamous 10AM reversal today, this thing is going higher, tried to bottom pick ABK and lost 20 cents, this thing was weak despite of IUX strength. Took a little PDX figured seller was done yesterday and lost 20 cents (very fortunate as the next three prints send it half a point lower).

10:14: OSX/OIX all reversed hard, XNG coming in, bulleted EOG at 34.30 and got 70 cents out of the short, my best trade of the day, although I wish I did more size when I saw that 30000 offer stepping down, only had 800.

12:03: Churned a little bit HP and lost 10 cents as I thought OSX will rebound, it did, stock didn't, the afternoon's have been abysmal, I will pass . . .
 
Very tough game if you weren't short when the Anthrax news came out. Frankly after that point, there were more important issues to think about than trading, so the rest of the day was just pure churning for me, as I was short into the final hour.

This is the kind of game where your momentum going into the game will decide everything, and fortunately I have been on a streak and I was able to keep my streak going, even if it didn't exactly add much to my account.

13800 shares each way on 4 of 15 shooting, +492 before commissions, +46.35 after, Monday is the last game of first half, and hopefully I can get a 4K pay period, need just 400 to get that . . .

Pre-Market: Plenty of bad news, especially retail news (all gapped down too much)

9:30: BTK sell-off, bulleted DNA at 44.50 and eventually covered at 44.15 when futures reversed. Bulleted EMN on CEX sell-off with a big offer but it was hit immediately and this was all churning all day. Made ok money with DNA but was flat on EMN before bullet cost.

9:43: All you need is just one good sector move, I really thought energy will do it, I had SGY at 35.1, KMI at 52.1, HAL at 25.9, NBL at 36, my P&L went up fast and all it took was just a little bit more push (10-20 cents per position) and I would have locked in a $600-800 day, unfortunately momentum collapsed and after taking spread hits I looked at my P&L, up $60 . . . Took IRF on futures rip and lost 22 cents, really really really choppy morning . . .

12:25: Took some AHP on a bottom bounce for a 15 cents scalp.

3:00: Churn, churn and more churn, if only I went for SOX and RLX instead of CEX, churned a lot of DOX, DNA, HON, PPG, futures went up, those stocks didn't, SOX already ran, so I didn't want to chase, oh well, up is always better than down . . .
 
Yet another difficult game, I had a horrendous open with the bad bullets and missed energy sell-off completely, I wasn't watching when the market pulled a massive rally at 1PM either, the least likely hour for a big reversal. Fortunately I had the defensive mentality all day, eventually came back and squeezed out yet another narrow victory. It is important to be up, even a little bit, just to keep myself in the zone. +512 before commissions, +95 after, 5 of 9 shooting on 12500 shares, finished the first pay period with $3600 and looking to extend my streak in second half.

Pre-Market: Lots of technology downgrades

9:30: CEX went down 1% right off the open, bulleted PPG/EMN, barely got my bullet cost back from EMN, and took some damage in PPG as I was chopped up in it all day. Took NE long on OSX pop and took a quick 16 cents scalp as the index reversed, key mistake, didn't have a bullet up on any energy and missed without a doubt the easiest sector move of the day.

10:09: Took a quarter point scalp off ADI on futures rebound, tried TXN and out for flat, tried IRF and out flat, churned DOX all day but fortunately made a couple of scalps off it, fortunately those little scalps added up as I was able to come back from a $500 deficit to tie the game at lunch break.

2:20: Got another dime out of DOX and a quarter out of WDR, churned and churned and churned some more ADI/PPG, it wasn't meant to be a size day. Sure hope tommorrow will be better.
 
I've read all of your journals. It seems that the majority of your trades result in very small gains or losses and that commissions eat up most of your net return.

Do you ever try to find trades that are going to make 5% or more? Perhaps you should consider trading stocks with more volatitily. Nothing wrong with taking a quick scalp when it presents itself, but it seems to me that you never going to make huge money when commissions are such a high percentage of your gross.

I day trade a $20k account (far lower capital than you are trading) from my home and freqently have days where i make over $1 or $2 thousand. I look for trades that i can make points on, i don't usually bother if i think only a small gain is there. I only make a few trades a day and my commissions are very low.

I myself am going to trade at Worldco in a few weeks. My experience is trading nasdaq and i'm sure i will learn alot about big board trading when i start at worldco. They tell me they train new traders on nyse because its easier and then when you are profitable you have free reign.

Question for you Hitman. Does worldco let you trade any stock you want, not just NYSE? Are your trading share limits higher for a low priced stock? Seems like if you are allowed to trade 1k shares of a $50 stock that you would be allowed to trade a larger position of a $10 stock.

Thanks, and good luck!
 
First of all as a true day trader you do not talk % ever, when you don't hold overnight ever you need to take whatever you can off the table. Keep in mind I am paying bills and saving up toward a condo next year so everything I do is about minimizing losses. Everyone here pays a lot of commissions, EVERYONE, for someone to make 10K a day they will need to generate at least 2K in commissions, and if you are down a few hundred before commissions you will be down 1-2K for the day, you will understand why when you do trade here.

Worldco does have Nasdaq, but this is a NYSE firm first and if you trade Nasdaq I would look for another firm as their OTC end is not as competitive. I can trade 3000 shares of anything, 12 positions of anything, doesn't matter if it is $10 or $100. And to address your question, you can go remote if you are good, but as a newbie, they won't bother with it.

As far as your account goes, do you hold overnight, and where are you YTD? To make that much with a small account like that you have to risk a lot, and everything is a double edged sword in trading.
 
"Everyone here pays a lot of commissions, EVERYONE, for someone to make 10K a day they will need to generate at least 2K in commissions"

Hitman,
I don't know if your referring to all daytraders or just traders at your firm, but I can assure you that I am not giving up 20% of my gains in commissions.......

Your looking at this game thru a stained glass window, where did all these beliefs come from anyway? You've only been trading a year....

"True daytraders never talk in %" as if the 6%, 3R, or 1pt. that I took from NEWP this morning aren't all relative???????

PEACE and good trading,
Commisso
 
I can only speak for my firm, everyday there is a top 30 list before and after commissions, the difference is at least 20%. I just did a calculation for yesterday's list and it was 25%, and you would assume people who finished top 30 had less churning.

As far as NEWP is concerned it is 1 point off 10K shares, percentage is irrevalent, you trade a $7 stock and you take a quick quarter point of 10K shares it is $2500, not 3%. In the end it is how much money you made this year, not %, just as trading is not about shooting percentage.
 
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