October Trading Journals
- Thread starter Hitman
- Start date
Magna
Administrator
silk,
Congratulations on your good trading today. I hope you are as open about posting your bad trading days.
Those big fish trades are what i go after...There are huge fish out there waiting to be caught...I don't understand just shooting for $.25 cent trades when you can make a quick $1 off of nasdaq stocks on the open.
Unfortunately you can lose a quick $1 off the open too, very easy to do. And on a 1000 share lot, you're down a cool $1,000 with the market barely open five minutes. Kinda puts a crimp in the day. Everybody would like the nice 3-6 pt moves, but days like today are flukes, unusual. And riding things out on choppy days (which the majority of days are) will just get you chopped up and stopped out. So while .25-.50 is not as dramatic as 3 pts, it's a lot easier to get in a wide variety of trading conditions, and at a much better risk/reward ratio.
Congratulations on your good trading today. I hope you are as open about posting your bad trading days.
Those big fish trades are what i go after...There are huge fish out there waiting to be caught...I don't understand just shooting for $.25 cent trades when you can make a quick $1 off of nasdaq stocks on the open.
Unfortunately you can lose a quick $1 off the open too, very easy to do. And on a 1000 share lot, you're down a cool $1,000 with the market barely open five minutes. Kinda puts a crimp in the day. Everybody would like the nice 3-6 pt moves, but days like today are flukes, unusual. And riding things out on choppy days (which the majority of days are) will just get you chopped up and stopped out. So while .25-.50 is not as dramatic as 3 pts, it's a lot easier to get in a wide variety of trading conditions, and at a much better risk/reward ratio.
First of all, as I said I would like to see YTD numbers rather than single day numbers before I am convinced that going for bigger moves with bigger stops is the way to go, people at my firm rarely make more than 1 point on a trade without paring in / out etc, and there were only 3 traders out of 550 that made more than 10K today, and all of them traded HEAVY sizes (multiple 5K-10K positions).
I am not going to make any excuses, I didn't believe the market will tank after last 3 days it kept on coming back, it did, tonight was a very special evening for me and emotionally I could not bear a loss so I traded very very conservatively. I am very happy that I wasn't down, because I was paralyzed with fear, with the personal issues out of the way however tommorrow I should come back clear headed. Bad game for me, no doubt given the opportunities, I could have played much better, next.
As far as trading and commissions are concerned, I will repeat, I can't see how you can make super size without generating a lot of commissions, if you can provide a honest YTD number I may change my mind. I hate to sound cocky or anything but if your strategy really works as well as advertised you should be trading more than 200 shares by now.
Last but not least, as I said, my game needs more improvement, and I will eventually improve on my holding time (when I feel confident) for bigger profit and bigger size. But the biggest advantage of someone who trades say, 10K shares a day versus someone who trades say 1K shares a day, is the former always have a chance to close every day in the black. If you only take 1 or 2 trades a day and they don't work you just wasted a day for nothing and sits on a loss. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people came back from major deficits on a daily basis, and I think that's an important quality to a style.
And I really wonder how many people (besides commissio, although if he can provide a YTD number I will be a lot more impressed) trades full time and only takes 1-5 trades a day?
I am not going to make any excuses, I didn't believe the market will tank after last 3 days it kept on coming back, it did, tonight was a very special evening for me and emotionally I could not bear a loss so I traded very very conservatively. I am very happy that I wasn't down, because I was paralyzed with fear, with the personal issues out of the way however tommorrow I should come back clear headed. Bad game for me, no doubt given the opportunities, I could have played much better, next.
As far as trading and commissions are concerned, I will repeat, I can't see how you can make super size without generating a lot of commissions, if you can provide a honest YTD number I may change my mind. I hate to sound cocky or anything but if your strategy really works as well as advertised you should be trading more than 200 shares by now.
Last but not least, as I said, my game needs more improvement, and I will eventually improve on my holding time (when I feel confident) for bigger profit and bigger size. But the biggest advantage of someone who trades say, 10K shares a day versus someone who trades say 1K shares a day, is the former always have a chance to close every day in the black. If you only take 1 or 2 trades a day and they don't work you just wasted a day for nothing and sits on a loss. I can't tell you how many times I have seen people came back from major deficits on a daily basis, and I think that's an important quality to a style.
And I really wonder how many people (besides commissio, although if he can provide a YTD number I will be a lot more impressed) trades full time and only takes 1-5 trades a day?
Hitman: âI really wonder how many people trades full time and only takes 1-5 trades a day?â
I trade full time. I trade for a living. I trade intraday.
As Iâve said before, I rarely come across more than 5 good setups in a day. I may actually execute more trades moving in and out of a position but the fact remains that I make my living trading 4-5 setups a day. A one-lot trader with a 10K account could execute against the same setups while only trading 5-6 times and generate a descent profit.
I donât mention this for Hitmanâs info and I have zero problems with his trading style. I simply wanted to mention this for any futures trader who wonders about the feasibility of trading less often while attempting to capitalize on larger swings. It can be done.
âI can't tell you how many times I have seen people came back from major deficits on a daily basis, and I think that's an important quality to a style.â
I respect that âthatâs an important quality to a styleâ for you.
I think that youâve addressed the main issue. What is the time period that you are capable of working through without positive reinforcement? Pulling profits out of the market on a daily basis is psychologically important for a lot of traders. It is possible, though, to accept multi-day or weekly drawdowns while knowing that your larger gains will eventually erase the deficit on a weekly or monthly basis.
I trade full time. I trade for a living. I trade intraday.
As Iâve said before, I rarely come across more than 5 good setups in a day. I may actually execute more trades moving in and out of a position but the fact remains that I make my living trading 4-5 setups a day. A one-lot trader with a 10K account could execute against the same setups while only trading 5-6 times and generate a descent profit.
I donât mention this for Hitmanâs info and I have zero problems with his trading style. I simply wanted to mention this for any futures trader who wonders about the feasibility of trading less often while attempting to capitalize on larger swings. It can be done.
âI can't tell you how many times I have seen people came back from major deficits on a daily basis, and I think that's an important quality to a style.â
I respect that âthatâs an important quality to a styleâ for you.
I think that youâve addressed the main issue. What is the time period that you are capable of working through without positive reinforcement? Pulling profits out of the market on a daily basis is psychologically important for a lot of traders. It is possible, though, to accept multi-day or weekly drawdowns while knowing that your larger gains will eventually erase the deficit on a weekly or monthly basis.
I don't know if anyone follows the swing trade method of Gary B. Smith, but there's an active yahoo group discussing it. There's one semi-regular contributor who call himself the king of "selection perfection", meaning he'll sit on the sidelines and only take the picture-perfect setups. I bet he only does 10 trades a month, if that, but he puts on big size and has a high win rate. Catch 3 or 4 bucks on a 3000 share position and you've made your month.
There's so many ways to succeed in trading, and everyone will develop their own style. I remember an interview in S&C magazine with a guy who did 600 trades a day. That blew my mind.
There's so many ways to succeed in trading, and everyone will develop their own style. I remember an interview in S&C magazine with a guy who did 600 trades a day. That blew my mind.
Hitman,
On the issue of trade frequency, I am also currently trading NYSE these days. I only did two trades on Wednesday and made my daily target. All that counts is careful trade selection.
On the issue of trade frequency, I am also currently trading NYSE these days. I only did two trades on Wednesday and made my daily target. All that counts is careful trade selection.
I feel like I started something. But my point was to try to be constructive...I enjoy Hitman's journals ...sometimes they remind me of my own days last year, when I had an active day thinking I made a lot when most of the profit went to commish
Yes I trade full time(no other income) gave up a good paying job at Merrill to get my independence...started off with a small acct...but have made enough to pay bills, take 3 nice vacations, and continue trading
So what I was pointing out is Hitman's environment and how it MAY be influencing his trading style and keeping him from trying something different...but as other members have said, if it works for him then GREAT, everyone has their own style
I've never bad-mouthed anyone here( except for daytraderpro web site, and I only said it was shady, and then bam! they get shut down). I think this is a great site where we can come together to share ideas, there will be a few who have nothing but sh*t to say...ok this is too long
Hitman, I'll see you in a few weeks.
Good trading today everyone. However, I'll be freezing my butt off on the golf course today.
"One man's ceiling is another man's floor" Paul Simon
Yes I trade full time(no other income) gave up a good paying job at Merrill to get my independence...started off with a small acct...but have made enough to pay bills, take 3 nice vacations, and continue trading
So what I was pointing out is Hitman's environment and how it MAY be influencing his trading style and keeping him from trying something different...but as other members have said, if it works for him then GREAT, everyone has their own style
I've never bad-mouthed anyone here( except for daytraderpro web site, and I only said it was shady, and then bam! they get shut down). I think this is a great site where we can come together to share ideas, there will be a few who have nothing but sh*t to say...ok this is too long
Hitman, I'll see you in a few weeks.
Good trading today everyone. However, I'll be freezing my butt off on the golf course today.
"One man's ceiling is another man's floor" Paul Simon