Peils Journal

Its still friday and i did something silly. I kept trading even though i was up over 1k. I traded with emotion and tried to predict the market instead of react to it. Lost almost all my profit for today. Made $374 dollars minus $284 in commissions and probably another 50 in other fees. What was i thinking.

I did my pairs trading which worked out kind of...i was up about 100 bucks or so and then i tried to close out my positions...ended up getting a fill for +$60 in one trade and -$74 in the other. The -74 came i think because i kept chasing the price with a limit order. Then i tried to trade my way back with that stock only to lose another $425 in it. Even though im up +$600+ for the week I feel like crap just because I gave all that money back to the market. I need to go back trading small again...i lost most of my money at the end of the day trading 1000 shares instead of my normal 500. I need more disipline.
 
Sounds like you need to develop a strategy for your trades and sticking to it. I am not sure what your risk/reward ratio is but you sure chase alot of bad trade when you should cut your losses an get out and at other times you seem to take your profit to quick.

I started out trading stock the same way you did with no definate plan. I traded what I want when I want and let my emotion control my trade instead of a systematic strategy. Sometimes my losses would triple my winner just because I think it will reverse course.

Then a friend of my told me about real trading, trading with a strategy, using indicators, stop loss, entry points, exit points. It made me a profitable trader overnight(well 6 months actually). Maybe you might find a strategy that you like or develop one that work for you and stick to it then you don't have to sweat the losses and enjoy your winners.
 
Well...i do use indicators...but they dont always work. I try to trust the indicators but today I didnt. I use MACD and also use a simple moving average. But for some reason today i kept looking for a reversal where none existed.
 
I'll probably sound like a broken record to you but follow the trend. Don't try to beat the trend, it rarely works. But if you use your indicator for setup to enter or exit then you won't have to guess if it turn against you or not because it will show it with MACD and MA. Also stop-loss is your best friend, because its all about money management. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Preserve your capital because the market will always be there tomorrow. Discipline is the key though, sometimes I let my stop-loss slips because I expect a bounce but it never bounce when you wanted it to.

good luck..
 
Really Bad day today. Lost $269 PLUS another $350 in commissions to broker. Most of lost on a pair trade HD/LOW HD I only lost about $10 on but Lost $785 on LOW. Im still kind of new to pairs trading and this was a new trade...think i'll stick to other pairs as I didnt realize that one pair could get so far away from the other one.

Anyway...8 winners 6 losers

LEH/GS +252/+155
SLB/BJS +160/+90
IBM +100
MO +20
AXP +148 (opening order)
VLO +210

HD/LOW -10/-785
WMT -150
JWN -245 (opening order, held too long)
HOV -90
BA -124 (this was a profitable trade that was short on a downward trend but REDI stopped transmitting without me knowing for about 2 minutes and when it came back it the stock was up 20 cents)

I really dont like posting losing days but I hope this helps me.

Shares traded today was about 35,000...alot higher than average but today my average trade was 1000 shares. Never saw my P&L turn green once today.
 
After opening shorted VLO expecting it to make the usual 1 dollar drop by 8am like it has for the last week. Only dropped down 30 cents and I got out after 20 cents. Maybe it will make the drop later but Im up 95 dollars for it and Im done for the day. Volume today is 9000 shares. I've notice on big losing days i trade alot of volume so now im going to limit myself to only opening orders and trading 3 stocks a day MAX after opening orders. I am also not going to jump in and out of the same stock all day. 1 buy, 1 sell per stock and thats it. I am hoping that helps me to be more sure of a stock before i enter in a position. I know it will help as far as commissions are concerned like yesterday with that massive churning of $350 worth of commissions.

So today total I made $335.
 
Opening orders today turned out good thanks to JWN.

IBM +90
AXP +40
JWN +290
KO -40

KO shouldve been a winner...tried to get out when i was up $50 on it but each time I moved my limit up a penny it kept falling back a penny. Finnally just moved my limit to the ask price and got filled for a 40 dollar loss. AXP couldve been a loser but i got out fast enough...opened up short and after 2 minutes it pretty much took off...lucky to get out of that one with a profit.

I then traded VLO for 20 minutes. My 5 min and 15 min MACD said sell but my one minute said buy plus it was at the 7:45 reversal (bought at 7:48 to make sure it was a reversal.) Simple MA crossed so I got in...it dropped about 10 cents off the bat but then shot up 50 cents....Thought about getting out but i remembered "let your profits run" then it pulled back but MACD was still strong but it started getting weaker...it climbed back up and I got filled for a 33 cent gain on 500 shares. (+165)

Total gross profit for today is $545
After commissions $455

Computer turned off at 8:10am arizona time.
 
Got my first Fine from the SEC. Did an Illegal short sale. I didnt know i did it but they fined me $25 dollars plus my profits on the stock which was $35. I think, besides opening orders, i should stay away from short sales from now on. They cost more because they are billable orders and now i get greif from this. Im sure i still had to pay the commission of 2 cents to my broker (buy and sell) and the 1 cent to the specialist plus another 80 cents for SEC fees and BAM...im out $76 bucks...as if monday wasnt bad enough.
 
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