Prop Trader Journal

Shan,

Maverick's got a point.

I myself thought I could be interested in stocks even though underneath somewhere there's been this nagging urge to trade futures.

Regardless, keeping a balance is healthy. This weekend don't do anything with trading, and don't come back to it until Monday. Enjoy the weather, the weekend, and your time off.


If you're anything like me, then you probably feel like time is running out. Whenever I feel that way, I try to take a breather and have faith that I'll get this at some point. There is no time limit!

Keep on keepin' on.
 
Quote from atlTrader666:

The job is a grind. It will become painful when after so many hours, days, months your P/L will seem totally random or even worse. Your only true edge in discretionary equities trading is playing the right stocks. The stock market is too efficient to be traded in the short-term but at least your learning a certain asset class.

There's a lot of chance involved in trading. Unlike sports or music, where your performance will almost definitively improve after months of practice, in trading it is possible that it will get worse... that is a testament to the randomness of the market.

My advice for you is to use this experience as a platform into getting better jobs in finance... it will teach you a lot about persistence and psychology. You will also learn about publicly traded companies. I highly recommend you also incorporate some macro research of other assets; intermarket analysis among say the USD/EUR, Treasuries, Crude Oil, Gold, etc. Take EOD data and run correlation tests in Excel.

It's impossible to extract money, consistently, and on a daily basis from the stock market... to even break even is a loss considering transaction costs as well as essentially wasting your time.
More...

I don't believe it...seen to many people do it on a consistent basis. Guys at my firm doing on a consistent basis. That guy that posted above you does it as well.

If this has to do with your success or lack of it in the markets...you can take it somewhere else. I've already decided my path wont change it because you may think that the markets are too random to make consistent money from.

However your advice on picking the right stocks has been helpful. Since it is earnings season, i've been focusing on those stocks near key levels where there may be a breakout or key failiure. 52-week highs lows, no S/R under/over, near key S/R.

It is weird because instead of looking for the perfect setup or any of that...I can just feel when things like momentum, climaxes, when volume dies down and things start to range. I think some of the focus that people have when it comes to discretionary trading is misplaced. Having the right indicator, setup, plan, and just being so regimented.

At any point in my life when I have been involved in something...whether it was boxing, martial arts, high school sports, academics. I always excelled...don't get me wrong but I would always be that guy that would do something and I wouldn't pickup things really quickly, but after alot of work and effort things would just click. It was always a combo of practicing the basics in regiments fashion.....BUT always with some sort of organized chaos. That balance was what always let me get really good at things. I would be regimented but there was always a balance between the freestyle/creative process and the organization. This is how I learn. I'm going to start applying this more to my trading and I have been for the past week since I stopped posting in this journal and you know what I was actually positive this week or very close to positive
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Shan, that is a great attitude. However, trading is a lot like college. When you go to college and your studying say history as your major, you might find that economics is more interesting, or maybe medicine. You don't have to quit college, just change your major.

Trading is very broad. You might discover you don't like daytrading, but do like some other form of trading. You might not be right for stocks, but maybe futures or options. You might discover you have a knack for arbitrage. Or maybe even automated trading. So don't confuse giving up or quitting with deciding where you focus should be. That's a big difference.
More...

Yea agreed. I'm finding that I like intraday trading though....certain aspects at least. I love being in a flow state and just being in the moment and doing. The markets are always in ebb and flow and just flowing with it is almost a meditative experience sometimes. Reminds me of doing a form when I used to do traditional martial arts or even shadow boxing...ya just give in and flow and do, resistance kills!
 
My point was that making money as a discretionary day trader in equities is remarkably difficult. It can be done, but you need to be very selective how you trade... from your earlier posts you weren't doing the right things imo (trading indexes and random stocks that weren't in play). Also to not churn your account during dull summer sessions.

You can ignore me and I won't continue posting on your thread. I'm just giving you some suggestions from personal experience, including my P/L. When I trade intraday I make money from the pre-mkt to about 11am, although am now focused on more swing-term set-ups. My P/L is not representative of all traders and everyone has their niche but it's a guideline. My ideas about trading what's in play, momentum (even academia agrees), ignoring bullsh!t technical analysis, etc. are not original ideas; most profitable traders would probably agree.

Regarding your office, be a little more skeptical about their P/Ls. Have they actually shown you their month/YTD numbers on a document? Some traders make money many days, but then blowup in one day... averaging down, naked option selling, etc.

You can PM me in several months about your situation. My prediction is that your P/L will be flat but because of commissions you will no longer be trading there (unless you deposit more $). This business is ruthless and to trade discretionary equities intraday successfully is very tough. I'm not even pessimist as much as realist. 90% of traders fail/Pareto's laws statistics. It's just an opinion but so be it. Will you be the anomaly?

P.S. what is your P/L YTD (net and gross) and how many shares have you traded YTD.
 
Quote from atlTrader666:

My point was that making money as a discretionary day trader in equities is remarkably difficult. It can be done, but you need to be very selective how you trade... from your earlier posts you weren't doing the right things imo (trading indexes and random stocks that weren't in play). Also to not churn your account during dull summer sessions.

You can ignore me and I won't continue posting on your thread. I'm just giving you some suggestions from personal experience, including my P/L. When I trade intraday I make money from the pre-mkt to about 11am, although am now focused on more swing-term set-ups. My P/L is not representative of all traders and everyone has their niche but it's a guideline. My ideas about trading what's in play, momentum (even academia agrees), ignoring bullsh!t technical analysis, etc. are not original ideas; most profitable traders would probably agree.

Regarding your office, be a little more skeptical about their P/Ls. Have they actually shown you their month/YTD numbers on a document? Some traders make money many days, but then blowup in one day... averaging down, naked option selling, etc.

You can PM me in several months about your situation. My prediction is that your P/L will be flat but because of commissions you will no longer be trading there (unless you deposit more $). This business is ruthless and to trade discretionary equities intraday successfully is very tough. I'm not even pessimist as much as realist. 90% of traders fail/Pareto's laws statistics. It's just an opinion but so be it. Will you be the anomaly?

P.S. what is your P/L YTD (net and gross) and how many shares have you traded YTD.
More...

Come back here in a few months and we will see. Appreciate the technical advice...but dont really care for your other negativity. A skimming of my journal that's lasted all but a month isn't going to let you know whether I will achieve my goal or not! It's your opinion, but I don't care for it.

In the words of my man Kanye, "For me giving up is way harder than trying."
 
Quote from atlTrader666:

My point was that making money as a discretionary day trader in equities is remarkably difficult. It can be done, but you need to be very selective how you trade... from your earlier posts you weren't doing the right things imo (trading indexes and random stocks that weren't in play). Also to not churn your account during dull summer sessions.

You can ignore me and I won't continue posting on your thread. I'm just giving you some suggestions from personal experience, including my P/L. When I trade intraday I make money from the pre-mkt to about 11am, although am now focused on more swing-term set-ups. My P/L is not representative of all traders and everyone has their niche but it's a guideline. My ideas about trading what's in play, momentum (even academia agrees), ignoring bullsh!t technical analysis, etc. are not original ideas; most profitable traders would probably agree.

Regarding your office, be a little more skeptical about their P/Ls. Have they actually shown you their month/YTD numbers on a document? Some traders make money many days, but then blowup in one day... averaging down, naked option selling, etc.

You can PM me in several months about your situation. My prediction is that your P/L will be flat but because of commissions you will no longer be trading there (unless you deposit more $). This business is ruthless and to trade discretionary equities intraday successfully is very tough. I'm not even pessimist as much as realist. 90% of traders fail/Pareto's laws statistics. It's just an opinion but so be it. Will you be the anomaly?

P.S. what is your P/L YTD (net and gross) and how many shares have you traded YTD.
More...

Also, seldom does the average person truly make a success out of anything! There is nothing new under the sun and trading is no different!

When my father snuck off of the cargo ship he had been working on since he was 15 and entered this great country he didn't know anyone... After working more than two average men work in a day for years on end he is still working harder than most of the 90%! 30 odd years later and he has achieved success that everyone in his small village in India thought would be impossible. They told him he couldn't do it and should stick to an average life in india which is less than person living in poverty makes here!

Oh no...those people weren't pessimists, they were realists! LMAO fuck that shit!
 
Quote from atlTrader666:

My point was that making money as a discretionary day trader in equities is remarkably difficult. It can be done, but you need to be very selective how you trade... from your earlier posts you weren't doing the right things imo (trading indexes and random stocks that weren't in play). Also to not churn your account during dull summer sessions.

You can ignore me and I won't continue posting on your thread. I'm just giving you some suggestions from personal experience, including my P/L. When I trade intraday I make money from the pre-mkt to about 11am, although am now focused on more swing-term set-ups. My P/L is not representative of all traders and everyone has their niche but it's a guideline. My ideas about trading what's in play, momentum (even academia agrees), ignoring bullsh!t technical analysis, etc. are not original ideas; most profitable traders would probably agree.

Regarding your office, be a little more skeptical about their P/Ls. Have they actually shown you their month/YTD numbers on a document? Some traders make money many days, but then blowup in one day... averaging down, naked option selling, etc.

You can PM me in several months about your situation. My prediction is that your P/L will be flat but because of commissions you will no longer be trading there (unless you deposit more $). This business is ruthless and to trade discretionary equities intraday successfully is very tough. I'm not even pessimist as much as realist. 90% of traders fail/Pareto's laws statistics. It's just an opinion but so be it. Will you be the anomaly?

P.S. what is your P/L YTD (net and gross) and how many shares have you traded YTD.
More...

I've got news for you. Making it as any kind of trader is difficult. Whether it be discretionary, automated, etc. I love it when people act like there is some greener grass on the other side. The big bucks is made in futures. Or the easy money is in options. Or, being a swing trader is much more relaxed. It's all bullshit. I've been trading for 15 years and I've done it all. I've traded on the floor, upstairs, with my capital, being backed, options, futures, stock, long term trading, short term trading, daytrading you name it! And none of it is easy!

And guess what? The failure rate is about 90% in all these areas. If one was easier then the other, everyone would flock to the easiest one!!!!!
 
Let the P/L talk...

Day trading, especially random stocks with no volume and leading indicators such as the Russell 2000, is dumb.

Swing trading allows you to trade momentum plays... There's so much noise in day trading. The cost of doing business as a day trader is also atrocious. Seriously, the kid had a 6 cent stop-loss on the SPYs... how is he not going to churn his account trading like that?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top