Prop Trader Journal

Taking a day off today...been going strong for the past...I don't even know how many days. If I'm not trading, I'm working on doing research...reading and re-reading Fisher's stuff. Looking over data...it's exhausting!

Here's yesterday's results:

Net pnl=-91
Shares traded=2000

APKT & SINA:

Traded both of these off of upgrades(APKT) and downgrade(SINA). One thing to note though, have not had alot of luck trading analyst calls. I'm beginning to see that analyst calls are usually not a very big driver for price movement in individual stocks. Will note this going forward. APKT was a scratch, SINA I took a small loss in as I was playing the breakout through the A-up.

MS:

Was looking at Financials off of the Slovak expectations of reaching an agreement. MS was looking like it was rolling over. Made an A-down through the pivot. Did not hold below the pivot. My sign to get out was the close above the A-value. For whatever reason I held on. Took the full loss. The Pivot range offers very strong support and resistance...do not fade against it, i've lost some money doing this!
 
Quote from Shanb:

Taking a day off today...been going strong for the past...I don't even know how many days. If I'm not trading, I'm working on doing research...reading and re-reading Fisher's stuff. Looking over data...it's exhausting!

Here's yesterday's results:

Net pnl=-91
Shares traded=2000

APKT & SINA:

Traded both of these off of upgrades(APKT) and downgrade(SINA). One thing to note though, have not had alot of luck trading analyst calls. I'm beginning to see that analyst calls are usually not a very big driver for price movement in individual stocks. Will note this going forward. APKT was a scratch, SINA I took a small loss in as I was playing the breakout through the A-up.

MS:

Was looking at Financials off of the Slovak expectations of reaching an agreement. MS was looking like it was rolling over. Made an A-down through the pivot. Did not hold below the pivot. My sign to get out was the close above the A-value. For whatever reason I held on. Took the full loss. The Pivot range offers very strong support and resistance...do not fade against it, i've lost some money doing this!
More...

Shan, I think I mentioned to you before never to trade upgrades or downgrades. We never traded them. The only time you want to get involved is when an analyst actually "raises" or "lowers" forward earnings estimates. Anything having to do with valuation should be avoided.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Shan, I think I mentioned to you before never to trade upgrades or downgrades. We never traded them. The only time you want to get involved is when an analyst actually "raises" or "lowers" forward earnings estimates. Anything having to do with valuation should be avoided.
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Ya I've been logging my trades and noticed this pattern. I remembered that you had told me this a while back. Well now I will def not trade them. Earnings season starts up next week, so I'll have plenty of content to work with. Thanks.
 
10/14/11

Net PnL=-21
Shares Traded=2000

Not alot of earnings based stuff, hoping to get more plays next week when earnings really come along. Not alot of plays off of good news/bad action. You have to be really patient and wait till the right oppurtunity comes along, some days it doesn't

Played some of the retailers off of the good retail numbers.
JCP:
=+13

Made an A-down through the pivot...squeezed out a little bit of profit, spiked back up. Eventually rolled back over and broke lows.



WMT:
=-47

Made an A-down, Spiked up almost immediately...so much for retailers selling off on this news lol


Well pretty mixed week. Not going to ditch this approach, just because of a mixed couple of weeks. My skill in identifying the right products is getting better, and of course managing the trades. It has been a relatively slow news-flow week, will pick up ten-fold next few weeks!

I will be stepping up my size a bit next week...feeling like I have to do it eventually. Kind of have to go for it and take some more risk, the opportunity will be there!
 

Attachments

Shan,

Do you have the ability to paper trade there? I'm going to make another suggestion for you. At the rate you are going, it might take you ten years to read the tape. LOL. I mean trading is like working out, you actually have to lift something to get stronger. It takes hours and hours and hours. Just like martial arts. Trading 1k to 5k shares a day will probably take you 10 years. You need to be trading 50k to 100k shares a day for about 2 years to build up those muscles.

So what I am suggesting is perhaps you should paper trade for awhile. But paper trade 100k shares a day. You just need to swing the bat over and over and over. Trading is all about executing and the problem is, you are not getting a lot of swings.

I don't have any skin in your commissions so I have no vested interest in getting you to chop yourself up, I'm just telling you the truth. I think I needed to get to the 25 million share mark before I started getting really good. I don't know where you are at volume wise, but it's no where near 25 million shares.

Just an honest to god suggestion. I've been around a lot of stock traders and at the end of the day, there is no getting around it, you are going to need to up your volume about 50 times to see some real "growth". It's like going to gym and lifting 5 lb weights. It feels safe and you won't break a sweat, but you will never get stronger.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Shan,

Do you have the ability to paper trade there? I'm going to make another suggestion for you. At the rate you are going, it might take you ten years to read the tape. LOL. I mean trading is like working out, you actually have to lift something to get stronger. It takes hours and hours and hours. Just like martial arts. Trading 1k to 5k shares a day will probably take you 10 years. You need to be trading 50k to 100k shares a day for about 2 years to build up those muscles.

So what I am suggesting is perhaps you should paper trade for awhile. But paper trade 100k shares a day. You just need to swing the bat over and over and over. Trading is all about executing and the problem is, you are not getting a lot of swings.

I don't have any skin in your commissions so I have no vested interest in getting you to chop yourself up, I'm just telling you the truth. I think I needed to get to the 25 million share mark before I started getting really good. I don't know where you are at volume wise, but it's no where near 25 million shares.

Just an honest to god suggestion. I've been around a lot of stock traders and at the end of the day, there is no getting around it, you are going to need to up your volume about 50 times to see some real "growth". It's like going to gym and lifting 5 lb weights. It feels safe and you won't break a sweat, but you will never get stronger.
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Man tell you what, getting frustrated here LOL. Playing good news/bad action plays with ACD is not a recipe for trading 100k shares. Unless I'm trading 5-10k shares a clip. There are just not as many opportunities off of these types of plays.

At most there are 3-5 plays a day. If I am nexting after one not working out, there is not much room to trade that much. On the other hand if I were to expand my product selection a bit more I could trade more. Both of your suggestions are not compatible with each other.

Do you think there is something wrong with my approach? Am I being o rigid with my entry? Should I work around positions more. My shares traded would go up ten fold, If I traded around positions and didn't just wait for the confirmed A-up/down.
 
Quote from Shanb:

Man tell you what, getting frustrated here LOL. Playing good news/bad action plays with ACD is not a recipe for trading 100k shares. Unless I'm trading 5-10k shares a clip. There are just not as many opportunities off of these types of plays.

At most there are 3-5 plays a day. If I am nexting after one not working out, there is not much room to trade that much. On the other hand if I were to expand my product selection a bit more I could trade more. Both of your suggestions are not compatible with each other.

Do you think there is something wrong with my approach? Am I being o rigid with my entry? Should I work around positions more. My shares traded would go up ten fold, If I traded around positions and didn't just wait for the confirmed A-up/down.
More...

Shan, it's a long road man. I've told you that many times. I wasn't just telling you that as a disclaimer. It takes a lot of trading. It wears most people down and they end up quitting or doing something else trading related.

Here is the thing about ACD. And we have talked about this on the ACD thread. You have to lay ACD on top of what you are already doing. You can't simply just get long at the A ups and short at the A downs. You have to be able to execute profitability first. Then once you are profitable, the ACD framework can be laid on top of that.

But my fear right now is you simply are not trading enough. Two thousand shares a day is very low. To give you another analogy, it's like moving to a new town and learning your way around simply by driving around and getting lost. If you only drive around one block a day it's going to take you years to get to know the city. You have to get out there and spend some time on the road.
 
Quote from Maverick74:

Shan, it's a long road man. I've told you that many times. I wasn't just telling you that as a disclaimer. It takes a lot of trading. It wears most people down and they end up quitting or doing something else trading related.

Here is the thing about ACD. And we have talked about this on the ACD thread. You have to lay ACD on top of what you are already doing. You can't simply just get long at the A ups and short at the A downs. You have to be able to execute profitability first. Then once you are profitable, the ACD framework can be laid on top of that.

But my fear right now is you simply are not trading enough. Two thousand shares a day is very low. To give you another analogy, it's like moving to a new town and learning your way around simply by driving around and getting lost. If you only drive around one block a day it's going to take you years to get to know the city. You have to get out there and spend some time on the road.
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Do you remember the radio interview from the guy that was a trainer at MBF? He said one of his traders simply got long at a-ups and if it didn't go anywhere in 20 minutes he got out. Many different ways to skin the cat. I think I'm not trading anywhere near what I want to because I'm looking at too specific of a setup! I see Alot of profitable setups that in stocks with good earnings and good pa or vice versa! Will have slot more content next week so we shall see!
 
Quote from Shanb:

Do you remember the radio interview from the guy that was a trainer at MBF? He said one of his traders simply got long at a-ups and if it didn't go anywhere in 20 minutes he got out. Many different ways to skin the cat. I think I'm not trading anywhere near what I want to because I'm looking at too specific of a setup! I see Alot of profitable setups that in stocks with good earnings and good pa or vice versa! Will have slot more content next week so we shall see!
More...

Shan, he was trading futures, not stock. Two completely different animals. Futures are like crack. They can really move. So when there is follow through, there is really follow through. Stocks are different, especially now with HFT's. Stocks have to be traded. You can't hold them. The only guys that I have seen that are making money in stock are scalping a lot of size and averaging pennies a day.
 
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