Sam's Day Trading Log (With Charts)

Quote from Sam Morgan:

NoDoji: I have followed you since your CL (Colgate-Palmolive) days ;p. You truly are an inspiration. As successful as you are, you are grounded very firmly, so thank you for your humble approach. Also, a Thank You in advance (as you have never posted here) for all the post/ guidance that you will post here.
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I'm happy to be an inspiration to you. My goal as a trader has been to make enough money that I can afford to be an elementary school teacher. I've had the opportunity to practice my teaching skills with a few traders from ET and tell you what, the basics can be taught pretty quickly, but the psychology is the real killer. The mental game is what separates the 5% from the 95%. I'm not sure it can be taught.

Do you trade off a 1-min chart? If you do, why?
 
That is interesting NoD...
I think it was Geez who said he wanted a system you could teach an 8 year old! Seems like he said that an 8 yr old would likely trade it better than us older ones because, maybe we think to much?
*laughing*
maybe we are all just big elementary school kids... and you are teaching us!
 
Quote from konviction:

What broker are you using? Im just curious. My brief day trading stint a few years back, I learned that unless I traded x number of shares per trade, or per month I wasn't going to get the commission discount. I forget now, but I either didn't fully understand the terms or just ignored them, in my trading ignorance but I was paying more in commission than I should have. When your only trading 100-300 shares the commissions start taking a chunk away. And depending on your account size, you may not be able to buy 500 shares of goldman which can move a nice 3 pt swings or more. You end up being forced to buy the cheaper stocks that may not have those big swings your looking for.
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Hey Kon., I feel the pain brother. I use Fidelity, but will be changing to IB or Lightspeed. The other day I traded 6 stocks and paid ~$100 in commission. That was meant to be my profit!!!. I went home with $10 :confused: . So is the life of a trader ( that wouldn't cover a pizza from Pizza Hut, would it?. Hmmm)

I really hope that your writing down all your trades and keeping track of cost?
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Sure am. At the end of each day, I post my trades here with details on each. I show my P/L for each trade and then for the day (with and without commission).
 
Quote from NoDoji:

Do you trade off a 1-min chart? If you do, why?
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Yes and no. I was trading using the 1-min chart., but very quickly realized that it's very taxing mentally. If i am making this a career, than it won't work. However, I am not against the 1-min chart and see a lot of advantage to it. For e.g. when I am entering a trade with a lot of volitility (0-15 min. after the open), I always use the 1-min to keep things tight. Once it follows the intended trend, i'll jump to the 5-min chart and put my feet up.

Another instance I use the 1-min is when entering a trade at anytime during the day. If you look at my AIG trade today, I failed to use the 1-min chart and that costed me ~$0.40 ($200!!!).

I now use the 5-min chart.
 
Quote from Sam Morgan:

Yes and no. I was trading using the 1-min chart., but very quickly realized that it's very taxing mentally. If i am making this a career, than it won't work. However, I am not against the 1-min chart and see a lot of advantage to it. For e.g. when I am entering a trade with a lot of volitility (0-15 min. after the open), I always use the 1-min to keep things tight. Once it follows the intended trend, i'll jump to the 5-min chart and put my feet up.

Another instance I use the 1-min is when entering a trade at anytime during the day. If you look at my AIG trade today, I failed to use the 1-min chart and that costed me ~$0.40 ($200!!!).

I now use the 5-min chart.
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I see advantage to using a 1-min chart for trading the open (it helped me tremendously when I traded AAPL, POT and AMZN regularly), and also for entering a strong trend or trading in a range.

Today I have difficulty finding anywhere on the AIG 5-min chart that doesn't work perfectly to get you in, and keep you in, good trades. AIG was pure beautiful trend on a 5-min. Even counter-trend was signaled cleanly and you could get a little something out of it if that's your thing.
 
12/27:

First off, I need to correct a boo-boo that I made on 12/22. I think in the excitement of having a couple of good trades, I made my - button disappear. I added EVERYTHING!!!.

So the reality is a little bleak as seen by the amendment below:

Total (+/-): $24.12; [$120-$95.88(commission)]
All Time Net (+/-): -$125.78
 
This was I similar trade I had taken a few days ago with RIMM. That trade was a mess. I used the advice given from the previous posts and avoided a slaughter house this time. Nice and clean; small commissions, big profits. Thanks guys.

NB: I have also started utilizing the 5-min chart and seem to like it.

Pic. 1:

Trade 1:
LONG:
Entry: $27.11
Exit 1: $27.40
Exit 2: $27.78
$480.00

<img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3045761/spy.png">
 

Attachments

Pic. 3:

Trade 3:
SHORT:
Entry: $59.74
Exit: $59.35
$0.39

<img src="http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/attachment.php?s=&postid=3045792/spy.png">


Total (+/-): +$760.50; [$785.00-$24.50(commission)]
All Time Net (+/-):+$634.72
 

Attachments

Very nice trading, Sam. You really have it together; just be careful to use the 1-min chart as a tool, rather than trade off it. I've chopped myself up trading off a 1-min chart and have also taken profits waaay to early if I start watching it instead of focusing on my targets.

I glanced at my hi ticker midday and saw AIG hit it for like the 343rd time and I said to my friends, "Hi ticker trade of the day is AIG long @ 59.20, let's see where it takes us." I make a stock "hi ticker" trade call each day, though none of us ever trades it. I've yet to have one fail...I think I'll be taking these trades live from now on!
 
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