Scalping and Analysing your trades

Quote from douwe:

When trading I have approximately 8-10 trades a day. I write down every trade and when I close the position I make a jpg of the chart. after the market closes I will print the chart and write down Entry, initial Stop, Trailing stop etc for analysing purposes

But how do you analyse when scalping, you go in and out and I have read that some of them have more then 100 trades a day.

Do you analyse every trade, or only when you have a losing day, how do you keep track of your performance (exporting to MS Excel for example), etc. I would appreciate some feedback on this matter.

douwe
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I trade between 100 and 200 times a day usually between 10 or so stocks on nasdaq and nyse, and i go through my trade list every day when i get home.

Things i look for are quick profitable trades (i.e. $0.01 in less than 1min, ADFN crosses in less than 1/2 minute).

I'll look at any gross losers on the charts when i get home but find it really hard to analyse my trades because my primary signals are from the LVL 2 and the t&s.
 
Quote from asinine:

[...]
I'll look at any gross losers on the charts when i get home but find it really hard to analyse my trades because my primary signals are from the LVL 2 and the t&s.
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I tend not to focus on the reason for the trade. I couldn't care less for the reason while scalping. The key thing is what you once you are in. This is where that lineout is important. Having a track record of lineouts, you can pretty much predict the outcome of most trades once you are in.
 
I was saying that i can't focus on the reason for the trade in retrospect because it is based on the flow of the market and the walls on the level 2.

I'm sorry for asking this, but what do you mean by "lineout", it's an unframiliar term to me.
 
Quote from asinine:

I was saying that i can't focus on the reason for the trade in retrospect because it is based on the flow of the market and the walls on the level 2.

I'm sorry for asking this, but what do you mean by "lineout", it's an unframiliar term to me.
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Don't be sorry. A lineout is just a line by line analysis of all your trades. If you scroll up a bit, you will find one of my posts with an attachment. I provide an example for one of my traders from a couple of days ago.

Because we do so much volume per day in some many trades, the lineout provides an idea of where the trader stands in skill, discipline and execution. It helps me pinpoint problems that may develop in the future. Every trader including myself will run into a rough patch at least a couple of times a year. You get the feeling that you can't do anything right. These lineouts will help me compare past performance with what I'm doing now. Is the rough patch the result of bigger size? Are losers being held longer and winners taken more quickly? etc.
 
The Analysis feature in the trading software that I use breaks down quite a bit of info that might be useful for a scalper. % wins/losses, win$/loss$, avg win$/avg loss$, ratios, max win/loss, win shares/loss shares, short, long, etc, etc.
Then you can break all of the above down to what time of day the trades were made, (i.e. premarket, 9:30-11:00, 11:00-2:00, etc.), what ECN you used for entry/exit, and whether you added or removed liquidity when entering/exiting your trades.

I haven't really figured out how to effectively use all of the information I have available to me to improve my overall trading.
I usually just glance over the printout after the close. From this, I know that I am shit at going long, but have over a 70% winning percentage going short....so I try to focus goiing short a little more. I know that the other day my overall winning percentage was only 27%...but I made money because I cut my losers quick and let my few winners ride. I also know that if I am taking liquidity all day that my net P&L is going to be shit no matter how I trade.

Just my 2 cents.
 
Well unfortunatly i don't have the luxury of an analysis pack in my software, so i'm left with casual observation when i review my trades.

My tactic - in case anyone cares, or cares to critique is pretty basic:

First i go through and highlight on my trade list any trades in which i blew my stop in pink.

Second i go through and highlight for good trades in yellow:
1) NASDAQ trades i get credits on 100 - 500 shares in less than 10 seconds
2) NASDAQ trades i get credits on 500+ in less than 30 seconds
3) NASDAQ or Listed trades i get 0.01 gross in less than 1 minute

Third i bring up a chart for a stock i had a loser on and see if i had to take a loser or could have had less of a loser - if so i highlight it in orange - i also make note in the margin how long i would have had to hold it, how profitable it went, how unprofitable it was before it turned.

Fourth with the chart up i will highlight the entry in blue if it was just before a top/bottom but i lost money into a peak.

All the while i make notes in the margin and summarize in a journal.

For example today i learned that i need to trade for larger gross on PFE because i get shaken out of good positions with too stringent of a stop loss policy (lots of blue and orange), but can pick quick pennies out of GLW (lots of yellow).

Anyhow, if that seems terribly flawed to anyone please let me know.
 
Quote from FuturesTrader71:

Don't be sorry. A lineout is just a line by line analysis of all your trades. If you scroll up a bit, you will find one of my posts with an attachment. I provide an example for one of my traders from a couple of days ago.

Because we do so much volume per day in some many trades, the lineout provides an idea of where the trader stands in skill, discipline and execution. It helps me pinpoint problems that may develop in the future. Every trader including myself will run into a rough patch at least a couple of times a year. You get the feeling that you can't do anything right. These lineouts will help me compare past performance with what I'm doing now. Is the rough patch the result of bigger size? Are losers being held longer and winners taken more quickly? etc.
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It’s not in line with this thread but how do you teach your traders trading/scalping. Do the look at how you trade, do you give a course, do they papertrade before they go realtime, do you give them a few good books? Do you also have meetings with your traders to discuss the market, new setups, problems that occurred during trading? I really would appreciate your feedback on this.
 
Quote from asinine:

Well unfortunatly i don't have the luxury of an analysis pack in my software, so i'm left with casual observation when i review my trades.

My tactic - in case anyone cares, or cares to critique is pretty basic:

First i go through and highlight on my trade list any trades in which i blew my stop in pink.

Second i go through and highlight for good trades in yellow:
1) NASDAQ trades i get credits on 100 - 500 shares in less than 10 seconds
2) NASDAQ trades i get credits on 500+ in less than 30 seconds
3) NASDAQ or Listed trades i get 0.01 gross in less than 1 minute

Third i bring up a chart for a stock i had a loser on and see if i had to take a loser or could have had less of a loser - if so i highlight it in orange - i also make note in the margin how long i would have had to hold it, how profitable it went, how unprofitable it was before it turned.

Fourth with the chart up i will highlight the entry in blue if it was just before a top/bottom but i lost money into a peak.

All the while i make notes in the margin and summarize in a journal.

For example today i learned that i need to trade for larger gross on PFE because i get shaken out of good positions with too stringent of a stop loss policy (lots of blue and orange), but can pick quick pennies out of GLW (lots of yellow).

Anyhow, if that seems terribly flawed to anyone please let me know.
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Sounds like you have a good system for monitoring your performance. Just pay attention to the time it takes you to take a loser vs. how long it takes a winner if you are scalping. This is where the demon often hides. That statistic is the key to your psychology. Also, look at the time it took in between trades when in a loser versus a winner. Are you revenge trading?

The main thing to worry about really is how you handle risk. What is your risk plan?
 
Quote from FT79:

It’s not in line with this thread but how do you teach your traders trading/scalping. Do the look at how you trade, do you give a course, do they papertrade before they go realtime, do you give them a few good books? Do you also have meetings with your traders to discuss the market, new setups, problems that occurred during trading? I really would appreciate your feedback on this.
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All of the above plus a few other things.
 
Quote from douwe:

This is how I trade, i have 4 setups. When I see a setup developing I write down entry, initial stoploss and the price target.

When my entry is hit I immediately place my initial stoploss and write down filling price, initial stoploss and the time on my trading sheet. (5/7 seconds)

When the market moves in my favor I move my stop (and write it down) till my price target is hit. If the market doesn't move in my favor my initial stoploss is hit. When the position is closed I make a jpg of the chart, write down my thoughts and write down exit price and time, this will take app. 20 seconds.

The problem is when entering the position. I miss 5/7 seconds of the trade and imho is the most important part of your trade (where you wrong or right when entering the market). But I also want to write down my trade in case of system failure :D
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Douwe,

Why don't you use IB's Log files (you can switch them on /off in TWS) in combination with the 'FILL' window (You can export todays trades very easy) to analyse / record your trades AFTER your trading session?
The extended log shows each modification you make during the session (so you will see each time you modify a stop as well)
 
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