September Trading Journals

I guess it can be more like guessing. I look at the pattern of most airlines stocks. e.g. AMR DAL open earlier than AWA,
and a few other I think. All of them seem to just drift higher right after open. For that moment, it look like a pattern.

Of course, this kind of play will not happen in everyday trading.

Anyone else experiencing bullet problem like hitman does. Did Echotrade or other pro firm prevent customers from using bullets.
 
yes we checked with two different groups that usually supply us with the executions on bullets and I was told they said there were no bullets street wide. If anyone did get bullets please let us know

thanks
 
I realize the above statements makes it look like I trade at echo. I trade, in fact I am part owner of a different prop group.
 
Echo's traders recieved an email premarket that ALL firms that provide bullets aren't being allowed to use them. I've become quite used to them so quickly had to change strategies. It's just too hard to short with that uptick rule in comparision.

I've played with bullets quite a few times to see the different. Hit the short key and watch it drop 30 cents while 5 minutes pass. Order a bullet for the same stock while it is still falling and after getting a fill place a market order to sell. Filled in less than a second. Meanwhile my short takes another 4 minutes to fill that I had been filled. Too hard to trade short that way.

I play FNM today and got a great gift. It didn't gap enough. It barely opened from the opening and within 10 minutes stopped trading. Seems the specialist had too many buy orders come in so he gapped it 2 points in my favor. I was like YIPPEEEE.

Did a few other trades though so that win wasn't enough to make up for the others. I also recently upped my position size again as my account has been growing and need to adjust to the higher returns/drawdowns with more size which can take a few days sometimes.

rtharp
 
Last night, I did something that for a trader, almost too embarrassing to speak of, I picked up a stack of news paper and looked at the Help Wanted section for a few minutes, wondered about the possibility of a potential second job. I didn't do this when I was losing money 19 out of 20 games as a newbie, I didn't do this when I was facing 2000 Christmas after first 3 months of my career turned out to be losers. Somehow, someway, I did this, it wasn't a serious research, it wasn't even a serious thought, but there is no excuse to have this in my mind no matter how brief it was. If you have allow the seed of defeat to exist in your brain, it will manage to fertilize, to grow, and the fruit of doom will be the only thing that come out of this.

Every day, I must remind myself, that regardless of the result of the game, I believe that I am capable of become a top tier trader, that I am capable of surviving in the toughest profession there is. Last night's action can easily lead to an actual job interview and a part time job and eventually a full time job replacing trading. I have been in a slump since mid-August, and this month I have lost 5 of 7 games played, but this is something every single trader must go through, and something even senior traders must face every once in a while.

Perhaps the pain came from the fact that everyone around me seems to be doing better. Yesterday was a huge day for the firm, and this month everyone's number started to pick up while mine didn't, and I loaded too much pressure onto myself to compete.

A friend of mine who started at this firm a few months before I did taught me a lot of things back in January, and he was having a huge year up almost 100K until late April/May/Summer came when he blew up half his account. Back in March I never thought I will catch up with him so fast, but in May/June/July/August I was able to beat him every single month, and not by losing less because I am a smaller trader. When September started I had him as my standard to beat, because my YTD number was tied with his and our styles came from the same root, but this month he is doing so much better and in a way it put huge pressure on me to perform. This is a marathon, not a sprint, one game, one week, one month, doesn't mean anything, besides, he is more experienced than I am, and he is supposed to be better than me, but the fact that I was not even in the same league this month is hurting me badly.

The bottomline is, everyone seemed to pick up their pace, and I slipped, right when the market got better. And yesterday just about everyone I know packed a big game and I finished the day down, and my numbers are worse than summer time. I can not use the WTC tragedy as an excuse because everyone faced the same circumstances, but I think I thought about the potential declining economy and the viability of day trading as a profession too much over the last a few days. Like a set of invisible ropes, it tied my mind, I must free it.

I must realize that as long as there is a market, there will be traders, and while the market will change, so will the traders. Every day, there will be opportunities, it is just a matter of finding them. A lot of trading is pure psychological, top traders at my firm always believe in their ability, in their NEXT TRADE, no matter how much they were down the previous trade/day/week/month . . . It is the NEXT TRADE that matters, and a trader who doesn't believe in himself is destined to fail.

BELIEVE . . . Fight my way out of the slump, it is myself that I must battle right now, not the market. BELIEVE . . . Others are doing great, so can I . . . be a survivor, be a winner . . .

3 of 5 shooting on 6000 shares, +60 before commissions, -130 after, 1 bullet. We had some data feed issues this morning, but still, I have no excuses, I had only one position when it happened and it was stopped out properly as if it never happened.

Pre-Market: Massive energy downgrades, I had a great bullet, if only I believed in it. Retailor upgrades, if only I took some positions. DD upgrade (CEX). Confidence, where is it?

9:30: Took some NSM on SOX strength off the open, got out flat as soon as I saw the futures coming back in. Waited for the infamous 9:50 reversal and took MU at the precise bottom of SOX/Nasdaq Futures, and it hit me for a 30 cents loss as every other SOX stock moved up, if only I took any other one!

10:00: Bullet HP and got out flat, scared that energy will do an infamous reversal, nope, no reversal, sell-off all day, I got in near the top, and got out near the top . . . Took DOW on CEX move, took 10 cents, missed a half point move . . . tape/chart looked good, futures looked bad.

2:00: Took a 20 cents scalp on on CAL on XAL movement, some airline guy was talking about it on CNBC so I played the tape. Missed all afternoon sell-off, market just died, no volume, no offers, slow downtrend, no bullet needed, a lot of upticks, short and hold, missed it all . . .

On a side note, I have removed Bollinger Bands, I find them to be useful but still getting in my trading too much. After all those times I realized my own intepretation of the chart and tape is superior to my understanding of any indicator, and I will stick to my strength. A chart without any indicators is as attractive as a spotless piece of white paper, free for the artist to express his feelings with full freedom.
 
Hitman,

You must be absolutely sure that you true desire remains in trading and that you do not have the slightest intention, or interest in pursuing other career paths. Otherwise, you might subconciously attempt to fail, just so that you can free yourself to pursue other things. This has happened to me several times in my trading career, and each time it has taken serious reflection and thought for me to regain my focus for trading and to eliminate any external motivations.

Htrader
 
I always look forward to Hitman's posts because I am able to learn valuable information and am, to a fault, reluctant to ask questions sometimes. I like to listen to those around me and learn by getting my hands in there. That, of course, has nothing to do with this post.

What was my point? Oh yeah. I just wanted to say, from other experiences, that I could not agree more with Hitman. Before I was a trader, I was a lawyer. I had three different jobs within a year of graduating -- one of which I was fired like Mr. Spacely firing George Jetson. Thereafter, I started my own firm and did that for over three years. While I enjoyed being my own boss, I still hated being a lawyer. In retrospect, and despite working very hard, I have no doubt that I never would have been as successful as I could have been because my heart was not in it; I knew that was not what I wanted to be doing.

Commitment, hard work, and education are keys, in my opinion, to success. But if you have those three but are only doing them to fill time, and not because you enjoy what you are doing, it will come out in many ways.

Once again, excellent point Hitman.
 
Deal Hitman! After reading your last post, all I want write about are words of encouragement to you! I have been trading for 4 years now, and I too started at Worldco. I know exactly what you are going through, because I went through that just like most traders I guess. After reading so many of your posts, I personally would be very confident in saying that you can make it as a trader, for just one reason only, discipline!!!!!!!! You are very disciplined, and that is the key especially in the beginning. Everyone has stratches where they are not making money, everyone!!! no exceptions!!!! I too severeal years ago went through a stratch of not making money, and as one trader told me, don't worry about, in 6 months you'll think of this period as a "bad dream" and that is exactly how I think about it. Don't think too much of what other people are making, watch what they are doing, and try to understand what they are doing. The biggest problem I have with myself after 4 years of trading is that my learning curve has really flattened out, I would love to learn something new somewhere. I hope you stick with it, and in the near future you'll see how things will change. The only constant thing in life is change. By the way, nothing wrong with having a second job, so you can survive.

Good luck, I wish you all the best!
 
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