I decided to post my trades here, because sometimes I let a lot of time go by without taking a second look to see where I've been and how I got here and what lessons I've learned. Certainly, it would be great if/when some questions or feedback are posted in this thread and some decent and civilized discussion follows.
I trade stocks, options and futures for several accounts (my own) and employ a different approach for each account. Here I will present stock trades that last 1-5 days on average for an account that is currently in the low six figures. The methodology I use is simple: take action based on the price pattern in conjunction with the behavior of some standard indicators, like MA crossovers, volume, etc, but always confirm the trade with MACD and Stochastics. There must be at least twenty well known trading books available out there that present variations of this methodology -- and I like all of them. As in many things in life, the question is how well can such a simple technique be implemented in real time, down at the trenches.
I have taken most of the popular trading seminars and do use some of the best trading tools and services offered to individual traders like myself. These tools and services are discussed (and, very often, fought over) in other threads on this board. However, I will not get into any of that, because I don't like to participate in any discussion that starts from a suspicion that something is being sold in this thread or presented in any biased way. This is meant to be just a personal trading journal, not a sales pitch or a sermon of some sort.
Nevertheless, even without the controversy and fireworks of the usual trading approach/trading tool religious arguments, I do hope this journal will prove to be interesting to some fellow traders, maybe even useful. I know it'll be useful to me. If not, as soon as my stoploss is hit, I'll exit
To get down to specifics now, here, in a nutshell, is what I do:
a. Evaluate market direction;
b. Enter on the basis of the daily charts, usually both long and short, but weighted according to the anticipated market direction;
c. Manage trades loosely intraday via simple indicator crossovers and divergences;
d. Set stoploss and partial profit targets based on the chart, never more than a few percent;
e. Trail the rest.
Here are the positions I initiated this morning:
ALTH LONG $3.6 RISK ~.4
ITRA LONG $2.14 RISK ~ .4
TRB LONG $51.11 RISK ~2.4
PEGS SHORT $10.93 RISK ~.5
AVCT SHORT $36.67 RISK ~2.0
TTWO SHORT $29.82 RISK ~1.8
MYL SHORT $24.67 RISK ~1.0
Let's see what happens
I trade stocks, options and futures for several accounts (my own) and employ a different approach for each account. Here I will present stock trades that last 1-5 days on average for an account that is currently in the low six figures. The methodology I use is simple: take action based on the price pattern in conjunction with the behavior of some standard indicators, like MA crossovers, volume, etc, but always confirm the trade with MACD and Stochastics. There must be at least twenty well known trading books available out there that present variations of this methodology -- and I like all of them. As in many things in life, the question is how well can such a simple technique be implemented in real time, down at the trenches.
I have taken most of the popular trading seminars and do use some of the best trading tools and services offered to individual traders like myself. These tools and services are discussed (and, very often, fought over) in other threads on this board. However, I will not get into any of that, because I don't like to participate in any discussion that starts from a suspicion that something is being sold in this thread or presented in any biased way. This is meant to be just a personal trading journal, not a sales pitch or a sermon of some sort.
Nevertheless, even without the controversy and fireworks of the usual trading approach/trading tool religious arguments, I do hope this journal will prove to be interesting to some fellow traders, maybe even useful. I know it'll be useful to me. If not, as soon as my stoploss is hit, I'll exit
To get down to specifics now, here, in a nutshell, is what I do:
a. Evaluate market direction;
b. Enter on the basis of the daily charts, usually both long and short, but weighted according to the anticipated market direction;
c. Manage trades loosely intraday via simple indicator crossovers and divergences;
d. Set stoploss and partial profit targets based on the chart, never more than a few percent;
e. Trail the rest.
Here are the positions I initiated this morning:
ALTH LONG $3.6 RISK ~.4
ITRA LONG $2.14 RISK ~ .4
TRB LONG $51.11 RISK ~2.4
PEGS SHORT $10.93 RISK ~.5
AVCT SHORT $36.67 RISK ~2.0
TTWO SHORT $29.82 RISK ~1.8
MYL SHORT $24.67 RISK ~1.0
Let's see what happens