I'm starting this thread to share my trials and tribulations with fellow traders with small accounts that are new to the trade (my account is $2,500), but have a burning desire to make it in this business.
I also hope to get valuable feedback from the experienced traders on this board.
I posted here about a year ago under the handle Morpheus - still under Matrix influence - now I find it too pretentious so I've changed it to my Yahoo handle.
I've opened a cash account with IB 6 months ago. The thing about cash accounts is that your funds settle only after 3 days, so if you want to trade every day you can only use a third of your equity/trade (good thing in terms of capital preservation). And if you want to trade 100 share lots with a $2,500 account, you can only put on 1 trade/day in stocks priced $6-9/sh.
Another restriction of a cash account (IB doesn't open margin accounts in Canada yet) is that you can't short - a major drawback but as a beginner I'm probably better off not shorting.
So far I am down about $750 in my account, most of the losses coming from a few bad trades where I didn't take the stops - the old story.
Now my losses are much smaller, and the gains are starting to offset them. I was even slightly profitable in December.
My trading system is relatively simple. I trade mornings, as I work during the day - being on the West Coast I can do it before I go to work.
I trade a basket of heavily traded Nasdaq stocks (avg daily volume > 5 million), $6-9/share.
Two strategies:
- gap fading
- stochastics crossover to the upside
Two candidates are selected pre-market, and the 1st setup met is taken.
Entry on the 2nd candle up after a decline or pullback, only with supporting futures (I use the S&P and Naz Eminis).
Stop loss 2c below closest support, no further than 15c from entry.
Target usually 2c below major resistance of 50% retracement of gap.
Trailing stops moved by 1r increments (r=initial risk) as price moves by 1r increments.
Exit when target is reached or stop triggered.
I use QCharts for quotes, StockWatchPro for backtesting and Briefing for news. I have a 1.6GHz AMD processor, with 256 RAM and two monitors (17" and 15").
My short term goal is to reach consistency, and to bring my equity to $10,000 (through savings and hopefully trading profits) then to join EchoTrade as a remote trader.
I will post my daily trades with a few comments and a screenshot.
P.S. This thread was inspired by the Tom Waits album with the same name, one of my favorites.
I also hope to get valuable feedback from the experienced traders on this board.
I posted here about a year ago under the handle Morpheus - still under Matrix influence - now I find it too pretentious so I've changed it to my Yahoo handle.
I've opened a cash account with IB 6 months ago. The thing about cash accounts is that your funds settle only after 3 days, so if you want to trade every day you can only use a third of your equity/trade (good thing in terms of capital preservation). And if you want to trade 100 share lots with a $2,500 account, you can only put on 1 trade/day in stocks priced $6-9/sh.
Another restriction of a cash account (IB doesn't open margin accounts in Canada yet) is that you can't short - a major drawback but as a beginner I'm probably better off not shorting.
So far I am down about $750 in my account, most of the losses coming from a few bad trades where I didn't take the stops - the old story.
Now my losses are much smaller, and the gains are starting to offset them. I was even slightly profitable in December.
My trading system is relatively simple. I trade mornings, as I work during the day - being on the West Coast I can do it before I go to work.
I trade a basket of heavily traded Nasdaq stocks (avg daily volume > 5 million), $6-9/share.
Two strategies:
- gap fading
- stochastics crossover to the upside
Two candidates are selected pre-market, and the 1st setup met is taken.
Entry on the 2nd candle up after a decline or pullback, only with supporting futures (I use the S&P and Naz Eminis).
Stop loss 2c below closest support, no further than 15c from entry.
Target usually 2c below major resistance of 50% retracement of gap.
Trailing stops moved by 1r increments (r=initial risk) as price moves by 1r increments.
Exit when target is reached or stop triggered.
I use QCharts for quotes, StockWatchPro for backtesting and Briefing for news. I have a 1.6GHz AMD processor, with 256 RAM and two monitors (17" and 15").
My short term goal is to reach consistency, and to bring my equity to $10,000 (through savings and hopefully trading profits) then to join EchoTrade as a remote trader.
I will post my daily trades with a few comments and a screenshot.
P.S. This thread was inspired by the Tom Waits album with the same name, one of my favorites.