So Cal Prop Trader

8/22/11
Gross: -101
Shares: 7,600
Net: -135

--------------------------

Today, some oil / gas names were in play, along with gold / silver.

I did not play gold / silver.

I found the oil / gas trade too late. Though, when it came time to enter on some sick looking setups, murphy's law says, "Sorry KSMETANA, these stocks are unshortable."

Great.

Let me take these crappier trades instead, thanks.

Well, I could have made money today easily, but I hesitated all over the place. That is the truth.

Got owned in the morning taking silly trades.

Focused on CTSH for a while. Blew it. I was watching it on its first dip to the 57.60s. Didn't buy enough. Also missed the buy on its second dip.

Only GOOD trade today was UPL. Did not bounce with market, held its downtrend. Relative weakness. Shorted 32.75 area. Covered near 50 cents and then the upper 30s. My target for my last portion was 200 shares, but the market blipped up, some upside volume came in so I bailed to capture my profits. UPL hit that target...

With I bought more ETP down at 41.52. Bids at 50, low selling at the level, prime for a good R:R bounce. Only got 100.

My morning P&L low was -91 gross. I then ground up to +42. I am finishing at -101.

Trade of the day however, was shorting CTSH up there. That thing was bound to get dragged down eventually. It was an easy short once it began to roll over, but I hesitated.

Really sloppy today. Mondays are historically my worse day of the week. Not a good way to start off the week. I felt bad about everything I was doing today except for the UPL trade. I had a legit reason to short that UPL.

My big loser today was CLR. I tried buying it twice. First at 50.50, second at 50.28. Market was bouncing. CLR was stubborn. CLR sent me from -21 to -100 in 15 minutes during midday.

Ouch.

I knew I was not selective in almost every trade I took. I was 'limping in,' hoping for some price flutters in my favor. Really pathetic stuff.

I should have focused on CTSH, which was in play, and I tried a lot of counter-trend stuff today, which ate me alive.

Not a good day for me.

Tomorrow, I need to be more patient. There are plenty of opportunities floating around in this market. Do not chase performance. Wait for the setups you know work.
 
8/23/11
Gross: -138
Shares: 18,060
Net: -219

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And so the post-earnings drawdown begins. Smack smack smack.

I learned to a trade in an unforgiving trading environment, where absolutely no setups worked well. There would never be follow through, it was dangerous to hold positions.

In this market, there is follow through. The longer you hold, the more you're rewarded. For this reason, I can not do well in these blast up and close at highs days. I am terrified to buy anything after 12 noon. I am used to everything failing.

That being said, it was an easy trading day if you just looked at the charts, and let them do the work for you. I'm so unwilling to buy stock, my market bias gets in the way of DAY trading decisions.

It was a very frustrating day for me.

I shorted gold near the open via the GLL. Gold began to sell off but bounced. Gold sold off later, but it didn't pay anyone out for the trade off the open. Bastards.

Watched OVTI, MDT, and OCR in the morning.

Bought some OVTI around 25, sold after 25 cents. I didn't get size. Not even worth discussing my OVTI trades. I wish I bought that last dip. I'm just not used to the market closing at highs so strongly. I'm so used to topping out and selling off, etc. I had no conviction in longs.

I did buy MDT, which formed a asc triangle up at 32.75 or whatever. Triggered an entry, and failed. The only trade that would have def made my day.

Bought light size OCR on a dip to 29. It was tough to have conviction. I don't normally like the idea of buying companies that are trading higher on news of an acquisition. Traded it later, it was one of my only money makers throughout the day.

Uhhhhh, missed the bottom in TIN. Tried buying a pattern after it consolidated after the bounce. Was in the money like 30 cents, pulled back, stopped me out, and ran back up 30 cents, and eventually traded lower, and then formed a higher low at the whole. Did not buy that higher low either, I noobed this one up due to P&L woes.

Bought WCRX news that came through, lame. FDA APPROVES DRUG. I buy and look up the drug. OH, the drug is already on the market. Morons. News idiots only lose me money.

They screwed me again in DE. News comes out in DE. He's yelling on the intercom, "Hi I'm a moron!" Getting very excited. I was in at good prices. He couldn't seem to just say the news like a normal human being. Something about a "stake." Price flutters down in a matter that makes me think the news could have been bad. I tap out livid at the news idiot who can't just say wtf is going on. Then, DE runs. He really couldn't just say, "Whale announces 5% stake in DE, positive for DE, noobs will follow the whale into the stock." Hah, I guess we don't pay them good enough for that kind of service.

Shorted AMP at 42 for a scalp. It was the only short I could find to trade the earthquake panic.

Bought CNX as the seller left during the earthquake panic down at 41.10. I wasn't able to get as many shares as I would have liked. Definitely one of the top regrets today. I could have gotten like 800 in the teens, but I was a noob and was afraid to size up 7 cents past the entry.

Bought the S news, got like 9 cents on 400 shares lol.

Shorted CERN at its late afternoon bull flag. Scalped a third on the flutter in my direction. It bounced with the market, stopped out for a small loss on the remaining position. Then it ran. The bull flag was legit, they just trickled the price down to get the weak hands out.

-------------------

Owned.

0 for 2 this week.
-354.17 net this week.
No good.
Draw down.
Piker noob.
Market had plenty of opportunity today, I just couldn't hang. I am good, but I'm also afraid. I am not used to the market throwing out free money.

Tomorrow is a critical day. If I lose money tomorrow, my upward P&L trendline for August will be broken, meaning something has changed.

Tomorrow is a must win.

I must stop being above the market.

Find what will run. Get a good entry, attack. Take profits accordingly.

Trading is so simple, we complicate the hell out of it.

I have not been getting sleep lately, maybe 4-5 hours a night. I need more sleep. I feel slow, I feel a step behind the market.

Tomorrow is a critical day.
I am in a 2 day draw down.
I'm going to piss my month away very quickly since my winning days are not big enough. I do not size up, leaving me with less from my knockout trades.
Piker noob.
I am now up +733.55 net for the month.
They took out 195 for the lame series 56. Study guide is like 100 or whatever. And data + lame office fee = antoher 250. Soooo, sweet, a +200 month, drag me outside and shoot me.

Yesterday I will accept as a losing day. But today should have been a winner, no doubt. Tomorrow needs to be a +500 day.

-------------------------------------

Las Vegas traders:
You are welcome to buy me drinks or a lapdance this weekend during my Vegas trip. Message me for my cell.

Also, if anyone has a couch or extra bed or something, a lady friend and I want to roll up a day early and we don't have a hotel for that day. It would be Thursday night.
 
Are you breaking your rules? Or are you taking trades that you would take any other day and shit is just not working out?

It's okay for shit not to work out. For you to have winning days, you're also going to have losing days and sometimes these will come one after the other.

However, I feel like every time you have a losing day, you're beating yourself up about it like you went on tilt, were breaking rules, etc. I can't even read through your entire report, it's so depressing. Should have, shouldn't have, so on...

Keep your head up. Bad days happen and that's okay. It's part of the curve. If you're breaking rules, okay...but learn from it and go kill it tomorrow.

**And please stop placing so much focus on your day to day/monthly PnL, especially when you're in the final trading days of this month...you're putting unnecessary stress on yourself that will impact your mental/trading.
 
8/24/11
Gross: +27
Shares: 11,800
Net: -26

--------------------------

Hahahahaha. I was gross +214 at 10:43. Landed good buys in DY, SANM, and AEO. I then bought GG as gold bounced initially for some good money.

At 10:43 I was feeling good and in the zone.

After gold sold off, and bounced. The question came...
Will it make a new low, or was that the day's capitulatory bottom.

I had missed morning entries in all the good stuff, like MHP.

I started buying some relative strength stocks, like HAIN and CIT. Looking for dips / consolidation / etc. Most did not continue.

I had a string of losers as gold bounced further than it should have and prices seemed to react to a potential bottom in gold. Then, bam, gold sold off, giving a boost to the market, sort of.

The trading past 10:43 was very difficult imo. You could have jumped on the gold short, but you would have been chasing. It could have made a higher low. Whatever. It wasn't easy.

Shorted DY as the market sold off a bit. I was 20 cents in the money on 400 shares. I let the price come all the way back and stop me out.

I had a complete breakdown in trade management and money management discipline. Things got worse and worse as I became more and more upset with my lack of discipline, eventually to the point where I did not care anymore.

I turned a 200 net day into a -20 day but trading CRAP at midday.

I am sinking into my bad habits. Today was the day I needed that money to continue my month's up trend.

Tomorrow I have a half day to see what I can produce to close the month. I will only have 2 trading days next week in August.

I am shocked and appalled that I did not respect the trade management and money management techniques that have made me consistent for a few weeks.

Not a good sign at all.

I've been ignoring the girl, trying to break out of the friend zone and be nothing. It is a toxic relationship.

I got a little more sleep last night, which is probably why I had a good morning.

I just checked my trade log.

Every single trade after 10:43 was a loser.
My risk reward for the day was over 4. My win % was 20%. hahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahaahahahhaha
ahahahahhahaha

omg I just looked at my last loser, PSS.

I bought 800 at 10.20. It began to work. Stopped me out at 18 cents hahahahaha and ran. Oh I'm such a poor, disadvantaged market participant.

Good stuff.

Well, I'll try and close the week out with a good half day tomorrow hahaha.

Leaving the office will allow me to keep whatever I make, assuming the market pays anyone out.

Tomorrow could be dead as it seems people have placed their bets for Friday. Could be a very dangerous trading day for day traders. Computer driven smack down.

Oh yeah, I won't be in on Friday hahahahaha, I get to miss the craziness.

---------------------

I think the problem is that I am not sticking to the select setups which act as my profit engines.

I am trading at will, on impulse, chasing performance.

The best setups of the day made my money today. The stuff that is not part of my plan took it away.

I will read this before I trade tomorrow.
 
Gross: +276
Shares: 5,400
Net: +252

--------------------------

Financials were in play today but I did not get involved much as I noticed other traders having trouble with choppiness. I eventually shorted MS at 17.36 for small size because it was the only thing that looked safe and defined.

My winner today was PSS. It stopped me out of a winner yesterday, I got my revenge today, shorting up at 13. Covered on the way down, my best price on the cover was 12.22. I held the last 100, got stopped out as it blipped up out of nowhere.

Missed the GES short near the open, phew, I wanted that one so bad, I turned my head for a second and bam. I eventually shorted it later at 32.25 area. Was hoping for a new low but didn't get it. Basically got like 20-30 cents out of the position.

Bought GLD near the open for a 50 cent scalp. Level 2 trade, I'm actually surprised it worked, GLD typically owns me.

I wanted to short PDCO today on that bear flag below 28, but I hesitated as it wasn't clean enough. Later it set up at 27 for the short, but you can't get filled on the short side due to the lame ass 10% uptick rule. Ugh, that would have been an awesome one.

R:R today was 5.
% winners = 61%

Well, I didn't make much money, but at least I get to go on my trip feeling better than yesterday.

-----

Area 51 is a no go, the little alie'inn is sold out. I booked a room at Hooters for Thurs night, and then switching hotels when the other knuckleheads arrive on Friday.

Today's biggest regret was not getting short GES on that great setup off the open. Those are the best ones to attack because of all the room they have to run.

I'll return to the markets on Tuesday next week.
 
8/30/11
Gross: +228
Shares: 7,800
Net: +193


-----------------------

Definitely not an easy day for day trading. I think if you finished positive or flat you did a decent job...

That being said, a few opportunities were out there, but after seeing the crappy action all day, it wasn't quite enticing to get involved.

Made some early money in BA trading the news.

Today's winners included CLX, RGR, ECL, and BA.

The loser I want to discuss was JWN. It was my biggest loser of the day, but one of my favorite ideas that came through.

When the consumer confidence number came out the market made a sharp move down. Retailers such as JCP and M traded lower, but JWN was being held up by an unrelentless baller paying offers.

It tried collapsing with the others, but by the time it was ready, the market bounced and did not make another move down.

If the market continued to trend down it would have been a sick trade.

The problem with JWN, was that I let it go against me too far. When it became clear the market was not going to make another push down, I did not cover my short. Too bad.

Other regret of the day was not getting more CLX on my 70.03 buy before the close. I only had to risk 3 cents due to my level 2 analysis. I suppose, after the crappy action, I didn't trust anything.

I gamed for volume to come into the close in CLX. Missed the peak of potential outs, it missed my offer by 5 cents. Still closed the day stronger than I expected to, and got the week off to the good start.

One more solid day tomorrow and I will close the month strong.

-----------------------

I did not jump off the Stratosphere in Vegas. I drank a lot and stayed up for 48 hours straight, drinking and playing craps, going to the pool, clubbing at Caesar's Palace, etc. When it was time to jump on Sunday, I was dead tired, and I slept for like 20 hours in the room hahaha.

On Monday we went to the Hoover Dam and that was an awesome sight. It was 111 degrees out though.

It was a fun trip, but I spent a bit more than I would have liked.

I lost 80 playing blackjack, and like 200 playing craps.

However, I got a LOT of hours out of craps.

I found a system that limits my exposure to setups I like.

I would only do line bets until the shooter rolled a six or eight. With the button on a six or eight, there is a good chance for the roll to be a good one. I would bet on eight, and place a line odds bet. It worked decently, however, when it came time to really make money, I'd get owned, as always. I was a few rolls away from having a great trip. I was 1 roll away from hitting the fire bet too. Ugh.

My day trading mentality allowed me to get a lot of table time and get a grip of drinks...... Unfortunately, the hot roll I needed didn't come to validate my system. Maybe next time LOL.

Hoover Dam was definitely the highlight of the trip though. Those dam turbines are intense.

I had opportunities with females on the trip, but did not pursue.... My love basically told me to not move on yet. hahahaha, the day before my Vegas trip too..... I don't know what to do with that anymore.

I just need to focus on my trading. If she comes around, she comes around I guess.

------------------

I have attached a picture of myself with the dam turbines. I'll post better pictures as they arrive. My friends took most the pics and have not yet uploaded them.
 
8/31/11
Gross: +129
Shares: 10,400
Net: +83

--------------------------

Today is normally a full day of trading for me, but I have to cover someone's shift at work, so I have to make it a half day.

Today was a +300 day easy and I made one crucial mistake, well, arguably two.

There was a sequence where I had about 5 trades at once, it was incredibly active.

Oil stocks were breaking out before the number. I had some JNPR short. CAT long. HAL long. SLB long. GCO long.

So much going on that I forgot to put a stop in GCO, and it broke down hard against me, lost $100 on that trade.

I attacked the hell out of the HAL breakout, the paying was intense. I sized up correctly relative to all my other positions this week. It ran, it printed 40s, I should have been out of half in the 40s. The intense paying impacted my profit taking techniques. Also, it was before the oil number, I should have taken some risk off. I had +250 unrealized before the oil number. The oil number was no good, and my SLB stopped me out, and HAL gave back most of the move before I took outs on the majority of my position.

Ouch.... I should have been out as soon as that weak oil number came out. Grrrr

That's really all there is to discuss.

I also hesitated in buying the tower stocks on the T news. I tried bucking the trend in SBAC a few times, lost on each attempt.

So today's mistakes: Not taking off half near target A in HAL. Not exiting SLB for a OK profit after the oil number.

At least I close on P&L highs for the month.

Today should have been a better day, I was all over it. I consider today a better win. I am happy with how I closed the month. My consistency is still here.

-----------------------

August Results:
Gross: +1989.41
Net: +1233.95
Shares: 167,880
% Winners: 41%
Reward / Risk Ratio: 2.25
Net Positive Days: 9
Net Negative Days: 7

Another important benchmark, is that I am closing the month net positive overall (since I began in November).

Results since November:
Gross: +7800.34
Net: +372.12
Shares: 1,280,000
% Winners: 40%
Reward Risk: 1.92

My trading efficiency stats are trending higher.

August is my strongest month to date, for P&L and trading stats.

-------------------

Looking to September...
My short bias in late August held me back, as I did not attack long entries. September could be an even better month for me if the short side finally comes back into play.

It is important to note what worked this month for me.
Identifying the right stocks.
Waiting for setups that I know work.
Waiting for the level 2 analysis to trigger an entry.
Taking profits on a portion before my first target, typically at wave peaks.
Adding liquidity. My listed net is not my actual net. My actual will be a little better due to the increased amount of adding I do.

I failed this month in sizing up. This is one of the last major tweaks I need to make to take my trading to the next level.

-----------------------

I forgot to attach a pic yesterday. Here is a pic of me and some of the people I went to Vegas with. I'm the guy in the gray Foreign Exchange shirt. This picture was taken at the Bellagio after I had a corned beef sandwich and a glass of grapefruit juice at the Bellagio Cafe.
 

Attachments

Just got word we are switching to Lightspeed tomorrow.

I am weary of this, I don't like change, but whatever. I was very happy with Blackwood.
 
Hello everyone,
I have been told that I am no longer allowed to have a trading journal. This is a very sad day.
I really did not want to end this journey like this, I wanted everyone to watch my battle, to see someone do what most consider impossible.
Let me tell you, impossibility is an excuse for not having the will to succeed.
I felt this journal held me accountable. It was my emotional rock.
I spilled my guts here, it has been my only outlet for a long time, since I have no one to discuss trading with in my personal life.
I've had this journal since March 2011 and took a lot of pride in it. It was my child. I dreamed of a day where it would grow up into something to be proud of.
THIS was my battle, against all the odds, my proof that I succeeded. The proof of my blood, sweat and tears.
This dream is now gone.

Everything I have posted about trading here is my own. My own methodologies. My own system. The beginnings of something great.


I am leaving this journal with my best month to date, and with my trading stats trending higher.


It has been fun, I will deeply miss posting here. I worry how the loss of this journal will impact my trading.

I may consider writing a private journal, however I feel they are worthless, as there is no audience to hold you accountable. It would be nice to continue writing, and then one day post it once I leave the prop firm environment.

To other new stock traders: It is possible. Be strong, immerse yourself in the markets. You CAN make money, and you CAN beat the prop shop model. Your greatest tools to do so are patience and discipline. It's not easy, but if you can stick around long enough to get the right amount of experience, you'll do fine.

So with great sadness, I say,
So long, the greatness that was this journal is no more.

I may pop in to post updates about my life, I'm sure you all want to know if I ever get the girl.

Goodbye.
 
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