Started the Trades

[sfbayarea]

Quote from Riffraffpatrol:

You're totally missing the point. You need to get this... or you are going to be destined for failure.

If $ 35 is your risk amount...fine. If $ 100... fine. If $ 250...fine. Make sure it doesnt exceed a max of 2% of your total capital to keep you in the game...however if your strategies are questionable as to success rate, .5-1% would be advised.

Again-- regardless of what the final # is-- YOU NEED TO POSITION SIZE EACH AND EVERY TRADE SO YOU STAY CONSISTENT WITH THIS #!

If u choose to trade a vehicle that is more volatile and needs more wiggle room...fine... this however DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR RISK AMOUNT! What will change however potentially is the quantity of shares traded...and this is determined by the distance from your entry point and the location on the chart you deem to be proven wrong.

Do you or do you not understand this??? If you dont...you need to ask questions. If you understand it but choose to ignore it...you are a fool.

Which is it?

No need to get upset over this?? I understand what you're saying about the risk/reward ratio. Some trades don't have that. Some days do not offer a high reward to low ratio (ie trading ranges where you have to scalp out). Not everyday is a trend day. I often do scalp out because I do not like where I am. Sometimes, it pays off for a scalp. Sometimes it doesn't.

Again the issue is that my account is on fumes. I can't afford to go under the day trade minimum. I'm barely above it now. What you're saying is in the long term plan. However right now, I'm just building myself some wiggle room so that I can let my trades run more in the long term. That is why I am taking any profits as I can get them until I have some more room to let them run. That is why often when I have a positive day, I will let it just stand even if it's +10 or 20 until I have a couple hundred so that I can let them run more. Of those days, there were opportunities later on but I chose not to take them because I made up my mind to end the day with a small gainer.

Also, I only post the losers here for analysis. So people jump on them and I do expect that. I don't post any details of positive trades. Positive trades, people ignore them anyhow and focus on the negative but that's fine. I think it often leads to a misconception that this is what is going on. People will read posts from months ago and assume that my strategies are still the same but they're not. My entries are much different than what they were. Some patterns that have costed me money before, I learn not to get in on them. I do learn from mistakes and that is the point of this journal. My losses have been less this year compared to last. I'm just looking to improve. It's not something that happens overnight. I do appreciate the constructive criticism here.

 

[ammo]

Quote from sfbayarea:

No need to get upset over this?? I understand what you're saying about the risk/reward ratio. Some trades don't have that. Some days do not offer a high reward to low ratio (ie trading ranges where you have to scalp out). Not everyday is a trend day. I often do scalp out because I do not like where I am. Sometimes, it pays off for a scalp. Sometimes it doesn't.

Again the issue is that my account is on fumes. I can't afford to go under the day trade minimum. I'm barely above it now. What you're saying is in the long term plan. However right now, I'm just building myself some wiggle room so that I can let my trades run more in the long term. That is why I am taking any profits as I can get them until I have some more room to let them run. That is why often when I have a positive day, I will let it just stand even if it's +10 or 20 until I have a couple hundred so that I can let them run more. Of those days, there were opportunities later on but I chose not to take them because I made up my mind to end the day with a small gainer.

Also, I only post the losers here for analysis. So people jump on them and I do expect that. I don't post any details of positive trades. Positive trades, people ignore them anyhow and focus on the negative but that's fine. I think it often leads to a misconception that this is what is going on. People will read posts from months ago and assume that my strategies are still the same but they're not. My entries are much different than what they were. Some patterns that have costed me money before, I learn not to get in on them. I do learn from mistakes and that is the point of this journal. My losses have been less this year compared to last. I'm just looking to improve. It's not something that happens overnight. I do appreciate the constructive criticism here.

you are fishing for pennies,you need to sit and wait for the right setup and take the trade ,it might be 1 or 5 all week,if you gave an experienced trader your acct,he wouldnt take 100 dollar 50 dollar shots,that would be trading the acct, a sure way to lose it, you need to trade the market and when it gives you a setup take it and ride it,even if you can only trade a one lot,small acct large acct,doesnt matter,you have to sit and wait for setups that you are confident will be winners and be patient not to take small 50/50 trades increasing your chances of losing,not trading those is a large part of succeeding or not giving your money back

 

[sfbayarea]

Quote from ammo:

you are fishing for pennies,you need to sit and wait for the right setup and take the trade ,it might be 1 or 5 all week,if you gave an experienced trader your acct,he wouldnt take 100 dollar 50 dollar shots,that would be trading the acct, a sure way to lose it, you need to trade the market and when it gives you a setup take it and ride it,even if you can only trade a one lot,small acct large acct,doesnt matter,you have to sit and wait for setups that you are confident will be winners and be patient not to take small 50/50 trades increasing your chances of losing,not trading those is a large part of succeeding or not giving your money back

Well said.. one large gainer will make up for all my gains all week. This last week was a rough one but I did end up in the green but only slightly. My estimate of the big losing day was over estimated. I should just wait for it. That's one of my problems. I'm really impatient about it. I find myself itching to get in at times even for a scalp and sometimes I felt lucky to get out with a scalp. This is bad because it's really gambling. This is not the right way to trade. It's just the way to get one's adrenaline up like in a casino.

 

[Riffraffpatrol]

Quote from sfbayarea:

No need to get upset over this?? I understand what you're saying about the risk/reward ratio. Some trades don't have that. Some days do not offer a high reward to low ratio (ie trading ranges where you have to scalp out). Not everyday is a trend day. I often do scalp out because I do not like where I am. Sometimes, it pays off for a scalp. Sometimes it doesn't.

Again the issue is that my account is on fumes. I can't afford to go under the day trade minimum. I'm barely above it now. What you're saying is in the long term plan. However right now, I'm just building myself some wiggle room so that I can let my trades run more in the long term. That is why I am taking any profits as I can get them until I have some more room to let them run. That is why often when I have a positive day, I will let it just stand even if it's +10 or 20 until I have a couple hundred so that I can let them run more. Of those days, there were opportunities later on but I chose not to take them because I made up my mind to end the day with a small gainer.

Also, I only post the losers here for analysis. So people jump on them and I do expect that. I don't post any details of positive trades. Positive trades, people ignore them anyhow and focus on the negative but that's fine. I think it often leads to a misconception that this is what is going on. People will read posts from months ago and assume that my strategies are still the same but they're not. My entries are much different than what they were. Some patterns that have costed me money before, I learn not to get in on them. I do learn from mistakes and that is the point of this journal. My losses have been less this year compared to last. I'm just looking to improve. It's not something that happens overnight. I do appreciate the constructive criticism here.

I truly believe you still don't understand.

Your response to my post was to talk about risk/reward...of course that's important, but it has nothing to do with what I asked you.

What is the biggest loss you have had? If it's 3 digits u have a real problem.

Your mentality here is you are gracious and thankful for all the good advice but your responses clearly show you have no intention of acting on and taking the advice.

You evidently feel repeating the same process over and over will eventually lead to different results. Not gonna happen.

 

[clightmarathon]

Quote from Riffraffpatrol:

You're totally missing the point. You need to get this... or you are going to be destined for failure.

If $ 35 is your risk amount...fine. If $ 100... fine. If $ 250...fine. Make sure it doesnt exceed a max of 2% of your total capital to keep you in the game...however if your strategies are questionable as to success rate, .5-1% would be advised.

Again-- regardless of what the final # is-- YOU NEED TO POSITION SIZE EACH AND EVERY TRADE SO YOU STAY CONSISTENT WITH THIS #!

If u choose to trade a vehicle that is more volatile and needs more wiggle room...fine... this however DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR RISK AMOUNT! What will change however potentially is the quantity of shares traded...and this is determined by the distance from your entry point and the location on the chart you deem to be proven wrong.

sf,

We are really trying to help you. Try to understand what riffraffpatrol is saying without being defensive.
No matter what you are risking on each trade, if you don't have statistical edge (ask if you don't know what it is) it is CERTAIN that you will lose your account if you trade long enough.
That is why it is suggested to you to risk the same and small amount so you can stay in the game and find out if you have an edge or not. And this also helps you to improve.

You say you don't show all your trades and we don't know the whole picture. no problem. But to help you further, pls. combine the following stats (these are essential to know btw, for your own good):

For the last 100 (or at least 30) trades:
number of winners
average win
largest winner
number of losers
average loss
largest loser.

 

[sfbayarea]

Quote from Riffraffpatrol:

You're totally missing the point. You need to get this... or you are going to be destined for failure.

If $ 35 is your risk amount...fine. If $ 100... fine. If $ 250...fine. Make sure it doesnt exceed a max of 2% of your total capital to keep you in the game...however if your strategies are questionable as to success rate, .5-1% would be advised.

Again-- regardless of what the final # is-- YOU NEED TO POSITION SIZE EACH AND EVERY TRADE SO YOU STAY CONSISTENT WITH THIS #!

If u choose to trade a vehicle that is more volatile and needs more wiggle room...fine... this however DOES NOT CHANGE YOUR RISK AMOUNT! What will change however potentially is the quantity of shares traded...and this is determined by the distance from your entry point and the location on the chart you deem to be proven wrong.

Do you or do you not understand this??? If you dont...you need to ask questions. If you understand it but choose to ignore it...you are a fool.

Which is it?

???? I don't get it?? Isn't that what I am doing already?.. 0.5-1% of 25 K is 100-250. 100 is the max I would be willing to lose per trade as I have said. None of the trades exceeds 2% of my capital in the account. I don't have any trades beside one that I held over night for a big loss months ago that are above 2% of the total capital in the account.

 

[clightmarathon]

Quote from sfbayarea:

???? I don't get it?? Isn't that what I am doing already?.. 0.5-1% of 25 K is 100-250. 100 is the max I would be willing to lose per trade as I have said. None of the trades exceeds 2% of my capital in the account. I don't have any trades beside one that I held over night for a big loss months ago that are above 2% of the total capital in the account.

You are right , we may be missed the point that on your individual trades you don't risk and lose much in terms of percentage. But your daily pnl sure looks like that.

I had a little time (it took about 15 min.) and using your posted pnl's I plotted your equity curve for this year only and calculated your daily stats. It shows that you need to change something. you have many small winning days ( 70%) then boom down, and again many small winning days and boom down.

 

[clightmarathon]

If you control your losses , losing days, the pictures changes.
(I took out all the 3 digit losses and gains, which I know is not too realistic, but may be drives the point home what we are making).

 

[ammo]

Quote from sfbayarea:

Well said.. one large gainer will make up for all my gains all week. This last week was a rough one but I did end up in the green but only slightly. My estimate of the big losing day was over estimated. I should just wait for it. That's one of my problems. I'm really impatient about it. I find myself itching to get in at times even for a scalp and sometimes I felt lucky to get out with a scalp. This is bad because it's really gambling. This is not the right way to trade. It's just the way to get one's adrenaline up like in a casino.

this is common and it's why a new trader goes thru several small accts, you find an edge and wait for a setup,that impatience will go away after several acct debacles when you start treating it like real money,in poker u would fold with a 2,5,9 offsuit, a bad hand and wait for a good one, waiting for a setup is the same thing,forget about making money,just treat it like a game where you make and accumulate points,try not to give too many back, you accumulate faster

 

[sfbayarea]

Quote from clightmarathon:

If you control your losses , losing days, the pictures changes.
(I took out all the 3 digit losses and gains, which I know is not too realistic, but may be drives the point home what we are making).

Thanks for your hard work.. you're right.. the losses need to be controlled. A -35 loss is ideal. Not a -75 or -90 loss.

You guys all make valid points here. I'll take good note of them. I will wait next week for a good setup... hopefully. LOL

Funny that your first chart looked like it finished its measured move 2 legs with a reversal spike.