Hey guys,
I am going to start a journal here for the new year.. I am primarily a swing trader. I look to hold for 2-15 days and i try to make at least 5% per a trade.
I use tc2000 for stock selection review and IB as my broker. All orders are entered via buy/sell stop prior to market opening. I have a full time job, so i dont have time to watch the market too much during the day.
I first use a custom volatility filter to only look for stocks that have high volatility the past few months. I want to avoid boring stocks like msft, ibm, etc... so i look for stocks that have high atr and tend to have a history of making sizable moves. I am a discretionary pattern trader and I only trade horizontal like breaks, I will try to post charts for setups so you guys can get a feel of the setups i look for. I will try not too risk too much per a trade.. i am starting my account with $30k so i dont want to lose more than $200 or so per a trade.. at least for now.
For exits i will look to take atleast partial profits at 5% gain and losses will be cut no more than 5% under entry. I will use some flexibility and discretion with exiting but I think you get the idea.
I will also scale up size into winners or when the market is heavily in my favor. I am essentially trading momentum and continuation. I preffer the stock to be above the 200ma or 50ma for longs .. or below the 50ma or 200ma for shorts. Its all pretty simple, nothing to fancy or complicated. I quickly scroll through about 700-800 stocks every night in tc2000, to look for setup and it also helps me get a feel of the market and different sectors.
Looking forward to sharing my journal and a prosperous 2008!!
I am going to start a journal here for the new year.. I am primarily a swing trader. I look to hold for 2-15 days and i try to make at least 5% per a trade.
I use tc2000 for stock selection review and IB as my broker. All orders are entered via buy/sell stop prior to market opening. I have a full time job, so i dont have time to watch the market too much during the day.
I first use a custom volatility filter to only look for stocks that have high volatility the past few months. I want to avoid boring stocks like msft, ibm, etc... so i look for stocks that have high atr and tend to have a history of making sizable moves. I am a discretionary pattern trader and I only trade horizontal like breaks, I will try to post charts for setups so you guys can get a feel of the setups i look for. I will try not too risk too much per a trade.. i am starting my account with $30k so i dont want to lose more than $200 or so per a trade.. at least for now.
For exits i will look to take atleast partial profits at 5% gain and losses will be cut no more than 5% under entry. I will use some flexibility and discretion with exiting but I think you get the idea.
I will also scale up size into winners or when the market is heavily in my favor. I am essentially trading momentum and continuation. I preffer the stock to be above the 200ma or 50ma for longs .. or below the 50ma or 200ma for shorts. Its all pretty simple, nothing to fancy or complicated. I quickly scroll through about 700-800 stocks every night in tc2000, to look for setup and it also helps me get a feel of the market and different sectors.
Looking forward to sharing my journal and a prosperous 2008!!