I have decided to make a journal on my experience so far as a "Newbie" It has been about 20 days since I opened up a paper trading account at OptionsXpress. I want to go to live money by Feb 1st. I don't think it will happen. I ended up taking 20 days worth of losses today. My loss total I took was 3071.00. I am ahead 141.41.for the month.
The things I have done wrong are not having a clear trading strategy. "Winging it, obviously is not going to do". Have decided I want to be to cash at the end of every trading day. Remedy here I want to be in and out of a stock in no more than 15 minutes.
Mistakes So far
#1
Trading heavy volume stocks( of the day) held them overnight. The next morning the were down another 20%. Remedy here is close out positions by the end of the day and/or use stop losses.
#2
Have given all my profits away at the last hour of trading. Have tighter loss limits.
#3
Positions are too big for each trade. I am trading 1000 & 2000 share lots. Getting to greedy need to be realistic.
#4
Have seperate trading account for different strategies. Options going the wrong way kill my account way too quickly.
#5
Move account to Interactive Brokers from OptionsXpress. Commisssions are too high at optionsxpress on 1000 & 2000 share lot trades.
#6
Not making enough trades during the day. I've noticed the more volume I do the more profitable I have been so far.
#7
Yahoo live quotes suck..They aren't accurate. Charts suck too. Signed up with Interactive Brokers I hope it will be better.
#8
Need to find a chart that will give me the calculated mean over 5 and 15 minute. Something simple. I am searching and all this trading software is so complicated. I need to pick a software that is easy to use. Time is valuable at this point. Downloaded MedVed Quote tracker I am hoping for some simplicity...
#9
Haven't had enough computer screens. Remedy here bought 2 more 19 inch monitors this will give me 4 plus a laptop to work with. This should be enough.
#10
Need to remember to get up out of my chair during the day. My neck is killing me. Spent $200 on getting massages. Remedy is start doing some Yoga for stretching.
The things I have done wrong are not having a clear trading strategy. "Winging it, obviously is not going to do". Have decided I want to be to cash at the end of every trading day. Remedy here I want to be in and out of a stock in no more than 15 minutes.
Mistakes So far
#1
Trading heavy volume stocks( of the day) held them overnight. The next morning the were down another 20%. Remedy here is close out positions by the end of the day and/or use stop losses.
#2
Have given all my profits away at the last hour of trading. Have tighter loss limits.
#3
Positions are too big for each trade. I am trading 1000 & 2000 share lots. Getting to greedy need to be realistic.
#4
Have seperate trading account for different strategies. Options going the wrong way kill my account way too quickly.
#5
Move account to Interactive Brokers from OptionsXpress. Commisssions are too high at optionsxpress on 1000 & 2000 share lot trades.
#6
Not making enough trades during the day. I've noticed the more volume I do the more profitable I have been so far.
#7
Yahoo live quotes suck..They aren't accurate. Charts suck too. Signed up with Interactive Brokers I hope it will be better.
#8
Need to find a chart that will give me the calculated mean over 5 and 15 minute. Something simple. I am searching and all this trading software is so complicated. I need to pick a software that is easy to use. Time is valuable at this point. Downloaded MedVed Quote tracker I am hoping for some simplicity...
#9
Haven't had enough computer screens. Remedy here bought 2 more 19 inch monitors this will give me 4 plus a laptop to work with. This should be enough.
#10
Need to remember to get up out of my chair during the day. My neck is killing me. Spent $200 on getting massages. Remedy is start doing some Yoga for stretching.