Timing

[Votke2310]

Maybe the trading environment had bigger ranges than 3 %? Wait until calmer ATR. Just a suggestion.

i never considered that thank you very much!

 

[Votke2310]

There's no way to fix this because you're not posting enough info to reveal the entire story involving your trade decisions.Therefore, its impossible to know if its a psychological problem or a strategy related problem.

In 6 months of trading, you should already be keeping statistics about your trading even if its just basic info like symbol name, entry/exit price & time, duration of trades, chart time frame used of your trade signal and such.

Heck, you should already know how often (%) this happens when you say my 3% stop is hit and then it shoots back up.

• How many trades have you taken so far in these 6 months ?
  
• What's the % of your trades so far in these 6 months such has happen when they go back up after your stop has been hit ?

Simply, you're now in the camp of trying to post info at a forum via the fewest words as possible while asking for help with your trading. Good luck with that.

wrbtrader

i clearly need to get my numbers more statistically relevant thank you for your advice

 

[Votke2310]

Using a stop loss of 3% seems pretty arbitrary, unless I guess your stats support that. Consider using price action, setup pattern and technical support-resistance levels/areas to set your stops instead. Maybe it's not so much about "timing" as it is about your stop selection.

Also, consider using MAs for timing. If you determine which MA the trend appears to be most closely conforming to (i.e, "riding"), then in general, the best entries occur when price is at or near the "controlling" MA. The MA should also be sloped in the direction of the trend you seek to capture, and should be positioned relative to each other ("stacked") appropriately.

Finally re: timing -- avoid entering when the trend is "extended." On your primary trade timeframe, one way to help assess this is to generally observe how many consecutive green or red bars have occurred prior to your entry... as well as their relative sizes and corresponding volume. If you're taking entries that are consistently after say, ~ 3 or more average-sized bars have occurred in your direction... and/or if the recent bars are large ("wide range")... and especially if the wide range bars (WRBs) are associated with exceptionally high volume (relative to prior volume) -- then it's likely that the trend is temporarily extended/exhausted, and likely to reverse short-term. For pullback entries, you'd generally prefer to see a brief series of countertrend bars with correspondingly low/decreasing volume, and no extreme WRBs or unusually high volume.

Maybe try looking at your entries relative to the two prior criteria I mentioned, and see how they compare. Also, look at where/when the "ideal" entries occurred (in perfect hindsight), and also compare them to those criteria. Perhaps you'll notice some patterns or tendencies.

Good luck!

this was the best response so far I will add this to my reviews before entering and staying in a trade thank you

 

[vincentnyc]

Other than experience, is there a way to increase my skills at timing the trades for day trading? I'm about 6 months in to my very unprofitable trading career and I keep executing the same issue... I'm picking the right stocks and buying, they end up correcting or reacting and hitting my stop loss at 3% and than shooting up so i "usually" miss out on the uptrend. is there any way to correct this? It happened twice to me today on ENPH and AMD

then change your strategy....buy when it hits your 3% stop loss. your welcome.

 

[murray t turtle]

Tell me again how you determine your profit target of $24 for AMD?

%%
$8 risk $24 goal, charts + discretion...…………………………………………………………………………………………….[Edit would I enter after a hug gap up- maybe not this time of year,LOL]

 

[cornerstone]

Other than experience, is there a way to increase my skills at timing the trades for day trading? I'm about 6 months in to my very unprofitable trading career and I keep executing the same issue... I'm picking the right stocks and buying, they end up correcting or reacting and hitting my stop loss at 3% and than shooting up so i "usually" miss out on the uptrend. is there any way to correct this? It happened twice to me today on ENPH and AMD

use Bookmap to know where are the big buyers and sellers are, so you could decide if there is an absorption of the aggressors and shift in the trend or not, and in the contrary aspect it can help you timing your entries.

 

[Votke2310]

There's no way to fix this because you're not posting enough info to reveal the entire story involving your trade decisions.Therefore, its impossible to know if its a psychological problem or a strategy related problem.

In 6 months of trading, you should already be keeping statistics about your trading even if its just basic info like symbol name, entry/exit price & time, duration of trades, chart time frame used of your trade signal and such.

Heck, you should already know how often (%) this happens when you say my 3% stop is hit and then it shoots back up.

• How many trades have you taken so far in these 6 months ?
  
• What's the % of your trades so far in these 6 months such has happen when they go back up after your stop has been hit ?

Simply, you're now in the camp of trying to post info at a forum via the fewest words as possible while asking for help with your trading. Good luck with that.

wrbtrader

 

[Votke2310]

wrbtrader this is where I got stopped out again. I bought 1,000 shares at $8.56.. it went up and than dropped to $6.84 a share where I got shaken out. i sold for a loss and than it shot up to $13 a share.. i know I'm not supposed to look at my daily gain and loss for the day but hen its bouncing off its 20 day moving average and i say a $1500 loss I sold to stop the bleeding. I know the overall market was up today but its been extremely volital and this particular stock is in a downtrend. volume was going down on the daily so i believed ( and was clearly wrong) to sell. the ATR was 2.76 which i didn't realize until after but would you have even played this? it was up in % today and volume and thought it was a good day trade candidate. Tell me how I did it wrong so I can learn! I'm also sure you'll tell me to quit and leave day trading to the professionals, but Ill just keep trying and it would be helpful to learn

 

[S-Trader]

View attachment 207049

Assume you're posting this as an example of the original issue you mentioned? If so:

Very tough if you entered on that 5' pullback buy setup -- triggered by a penny... and then it proceeded to not follow thru, but instead, wick down thru your stop below the trigger bar's low and shake you out... and only then proceed to go in the desired direction.

If that's what happened, and *in perfect hindsight* (but actually elements of my own plan, at least), maybe consider the following: 1. The nature of the stock. MTC is extremely whippy/spready -- I'm seeing 15-40 cent spreads in it currently, on a $2 to $13+ (today!) stock. 2. There doesn't appear to be any obvious, significant support to the left on that pullback.

The MAs looks fine imo, though. But for the highest degree of confidence, consider requiring both potential S/R to left and desired MA criteria (plus whatever else you use) to take that entry... and/or in conjunction, at least, give the stock much more wiggle room on your stop. It's not uncommon for "them" to take out the whole no. in situations like that, especially in such a whippy stock.

(Edit: Ah, didn't see your follow-up post until now. So I was looking at a different setup. But maybe some of what I mentioned still may apply. Not sure I'm seeing your setup.)

 

[S-Trader]

wrbtrader this is where I got stopped out again. I bought 1,000 shares at $8.56.. it went up and than dropped to $6.84 a share where I got shaken out. i sold for a loss and than it shot up to $13 a share.. i know I'm not supposed to look at my daily gain and loss for the day but hen its bouncing off its 20 day moving average and i say a $1500 loss I sold to stop the bleeding. I know the overall market was up today but its been extremely volital and this particular stock is in a downtrend. volume was going down on the daily so i believed ( and was clearly wrong) to sell. the ATR was 2.76 which i didn't realize until after but would you have even played this? it was up in % today and volume and thought it was a good day trade candidate. Tell me how I did it wrong so I can learn! I'm also sure you'll tell me to quit and leave day trading to the professionals, but Ill just keep trying and it would be helpful to learn

Please consider my post from Saturday. It looks like you did almost everything I kinda cautioned against. Your entry: 1. Was far away from the controlling MA. 2. Came after a number of GBs -- e.g., possibly short-term "extended". 3. Came shortly after a fairly large GB with exceptionally high volume -- i.e., suggests possible exhaustion, possibly the end of that micro-trend/leg you were playing rather than the beginning.

On top of that -- you entered right into a general area of some potential daily supply (trapped longs from yesterday's initial gap up)/resistance... and look how far today's daily bar had come at that point. It essentially had completely reversed the yesterday's huge WR red bar. That's expecting a lot -- for the stock to come all that way into potential resistance with just a brief "correction" in time (only a few bars) and/or price (shallow pullback)... and then continue powering higher. It definitely coulda happened... but the odds are probably higher that it first corrects more than what that brief, shallow pullback provided.

(Edit/P.S. And again, per prior post today -- super whippy stock, no apparent support to left.)