trade mornings only?

Originally posted by Woody
JPB

I was looking over the trades that you have posted over the last few days and noticed that generally you have some big losing trades ($300 to $400) and most of your winners are less than $200.

I don't know what your trading methodology is, but it appears that you need to turn the risk/reward situation around. It seems to me that you are risking too much in exchange for small winners. "Keep your losses small and let your winners run"

For your particular trading methodology, you need to figure out your average net gain per trade, your average net loss per trade and the percentage of winning trades. You can then figure out what it takes to be consistently profitable. For example if you are only winning on 50% of your trades, your net gain per trade obviously has to be higher than your net loss per trade.
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The results I post are totals for the day in each stock. The big losers are usually 3 or 4 trades in the same stock. I have planned trades at the start of the day, and I seem to get stopped out a few times because I am trying to get in too early. I seldom (other than today) lose more than $80-120 on any one trade. I think it averages out to about 1:1 risk reward, and I hope to win by winning percentage. I honestly have not figured out my percentages. I think I will over the weekend and see where I really stand. I also need to track how much I am missing when I exit early, especially if it is before my target.

I am getting a lot more out of these postings than I thought I would. Keep it coming, everyone.

--Johnny
 
Originally posted by Woody
JPB

I went back and looked at all of the trades you posted. 43 total trades, 24 winners 19 losers. Your average winning trade was approximately $125 and your average losing trade was approximately $172. This does not include commissions, so your average net winner is something less and your average net loser is something more. You are winning on 56% of your trades, if you can bring your average net loser down to or slightly below your average net winner you will be on the right track.
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You posted this one while I was replying to your previous post. I suspect my winning percentage is actually lower and my average loss per trade is also lower if I split each stock into all of the trades for the day. I'll do this over the next couple of days. I am doing too much of this on "feel." I need some real numbers to convince me to stay in trades longer, set stop levels, etc.

I think I may keep this journal going after this week. I'm getting some good feedback.

--Johnny
 
Did you have a mentor? If so, where did you find them and were they effective? In other words, are you a successful trader, and if so, is it because of your mentor? Also, please tell me you are not a "mentor" that's going to offer to sell me lessons.



I wouldn't suggest anyone trade without duplicating a technique. The truth of the matter is if you sit in front of your computer long enough and spend enough money you are eventually going to figure out how to trade. What you will figure out will be exactly what the successful trader is currently doing at a professional firm.

Having a mentor just seems the quickest way to the heart of the beast. I watched a successful trader for 3 months without making a single trade. I sat and listened as he told me why he made each trade. When I opened my account I started trading and did exactly what he did. My style is scapling/momentum so there are hard core rules that need to be followed. I learned them and applied them. I could have done it without a mentor, but I didn't have thousands of dollars to pay in tuition to the market.

The best way to find a mentor is to go to a professional prop firm and offer to wash a car, walk a dog or buy lunch everday for a successful trader. I have even suggested to people that they make a deal with the mentor to give them a cut of their profits if they are successful, that usually perks some ears.

In regards to your comment about "couldn't stand $1,000 loss", I imagine that from the other posts you noticed you broke your rule. It happens to all of us, ...everytime I break one of my rules I pay for it dearly. I have been trading for 4 years and I tell myself I will never break one of my rules,.....but from time to time I get cocky, break a rule and then pay the piper. Unless you are super human it will be tough not to do. The best you can do is realize you broke the rule and then gladly accept your punishment with a smile and again promise not to break any more rules again.

Trade well.
Pitufo
 
Is it just me or has it been extremely choppy this week? Low volumes, no follow through. My favorite setups are breakdowns and breakouts, and this hasn't been the time for them. Today I concentrated on support and resistance plays and did better. Only made one real trade and one 100 share intraday swing trade which was stopped out quickly (too tight of stop). I was actually in the MERQ trade for an hour (pared in and out some). That's a long trade for me, but it's how I would like to trade more.

Wednesday:

MERQ: +429.40
VRTS: -19.00

TOTAL: +410.40 before commissions / +371.35 after

Last trade closed at 10:52

-Johhny
 
One good trade this morning. Other than that I couldn't squeeze anything for a dime. Missed an NVDA trade I've been waiting for all week by 6 minutes. I gave up on it breaking down 6 minutes before it dropped at 10:45. It went for 2 points from there (I know I wouldn't have gotten more than .5 before I got shaken out on the next consolidation, but still...)
I'm trying to add in some longer intraday swing trades. I was stopped out on IDPH on a 100 share trade.

Thusday:

BRCM -76.00
IDPH -25.00
MERQ +9.00
NVDA -97.60 (arghh)
PSFT +35.00
QLGC +265.30
SEBL +16.80

TOTALS: +127.5 before commissions / + 30.55 after

last trade closed at 11:47 (swing stopped out)

For the week: -182.5 before commissions / -587.45 after

--Johnny
 
Hi John ,

I enjoy seeing your activity log everyday .
Would you break down you trades as to if they were shorts or longs.
Also the time frame for each trade, I want to look at a chart after the fact.
Who are you using as a broker??
 
How are you guys trading Opening Only orders on Nasdaq stocks....??? Since there is no "opening" ?? Perhaps you are just trading "mornings" and not "openings" --- just curious??
 
Originally posted by Don Bright
How are you guys trading Opening Only orders on Nasdaq stocks....??? Since there is no "opening" ?? Perhaps you are just trading "mornings" and not "openings" --- just curious??
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Don,

I have been trading mornings (9:30-11:00 or 12:00). Nasdaq stocks only. I don't do any OO orders yet. If I said "opening" in this thread somewhere I meant the first 10-20 minutes of the morning.

-Johnny
 
It's been an interesting two weeks. My results don't seem to show an advantage to trading mornings only:

For 2 weeks mornings only (almost): +463.02 before commissions / -581.45 after

I had been roughly breakeven after commissions for the previous 6 weeks (on average).

I have learned a few things from doing this, and from some suggestions from other people on this thread.

For trading times, I think I'll trade primarily the morning 9:30-11:00, and about 2:00-3:15.

My patience has improved. I did make a few trades outside of my time limit. It was extremely difficult to sit and not trade, especially at the first of the two weeks. By the end, I could sit and just watch the market. One of my problems has been overtrading in general, and not feeling that I have to make trades is helping my selection all day.
I still need to resolve how to handle big down days. I'm not sure if stopping out is the answer. This week, for example, I would have stopped out on Monday because at one point I was down about $300. I continued to trade and finished up for the day. I would have stopped out on Tuesday (-$1000+) also. That would have left me at about -$700 for the 2 days with commissions instead of -$990. Over the long term, I suspect I can turn a lot more -$300 days into positive days than into -$1000 days. Three times as many, though?

I'm going to start keeping a more accurate trade log with types of setups I'm taking and their percentages. I'm also going to track shooting percentage and risk/reward of actual trades as Woody suggested. If anyone has a template for excel or word I could use as an example I'd appreciate it.

I want to start doing longer term (hours, possibly days) trades also. I am going to keep these seperate in my log and do 100 shares until I can prove out my setups for those.

I'm looking forward to Monday despite the showing I made this week. I think I'll keep up the journal here if I have time and as long as I keep getting helpful feedback. I promise I won't try to recruit anyone to trade in my spare bedroom with me.:D

-Johnny
 
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