Trading for a Living - the journey to self discovery

Quote from cloudy:

Retail traders are trading against computers, soulless, emotionless, and untiring computers. Trading not based on emotions and untiring vigilance are two major ingredients for a successful retail trader and the HFT computers already beat all of the humans in that dept. Making it that much harder to trade today.
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LOL thanks for dropping by guys! (or gals). U a big Terminator fan Cloudy? I certainly only liked the first one!

Quote from Now is Now:

Repectfully disagree....the " losses of the retail trader stems" from their cranium...emotions and lack of preparedness..; physical side... under capitalized, hence poor money management...
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Absolutely. In my own world, I don't see what I do in an "us" against "them" perspective. I've always had the approach that if I took care of my own end the rest will follow. Furthermore, I try never to pick bottoms or tops (I may be guilty of this with my recent NFLX short)...I'm prepared to miss the first 10% move in order to catch the next 20% or more.

Hope you guys picked up some AAPL when I wrote about it here one day before its June low. If you picked up options...you should at least be 70% up today.

AAPL, at this price, is most likely institutionally biased (70% owned; with almost 8% of the chunk owned by Fidelity funds). I'm not bringing this up to tout the call I made; I'm using this as an example that it is possible to trade with the "big boys".

Now and now hits it right in the head (no pun intended...lol); the biggest aspect of trading is mental. Not only is it different when you have your own money on the line every day but it also changes when your portfolio grows...the trick is to find consistency in one's approach and be able to adjust as you succeed (or make a bad trade).

Of course...your mileage may vary!

Hence, I don't know how pattern39 can trade with the karmic elephant sitting on his shoulders.

Earnings season here boys and girls....!
 
Quote from Th3UglyTruth:


So far:
Feb 2011 = $3400; 1 trade
Mar 2011 = no trades; PC crashed lol!
Apr 2011 =
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Apr 2011 = $2,750
May 2011 = $2,551
June 2011 = $8,112
YTD = $16,813

Observations:
- nowhere close to 10% per month; position sizing and allocation did make a difference.
- doubling up on allocated funds (MERC and TZOO) can cut both ways. this may seem like a "duh" comment but it showed lack of discipline on my end.
- excludes AAPL option trades and AAPL trades for retirement account.
- was using too tight of a stop (like 2% stop on trade day); need to get more wriggle room
 
yep, another guy here lol. I don't even know if I've ever seen a female trader here on ET. The few that are out there or bother to post seem to be on the forex forums like donnaforex.com or babypips!

Yes, I liked both movies, even the 3rd wasn't all that bad. I couldn't believe the 4th was even called a "Terminator" movie. Might as well have had the bayformers and Megan Fox in it too.

I just thought it was kindof scary that HFT computers running 70% of the markets and enroaching on forex now this year after they've already got their foothold in stocks and futures. Truly the biggest use of computer AI to date in making important decisions, actually buying and selling at high speeds without a human thought in the process. Of course we know at the end of the day the humans could tweak them for the next days..

Agh I saw that I did post in this thread a while back! lol I've never bought an Apple product and still haven't yet. (though I had to work with them somtimes).

Your trading record looks great. No major drawdowns this year. or is that no drawdowns?





:D
 
Can you imagine the karma a lion or tiger has adding up? Eating all of those gazelles and wildebeests.

Maybe we can sacrifice a evil trader every once in awhile, pour honey on him (sorry ladies or her) and let some ants or better yet butterflies eat him, you know to try and balance things out a bit.

I think we can all agree that humans twist. contort, beg, borrow or steal for our own gain. Take them out of the picture look at the evolution of nature, clearly the strong or more intelligent survive.

The idea of karma was created by man (just like religion, burning people at the stake and the Ford Pinto) just so he (sorry she) can make sense of and feel like he has some control over his world. Similar to what we traders do, interesting.

Anyways at this moment and time I thoroughly endorse the above statements but reserve the right to dis-own them at a future date and time.
 
Quote from cloudy:


Your trading record looks great. No major drawdowns this year. or is that no drawdowns?
:D
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Thanks. However, it is too early to tell. I do expect drawdown to occur and I intend to mitigate/lessen the extent it by position sizing and being disciplined (hardest part). As they say in this business...past performance doesn't guarantee...I find greed creeps up as your W/L ratio mounts; finding an even keel is a challenge...

Oh yeah right...I don't know why those Terminator movies didn't have better looking babes! Just watched the most recent installment of Transformers with my son; I must say that the graphics are fantastic! I could honestly tell my wife I didn't watch it coz of Megan Fox! lol
 
Quote from Tonkadad:


Maybe we can sacrifice a evil trader every once in awhile, pour honey on him (sorry ladies or her) and let some ants or better yet butterflies eat him, you know to try and balance things out a bit.

I think we can all agree that humans twist. contort, beg, borrow or steal for our own gain. Take them out of the picture look at the evolution of nature, clearly the strong or more intelligent survive.

The idea of karma was created by man (just like religion, burning people at the stake and the Ford Pinto) just so he (sorry she) can make sense of and feel like he has some control over his world. Similar to what we traders do, interesting.
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LMAO! BTW, there is a book that you may find interesting that pretty much talks about what you are saying about "twisting and contorting, etc.." It is called "snakes in suits". Pretty much explains why it is so hard to find a great company that is also a "good" company.

http://www.amazon.com/Snakes-Suits-...7893/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310323015&sr=8-1

Sure am thankful for pattern39 though...he/she sure livened up the thread! LOL:D

thanks for dropping by!
 
Quote from Th3UglyTruth:


Initiated first position at $320 even though we bought it lower the day after our post. Who knows where the bottom is...$279 is the next pivot point.
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Closed out All AAPL Jan 375C today for more than a double. As much as the trade worked out well, I didn't follow the plan as it could have gone the other way as well and I would have risked a stream. So, I'm struggling to logically digest the risk that I took. $350 is the mental stop for the non-retirement portfolio to give me 10%.

NFLX currently at $287.41; ramped up at open, and just faded. So far, so good.

RIMM added another tranche at $29 to go short.

No new position today
 
Quote from Th3UglyTruth:



NFLX currently at $287.41; ramped up at open, and just faded. So far, so good.

RIMM added another tranche at $29 to go short.

No new position today
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$292.50 stop for NFLX.
 

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AAPL week or so before earnings.

Will wait to see if it clears $365 convincingly before buying in.

GOOG reports later; if it is unexciting...AAPL may limp towards its own announcement thereby creating more opportunities (?)....
 

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