Trading Journal, January

[dottom]

Stockk, thanks for the explanation. Would you say your goal is to execute your trading strategies the same at all times, regardless of whether you just came off a losing strek or winning streak? I know Hitman talks about doing things like reducing your size and taking fewer trades when you're on a losing streak to get your confidence back.

But if in theory you could execute each trade in a vacuum (i.e. each trade is looked at separately without any knowledge of whether you're up or down for the day, week, or month), would that be an ideal goal or not at all useful?

(So you know, this is what I personally try to do.)

 

[STOCKKBROKER]

Dottom,

Yes, if you are in a losing streak, (I try not to have 3 in a row, if I lose 2 days in a row, I would cut down my size or take a day off. As I said the market is not going anywhere, your goal is to keep your account so that you can trade tomorrow and the next day. If you start to get in a losing streak, it can work against you exactly opposite the way trading in a zone will be, you'll be anxious, nervous, scared and tend not to think straight. On good days when you are firing on cylinders and is still hard to make money, can you imagine if you are going on fumes??

Not looking at the P&L is the general idea, you should try to do the right thing regardless of what your P&L says, but I know it is easier said than done, something to work towards to.

 

[Shorteee]

Stockbroker I'm not sure if you replied to my last question but how long have you been daytrading for?

 

[candletrader]

Originally posted by Magna
My defense is so tight I haven't been tested to the relative extreme he was, but I'm sure one of these days...

Magna, you should look at loosening your defense, in order to move to the next level of profitability... a defense which is too tight is unnecessarily restrictive. A defense which is too loose is foolhardy... try to find a happy medium.

 

[Magna]

Originally posted by candletrader


Magna, you should look at loosening your defense, in order to move to the next level of profitability... a defense which is too tight is unnecessarily restrictive. A defense which is too loose is foolhardy... try to find a happy medium.

I agree completely. I'm obviously looser on my swings, but my intraday is somewhat restrictive and I tend to bail too quickly and take profits too quickly. Am currently exploring other methods to ride out some of the wiggles.

 

[STOCKKBROKER]

One of his trading philosophies

It is not weather you are right or wrong that is important, it is how much money you make when you are right and how much money you lose when you are wrong that is significant.

When I look back to my trading this past week, I was astonished to find that I made a mere $150 on airlines stocks, when they went through the roof this week. I was happy to make a little profit here and there and spreaded out my focus too much.

I think this is one of my major weaknesses as a new trader, I have to be braver when riding out my winners. The worst thing that I can do is to not maximize my winners when I am right and I are not right that many times to begin with.

But the question remains, how do you resist the temptation to book that small profit just to make yourself feel good that you are right, and to have all green numbers in your P&L screen?

$64,000 question that needs to be fully addressed and answered.
Any comments?

 

[qwiktrade]

Originally posted by STOCKKBROKER
But the question remains, how do you resist the temptation to book that small profit just to make yourself feel good that you are right, and to have all green numbers in your P&L screen?

$64,000 question that needs to be fully addressed and answered.
Any comments?

stop trying to be right.. right/wrong those two will drive you crazy.. if i trade with dollar signs in my head, its very hard for me to focus on my strategy.. so i try to trade to trade well, not to make money.. =)

-qwik

 

[STOCKKBROKER]

What a change of scenery, as the snow really made things look peaceful and calm.

Had a decent day today especially considering what had happened on Friday. I intended to put up some technical charts on my trading, but by the request of my team members, I decided not to do it, just to be fair to everybody.

EOG $200
Didn't trade smooth today, bought it a few times and finally got it at the low and when xng started to tick up, rode it all the way to 35c.

AMT -$27
I have traded this stock before and it was a very tradeable stock, and when they got some positive comments from Morgan I thought the stock would go, but no such luck today.

BJS $203
The stock got upgraded today and it was trading down in the morning. I felt pretty confident trading the stock and when OSXfinally bottomed out, I bought it close to the low and rode it all the way up to 30c. Should have held on a little longer as the stock actually went as high as $31.

TDW $258
Same thing as BJS, favorable mention and the stock opened down? What a gift, bought it when OSX went up hard and got out at 10c. It went as high as 60!! after some wiggles.

NI -$11
The only XNG that didn't go positive, too big a seller in the stock, when it tried to rally, XNG was starting to come in.

HP -$28
A really thin stock and I missed the entry at $32.00, got filled at 30c, and the stock struggled to go much beyond that, when the spec. spreaded the stock down to 30c the second time, I got out.

I am up $595 now, I am going to take it easy for the rest of the day as I didn't want to give back any of my profit. I am in the black for the year, just barely, but I am happy after what happened Friday.

 

[ddefina]

Good job Stockkbroker. I'm still riding the Nasdaq down anticipating at least a couple day sell off this week in the markets.

 

[hapaboy]

STOCKK, nice trading today!

Where did you see the upgrades on BJS and the "favorable mention" on TDW?

I didn't see them on Briefing.com.

Thanks!