Trading journal-My first trade

N

neo_hr

He he,

Did anything NOT go up? Did anyone like NOT make any money? Well - I DIDNT! I started trading today with QuoteTracker , was watching APD, AMD and ENE and seen AMD setup perfectly.

So, me and my friends from BTT room were supposed to get long, but instead I SHORTED IT:( :D :( ! Pressed the wrong key... By the way I use IB as my broker. Got filled Immediatly (yeah, imagine that, shorting a strong uptrending stock) buit luckily I noticed it right away so I covered on time.

My point here :

-GET TO KNOW THE TOOLS BEFORE U USE THEM

Good trading ya'll!

Alex
 
I've done the same thing many times. (try though 6000 shares) as I once was short it rallied and instead of covering I ended up doubling my position ouch.


I'll also hit the sell button instead of buy or buy and instead of sell everyonce and awhile.

It is one of the dangers of direct access.

rtharp
 
Too bad Neo-hr, this was a perfect day to ride some swings. When you enter a day like this you can follow 60 minute bars and use their lows as trailing stops. I was long 8 stocks since yesterday and casually followed them all day moving up my stops each hour. When the first 60 minute bar low was pierced, I wasn't paying attention but my stops closed all my positions over a 20-minute period, getting me out for the day with 90% of my profits. I debated about getting back in towards the end of the day, but I figured being flat tonight might be a better odds play.

My rule is if a 60-minute bars' low is violated, and my stops get me out, I put buy stops above the high for the day. That way if there is a resurgence, I get back in. When stocks close at their highs, there is a high probability it will gap up the following morning. Good luck tomorrow with those keystrokes.
 

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ddefina,

I was long 8 stocks since yesterday...

Am very curious what prompted you to hold 8 stocks overnight. Sure, yesterday was a real nice trending long day, but those are rarely followed by another in this market. Usually, at best, the following day is back 'n fill. And if an American jet got shot down, or there was another terrorist attack of any kind, or simply some horrendous earnings report, it could have been nasty today, gapping down, etc. So what you did obviously turned out well, but 8 overnight longs seems like an awful lot of risk?
 
It happens to us all at least once. I remember when I recommended my uncle to buy Iridium. Remember that? A $2000 cell phone that was the size of a submachine gun. It was back around 96, 97 I think. Somehow everybody was crazy about the ability to communicate around the world. A little bit later the stock tanked once nobody bought the 2000 dollar handsets. My uncle never lets me forget that one. Thank god I never became an analyst :D
 
on holding overnight it would depend on your position size where your stops are and risk tolerance. It's possible for more than a few days for the market to move in the same direction.

rtharp
 
Originally posted by Magna
ddefina,

I was long 8 stocks since yesterday...

Am very curious what prompted you to hold 8 stocks overnight.
More...

I carry overnight positions 80% of the time, and I'm wrong a lot, but cut my losses when s/r is broken. On the 9th I was 100% short (10 stocks) overnight anticipating a selloff since stocks closed below their opens. This obviously didn't happen and I covered my shorts at the highs of the previous day and entered long at the same time on the 10th. I would've bailed on the 10th had my trailing stops been hit, but they weren't. I trailed my stops to the last bar of each stock and noticed a lot of buying at the end, so I decided to hold overnight. After two days in a row up, I figured the odds were against holding for a third day in this market, so I didn't try to reenter today. I'll go long again if they hold their opens tomorrow. I won't go short again until support is broken way down at the previous days' lows. The reason I was only long 8 stocks and not 10 is I forgot to put in orders to buy the other two.
 
ddefina,

Thanks for the walk-through of your thinking.


rtharp,

It's possible for more than a few days for the market to move in the same direction.

True, but it's been 6 months since the last two good trending long days! Amazing, eh? Sure, the market's put together a couple of up days in a row, but not like today and yesterday since April 18th and 19th. Whew. To think we used to take this stuff for granted...
 
If I knew then (my first trade) what I know now I would have had a nurse stand- by.

I got so worked up I thought I was having a heart attack.

Luckily, my first loss sorted that little problem for me in no time.

Welcome to the club, Alex, you are in the good company.
 
This will sound silly, but...

My first trade: I was clueless and opened an Etrade account. My first trade was long DCLK. It was a marketable limit order, the limit was set to about two points above what was the current price. As I said, I was clueless, I thought this would be just like a market order with added safety. E*trade waited over half an hour to fill me just so they could screw me for 1/2 a point (filled me right when the stock turned.) This was already (I believe) illegal then, as there were new rules out concerning the handling of limit orders. I lost about half a point on the trade, sold, then sold short the same stock, this time using a market order. I got so nervous watching the stock that I eventually turned the monitor off, took a shower, then watched some tv. Two hours later I covered for a 2 point gain.

For the first few weeks anxiety was always a major problem for me, maybe that's just my nature, or maybe I was risking too much (always positions in a single stock, well over 100% of equity.) Also, this was supposed to be my new profession, borrowed money from parents, etc., really didn't want to screw up.

Two things helped me get over that problem, one - I simply got used to trading, two - I no longer make any decisions about a trade while trading, not if they aren't already a part of my system or strategy. In other words, I don't use my 'gut feeling', I don't rely on impulses that I can't verbalize and that can't become part of my system, I no longer care about any individual trade (or at least I try not to care, and am starting to get pretty good at it) I care only about perfecting my strategy by carefully and over time adjusting it to the changing conditions in the market. As someone put it, 'I plan my trade, and trade my plan.'

Faced with a situation that is not covered by my strategy, I simply go flat, or look for another opportunity.

voodoo
 
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