Trading - like riding a bike?

oldschool · May 17, 2010

My activity of choice for relaxation has always been fishing. Thank god my fishing is still decent compared to my trading. Went on a two day mini-marathon. Rhode Island for squid and then to Montauk with a friend for fluke. I really needed to get away and rethink about my trading. Had a relaxing time so I hope my trading improves this week.

Anyway, that's why I didn't update the thread over the weekend. I'll update now.

os

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from coolweb:

The best way to fix this problem is, replace the buy button with a sell, and vice versa. This is a serious advice. Rethink how you do your timing after you replaced the buttons imaginary in your head.

Cause you are buying and selling the places where I would sell and buy, or no action.

cool,

I actually did that today even before seeing the thread.

After a few trades, I realized I'd be better off on SIM if I was to re-learn the keys. Instead I spent about an hour with tech support (pre-mkt) to properly configure the keys. I reverted to my original settings and things were better after speaking with them. Still have a few remaining issues, but hope to sort them out in the next 2 days.

I did think seriously about flipping my trade bias, but I need more data before deciding all my strategies are failing me. As I said though, there are a few that I no longer trade since I re-started. I knew those setups weren't working. I think I was batting a fat ZERO for those. :mad:

os

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from NoDoji:

Not me, OS. I'm sorry You must not've got my memo in late March: "...so I expected AAPL to hit $230 today, but the price action was so wide and whippy, that I was unable to trust myself on this and so I didnât trade it at all." AAPL got too rich for my blood. I took up trading crude oil for stress relief :eek:

"CL for stress relief" - I should hang that on my wall when I look at high vol stocks.

Please check your PMs.

Hope you had a good day!

os

western · May 17, 2010

Is trading like riding a bike?

Not exactly, its more like competing in the Tour de France. Even if you were a previous winner, if you haven't been on a bike in years, how do you think you'd do?

I don't know what your strategy is, but I hope its more than just trying to use level 2 and technicals to "read" the tape.

LeeD · May 17, 2010

Quote from oldschool:

I did think seriously about flipping my trade bias, but I need more data before deciding all my strategies are failing me.

Do you tend to have a long or short bias before you start trading? Not for individual trade but do you think like "it's gonna be an up day, I'd better stick to long trades or it all can get sour"?

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from Rabbitone:

To Old School and No Doji .

On being old.

I had breakfast other morning alone in my wifeâs favorite restaurant while she was on travel to Washington D.C. As I was leaving the restaurant I said hello to an old fellow I had seen a number of times before. He was wearing a blue hat with âNAVYâ printed in large gold letters across the brim as he sat sipping his morning coffee in the small booth close to the door.

He recognized me as a regular and smiled at me. I smiled back at him and said âI love your Navy hat.â as I attempted to open the door to leave. Before I got a step the old man motioned me to come closer. In a frail raspy voice he said âI was in the Navy during WWIIâ as he pointed at his hat. The simple statement caused the wrinkles on his weathered face to well up. I smiled back and said âSo was I. I was in during Vietnamâ¦â The old man chucked and belly laughed at me as he waved his frail finger âAhhh, you are just a kid. You should have seen what it was like in the big oneâ¦â Some time later I realized how important that moment was in my life.

Though I had retired several years ago to trade full time this last month I had come to a bend in the road. I had signed up for Social Security, Medicare and my pension two months earlier and now it all had come home to roost. The flood of paper said it all; I was now officially old by endorsement of my government. So the old mans simple statement had come at a significant time in my life and his timeless words had help put my life back in order. The message is simple âYou are only old if want to beâ¦â

Best of trades,

CaveMan

CaveMan,

Thank you for the encouraging words. Funny, I happened to go through something similar this weekend. Went fishing and ran into some "old salts". Talking about the fishing "back in the days". I knew right away that I should just shut up and listen (which I did). But, I agree with you, it is a state of mind. Those old guys really put on a clinic for us "young" ones. One of them was using a reel that looked older than me. :eek:

I'm sorry I don't have an eloquent closing sentence, so I'll just say good trading and thanks again for your thoughts.

os

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from pairsarbtooo:

I like the thread. The weakness is your belief about age and trading performance being inversely related. You haven't traded for 10 years, thats much more significant than your age. What if someone didn't exercise for 10 years then started attempting to run every day? Use/disuse is much more important now than some chronological age number. If I were coaching you I would forget that argument until you have worked on the more important aspects of conditioning your trading back to the levels where you were before.

pair,

You are absolutely right. Couldn't agree with you more.

Even at 100 shares, sometimes I get the "old" feelings back from the days and get a fat finger or two. Although I don't review every single trade like before, I do know at least 1/2 of losses thus far were the daily "oh shit" trades that got away from me. I'm hoping after I get the stop loss feature working properly, I will at least get rid of those "arrrgh" trades.

Good thing I am older now and have some self-control.
I think if I was 18 again, I'd be looking for that McDonald's job by now.

os

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from western:

Is trading like riding a bike?

Not exactly, its more like competing in the Tour de France. Even if you were a previous winner, if you haven't been on a bike in years, how do you think you'd do?

I don't know what your strategy is, but I hope its more than just trying to use level 2 and technicals to "read" the tape.

western,

Great analogy. I was actually an avid cyclist and rode about 50 miles a day (Bianchi - that wonderful green color). I totally get your point though. After my weekend of fishing, I know that I need to go back to the starting gate. Maybe not completely, but P&L's don't lie and I certainly need to change my trading.

Regarding strategies, I have a few setups I look for. But as mentioned 3 of them bombed and I dropped them completely. The rest seem to still work when the stars line up so I'm still trading them. I'd rather not discuss exactly what I do (the smart ones will just fade me

). But in the end, I do focus on price action mostly.

Thanks for your thoughts.

os

NoDoji · May 17, 2010

Quote from oldschool:

"CL for stress relief" - I should hang that on my wall when I look at high vol stocks.

Please check your PMs.

Hope you had a good day!

os

I thought I was da bomb when I shorted POT @ 101.63 off the lower high, stop @ .83, profit target 100.76, lifted .12 cents from the pivot low. I was all full of myself and figured support was in for POT and I'd watch it later for a long entry.

So instead of letting POT basically throw money at me for the next hour or so while I did absolutely nothing, I moved on to my stress relief, which would've worked out REALLY well if I put on the first trade and then closed my eyes for an hour. But I have this irrational compelling urge to watch my trades and today was not a "watch your CL trade" kind of day. All watching did was make me take a tiny profit, watch price run further without me, chase a new entry, take a tiny profit, watch the trade run further without me, chase a new entry. There was one clean move leading into the capitulation low, but by the time I finished banging my head against wall, half the move had already gone and I was chewing on my nails over shorting so low.

Stress relief, my ass :eek:

oldschool · May 17, 2010

Quote from LeeD:

Do you tend to have a long or short bias before you start trading? Not for individual trade but do you think like "it's gonna be an up day, I'd better stick to long trades or it all can get sour"?

Lee,

I look at daily charts for the big picture everyday. But I don't really get married to the bias. I definitely look for major S/R levels, but if the tape goes the other way from my bias, I will trade with the trend until broken. This is a black and white rule for me. Many times when I've had a bias and I waited for the turn, they never came and I lost out on some good opps.

os