What are some tips to reduce execution mistakes for day traders?

L

learner88

I have been trying out day trading lately. Due to the need to make split-second decisions and fast trades, I have made all kinds of execution mistakes.

I need help from elite traders on best practices to reduce risk of execution mistakes. I am using IBKR platform. It will be good if I can receive platform-specific tips on how to reduce execution mistakes.

The list of mistakes I made is laughable. Thankfully, they were mistakes made during demo trading.

- Long when I intend to short
- Short when I intend to long
- Buy the wrong stuff and discovered it after I found out I lost money when I thought I should be making money.
- Key in wrong quantity to buy/sell.
- Lost my position when I placed a limit order when I should have placed a stop order
- Lost my position when I placed a stop order when I should have placed a limit order
- Lost my position when I entered orders at the wrong price
- Forgetting to cancel some orders after some other orders are filled, resulting in positions that I have no intention to be in.


I wonder if elite traders have made similar stupid mistakes as I did.
 
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I'd presume you have done enough demo trading.

So when you were trading, were you
anxious, angry, scared, afraid, frustrated, doubtful, vengeful, having OCD thoughts,

or were you
calm, alert, mindful, confident?

I do make the above mistakes but the frequency of my making those mistakes
is tolerable.
 
learner88 said:
...Due to the need to make split-second decisions and fast trades, I have made all kinds of execution mistakes...
More...

There is no market you are trading where you need to make split-second decisions in a discretionary model. You are not landing the space-shuttle, man. Just calm down.

If you think this IS the case? You need to get in and out split-second? You are trading too much size.
 
maxinger said:
I'd presume you have done enough demo trading.

So when you were trading, were you
anxious, angry, scared, afraid, frustrated, doubtful, vengeful, having OCD thoughts,

or were you
calm, alert, mindful, confident?
More...
I'm so sorry I did not mention those mistakes were made when I was demo trading. I've edited my original post to include that.

Even for demo trading, I feel a little anxiety because I take them seriously.
 
learner88 said:
I'm so sorry I did not mention those mistakes were made when I was demo trading. I've edited my original post to include that.

Even for demo trading, I feel a little anxiety because I take them seriously.
More...

Demo or real money trading matters not. You are going too fast. You do not need to be all Tazmanian Devil on your day-trading decisions. Just slow down a bit, think it through. You're not going to nail every tick entry. Don't panic if your exit or entry price moves away from your intended target while entering orders. Take a deep breath, think it through, and you will be fine.
 
learner88 said:
I'm so sorry I did not mention those mistakes were made when I was demo trading. I've edited my original post to include that.

Even for demo trading, I feel a little anxiety because I take them seriously.
More...

when I was a newbie, I made thousands of trading mistakes again and again.


OK. you have to practice and practice.

Does your charting s/w have the playback function?
It helps you practice the historical chart, entering and exiting the order
(on a trading platform that is linked to the charting software) ...
I used to do it during the weekends.
 
maxinger said:
when I was a newbie, I made thousands of trading mistakes again and again.


OK. you have to practice and practice.

Does your charting s/w have the playback function?
It helps you practice the historical chart, entering and exiting the order
(on a trading platform that is linked to the charting software) ...
I used to do it during the weekends.
More...

Thanks for your advice.

I am using TradingView and IBKR. TradingView has a replay function but it does not allow the user to place paper trades during replay.

I heard IBKR is a good platform for day traders, yet I make so many mistakes on this platform. Hopefully, it is me who does not know how to properly utilise this platform.

What charting software and day trading broker do you use? Does it allow you to place paper trades during playback?
 
Im fully automated myself.

But i guess you want to setup keyboard short cuts do a lot your stuff in few steps. And use oco bracket orders instead of creating stops and limits directly. Trade off the chart or ladder screen instead of entering prices manually...

Even just clicking on the Bid price to create a sell order and clicking on the Ask price in TWS to create as buy order will help prevent the first two mistakes.
 
You can use hotkeys. You can bind keys to post limit/market orders, stop orders, stop limit orders, MIT, and even cancel orders. I have a key that will liquidate all positions, no matter what they are.

You can have hotkeys to send an order with a stop attached. You can have keys for many different sizes of order so you don't have to key-in order sizes in fast markets. Can work averages, scale-in/out, or martingale like that.

You can save baskets in 'basket trader' with all attributes of the order saved, and can load them and clear them fast. There's a lot of other order types as well.
 
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