I'm getting to the point where I am going to need to get a job very soon if I can't make this work. I would be quitting temporarily, but until that point I need to decide what to focus on. I've proved that I'm no good at trading stocks, especially with the pressure of 3 day trades a week. I tried futures, lost big at first due to lack of preparation and lack of paper trading the theories I had come up with. I've also been trying forex lately with mixed results. I'm left to make a list of the pros and cons of stocks, forex, and futures.

Stocks:
Pros: You can choose how much you want to risk/Resources like Investors Underground chat and Timothy Sykes.
Cons: 3 day trades a week / $9.95 a trade makes a break even trade seem like a big loss to an account my size.
Forex:
Pros: Unlimited day trades
Cons: Slippage
Futures:
Pros: Unlimited day trades/ Seems to obey S/R points more so than forex.
Cons: A lot of risk per trade with 1 point in the NQ being $20 /Minimum balance at TOS is $3500. I'm barely over that.

Right now, I'm leaning towards stocks due to the fact that I've had the most experience with stocks. I've been attempting to trade stocks for almost a year with no success.

No matter what I try to do, I need to figure out when to throw in the towel. I'm thinking if my account goes below $3000 I will call it quits for a while. That gives me about $500 of no fear money. I need to focus on making trades with no fear and no thoughts about P/L amounts. If I can do that, I think I can stay above the $3000 level.

Futures/Forex Paper trades

So after reading the "By Age 23" blog, I decided to look to forex as a possible trading vehicle. So I traded a couple different pairs for some decent results on only my second day trading forex. I also traded futures once for a small gain. The results are below:

EUR/USD: -12 pips
GBP/USD: +47 pips
NQ: +2 Points

These results mean nothing to me if I can't do it consistently. I'd be excited if I had results like this for a couple weeks straight.

An "Ok" Day

NQ: +3.25 on two trades.

Pretty happy about that. I am using this strategy I found on the elite trader forums: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=fe382235ce93ea0b67726cba9fd015b5&threadid=162375:

Going to paper trade that for a while to see how well it holds up over time.

MRNA: -$16

I walked away from this trade to go make breakfast, and when I came back it had gone from 2.60 to about 2.89 then back down to 2.72. I got in at 2.76 and got out at 2.72. Shitty trade management, but I would not walk away from a trade like this in my real account so I'm not too worried about that.

I also would not normally play a stock that gapped up so big, but IL alerted it so I went with it.

PMTI: Holding O/N

This stock I saw on Tim Syke's blog saying it is a potential short. After looking at the chart I went short at $17. My stop is at $17.49, and I will hold o/n if it doesnt ramp up into the close like it looks like it might do. The chart looks ripe for a chart. It has a red floater above the UBB, and the volume is decreasing. Just look at the chart:

Paper Trading - Day 1

Today's trades weren't catastrophic, but they weren't really all that good either.

First was ARNA. This was a really dumb trade because they were on CNBC, and they came out with some positive news yesterday which made it go up pretty big in pre market action. Muddy's rule is to short pre market stocks off RED, not because I think it "could go down. I shorted during a consolidation period before it went up later in the day. I didn't even check the news before going short. That is a big no no. If I am betting that a stock is going to go down I need to be sure that the fluff has worn off.

ARNA: -$20

Next was some futures trading in the NQ. I really wasn't focused here. I wasn't looking at any indicators for some reason. I just pulled up the NQ, saw that it had run up a bit, and thought it was consolidating before it continued upward. Also because it looked like the dow was doing the same. My two point stop loss was hit and I was out. Perhaps a wider stop and a better calculated entry next time?

NQ: -$40

Lastly was SLM. Cramer was on CNBC and said SLM "must be bought here" And it was, right before it crashed back down. IL alerted it in chat saying it could be a good short after it rolled over. I recognized the triangle price action I learned from Tortexal's Blog, saw that it was an "Easy to Borrow" stock and took a market order short at 2:53:21 Eastern time when the stock was at about 8.20. Then TOS told me I had to ask for shares to borrow. I'm thinking shares to borrow on a paper account?! Are they serious?!

Anyway, I pretended the order went through at $8.20 and watched the stock crash quickly to $8. I would've definatly called the bottom at $8, and therfore covered at $8. It went lower, but the point is I recognized the triangle pattern and made a decent mental trade.

SLM: +$20 (Mental trade)

Here are the charts and entries:

Missed Oportunities

I'm very good at missing opportunities when it comes to trading. I always seem to cut losses just a little too quickly. I ignore the price action and I am too concerned with protecting my small account. Ironically, I am driving my measly account into the ground by doing this.

Let's go through my last few trades and reveal my mistakes.

MAPP: Bought at 9.03 on the 9 Break without waiting to see if it could hold, then I sold at 8.84 where my stop was. Below is the chart. It later went up to 9.38 near the close.


Next is the most heartbreaking one, BCS. I shorted this late in the day as a fade. I made a technical gain, but lost out due to commissions because I was only playing with 40 shares just to get some confidence back. Well the next two days it gapped down huge. It gapped from 20 to 18 the first day, then from 18 to 17 the second day. I left around $140 on the table on only 40 god damn shares! Heres the chart:



The next one was TIVO, which I shorted at 10.80 just seconds before it dropped to 10.60. I wanted to hold this overnight, but I had a stop at 10.96 just incase. It started to rise and I feared that it had enough strength to gap up the next day. I quickly covered at 10.87 like a pussy, and the next day it hit 11 briefly before crashing down to 10.40's, just like InvestorsLive said it would in private chat. I didn't listen because I wanted to cut my losses too quickly. I could have made about $25. Not a lot, but its something. Here is the chart:




I started trading back in late 2008, and I had been saying that someday I will get it. Someday I will be profitable, and someday I will trade without emotion. It's now about 8 months later and I'm saying the same things. I no longer have as much fear, but I h ave enough to leave a lot of money on the table, and to drive my small account into the ground.

I started with $5000, and my current account is sitting at 3500. That is frightening to me. I need to work on what to do in a trade. I don't know what to do when a trade goes my way because I'm rarely in that position, and when I am I cut the winners just as fast as I cut my losses. I'm extremely pessimistic about my trading right now.

And... end emo rant.

DDRX

So, I guess I'm short DDRX 50 shares at $16. I had reserved 50 shares of DDRX to short at $16 a few days ago, not thinking it would hit $16 since it had been channeling sideways for a couple days. My plan was to short when the channel finally broke down. Now, I dont know if I have been blessed with this higher entry, or screwed.

I'm a little afraid that this stock could squeeze some more. There is no reason to short here at $16. It is just making yet another high. The RSI, and the volume are downtrending yet this stock keeps breaking out. I've never seen anything like it. I'd be happy to cover around the $13-$14 area, but I might cut my losses if this thing hits $17.

What I have found is that futures trading is not as predictable as individual stocks. You have so many factors to take into consideration when trading index futures. The reason why I have chosen to start trading futures is because of the profit potential. If 1 point on the NQ is $20, then all I have to do is make two 1 point trades a day, and I will have exceeded what I was getting paid at my last part time job.

That seems easy doesn't it? It seems easy on paper, but when I go to trade on a real account, human emotions come in to play and I seem to forget everything I've gone over, and everything I've learned. Everything goes out the window when I see the price fluctuate between noise, and the real trend. I question myself, and the indicators, and the indicators are right most of the time yet I question them every time.

I will now trade on my paper account until I get somewhere.

Day 1 of New Strategy

***Update #1***

Human emotions never seem to fail do they? I am down $125 because I strayed from the strategy, and started playing off the god damn noise on the 1 minute chart. If I had stuck to my plan I'd be in the green.

I don't think I have found the holy grail (what a surprise), but I do think I have found a very good indicator that can be used to one's advantage. That is, if you stick to the plan, like I didn't do

I'm so disappointed in myself right now.

***Update #2***

-$280 on the day

I don't even know what to say. I made more panic trades into the close. I swore to myself I'd stick to the plan, and I couldn't even do that. This is the second biggest loss I've taken on my account. This loss is huge on an account as small as mine.

Now I am almost under the the minimum required margin requirements to play the /Nq. This is the worst trading day of my life.

A Futures Trading Strategy

I recently discovered a pretty reliable study for playing Futures. Because of the margin requirements, I've only been able to play and backtest this study on the Nasdaq 100 Futures (/NQ). It seems to work best on the 5 minute time frame, so I went ahead and backtested it for the last 20 days. There was not a single losing trading day.

For the /NQ, 1 point = $20 P/L. I tested this strategy for the past 20 days in the 5 minute time frame, playing only 1 contract each trade. This strategy requires between 10-24 trades a day which means commissions do add up, and I will factor them in.

Below are some figures after back testing for the past 20 trading days.

Total $ Gain: $21,187
Average Daily Profit: $1,059
Biggest Winning Trade: $780
Biggest Losing Trade: $83

Those statistics are with perfect entry's so I don't expect to get results as good as those above, even with limit orders. The amazing thing about this study though is the ability to let the winners run, and not let the losers get away. The biggest single trade loss out of the last 20 days with this study was a 4.25 contract loss, which is $83. I like those odds.

So realistically with commissions added into it, it's $7 round trip commissions (thinkorswim). The most trades in a day out of the past 20 days were 24 trades. 24 trades at $7 round trip = $168, and that is worst case senario. For those 20 days, you'd pay $3360 in commissions.

Total $21,187 - $3360 in commissions = $17,827.

Let's say you don't get great fills all of the time. Let's say you are late. I can't really guess how much I could lose based on a slow entry, but at an average of $1,059 a day with perfect entries, how much could you lose based on slow entries? a couple hundred a day? $400 a day?

Let's do that, lets say you miss out on $400 a day because of slow entries. I'm just pulling that number out of my ass, trying to weigh on the realistic side. $400 x 20 days = $8000.

So, the total after commissions with perfect entries is $17,827 - $8000 of realistic missed profits and you have $9,827 for 20 trading days.

And that doesn't factor for after hours trading when a lot of big moves happen!... I know how crazy I sound right now, because it just sounds too good to be true. I will put it to the test with my real account on monday to see what happens.

A pretty decent day

So since I didn't have any trades left, I shorted COT at 4.16 towards the end of Tuesday. I entered the trade because I saw the volume decreasing, and lower highs. I figured if it took out the $4 support I'd be in pretty good shape. It didnt, and I tortured myself by watching this thing until the close.

After the close futures started tanking and I was overcome with a feeling of relief. But then because I like to torture myself, I watched futures start to climb back up from -90, to being positive before the open! I was pretty panicked when I woke up at 3:20 AM to check premarket action. It opened and was sideways for hours. When I went to sleep I put a stop at 4.23 and when I woke up at 7am, I saw that it was barely under $4 and climbing back up. I took my $30 profit at 3.99.























The next trade was MEE. IL alerted it as a possible short fade after the run up. I went short at 22.96 after it started coming off of its high of 23.56. This thing was awesome to watch fall. It fell, and fell and fell until it stopped at the 22.20 support level. I sensed that the run was over and I got out at 22.22. I'm pretty proud of myself for exiting at the perfect time. I ended up with a modest $22 gain.

COT - $30
MEE - $22

TSYS afternoon fade

TSYS was yet another stock I left a lot of money on. I was short 100 shares at 10.35 where the highlighted oval is, and my stop was 10.45, 5 cents over the triple top. These types of plays are the ones I do the best on, and I was liking this stock as a nice fade. As luck would have it, in the open it goes to 10.50, taking my stop out, and then bleeding out the rest of the day, and tanking the following day. I left $200 on the table. Instead I lose $20 after commissions brining my account to a new low. I have the right idea, it just didn't work this time. Ow, ow, ow ow. That stings like a SOB.

Holding Myself Accountable

This is the start of what I hope to be an entertaining and interesting blog. I will be going over most of my trades in detail not only so I can see where I messed up, but so others may offer some helpful insight and/or constructive criticism.

I will also be talking about complaining and rambling about what it is like to trade stocks while having to wake up at the ass crack of dawn.

I started trading stocks when my dad told me of the potential returns that the market can give at any time. I was immediately sucked in, and dreaming of getting rich quick playing the stock market. I wish someone would've slapped some sense into me then, it would've saved me a lot of time and money. Shortly after my dad introduced me to the stock market I opened an account with Tradeking with $5000. At first I made a few hundred lucky dollars by buying stocks like GE, GOOG, BIDU, etc. That's when it all went down hill...

I lost about $500 in 2 days in another one of my pure speculative buys of SIRI when they were in talks of a merge with XM. That is when my aimless buying of big name companies stopped, and I found Timothy Sykes. With the help of Timothy Sykes, and after I switched to Thinkorswim, I was finally getting the hang of it, or so I thought. I made a few more lucky dollars, but every time I got into a trade I was petrified. I would have sweaty palms, sweaty feat, and an uncontrollable heart rate. This caused me to leave profits on the table, and not obey my mental stops. This brought my account down to the $4000 level.

Then I found my way to the Investors Underground chat, where I am constantly learning from Muddy, Laura, Tortexal, Investors Live, and everyone else's alerts and input in chat. I am a much better trader now than I was when I started, but I still have a lot to learn.