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.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Friday, June 12, 2009
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
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:
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:
Monday, June 8, 2009
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:
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:
Friday, June 5, 2009
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.
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.
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