Something I did differently

Pretty happy about this month’s progress. Anyway, here are things I did differently for this month.

1. Trade the market first, then the stock. When futures are uptrending, I will be looking for stock to long, not short, and vise versa. This is important so that I do not get into meaningless and risky trades.

2. Trade the trend and watch the trend. When I see a stock down/up alot, I will be looking out for reversal. However, it can be risky, so stops must be very tight.

3. Visualize a good trader in your mind. I tell myself I am a good trader, whenever I get frustrated or restless. So I do what good trader does, cut loser short, let winner run, do not hope, calculate probability, good risk management.

4. Keep a calm mind, not overexcited when done a great trade, not too depressed after one losing trade, always get ready for the next trade, always prepared for the next day.

5. Eyes on moving average, it can be very magical.

6. Rest well.

Some recaps

04/12/07: +27
05/12/07: -31
06/12/07: +32

Feeling quite nice these days. As long as I am learning, I am good.

Anyway, today is an up up day. Market is moving up with no much pull backs. Anyway, I think sgomez858 ’s statement about trading the market first then the stock totally make sense, and does prevent one from engaging in risky and meaningless trade. In an obvious uptrend market like this, going short without knowing what you going into, is definitely suicidal.

I am looking into few unsuccessful trades today and found that if I had taken the time to look at each stock’s chart, I won’t be making such trade or at least be more cautious, and therefore won’t be having such losers. Even though charts are secondary to my strategy, it does have some importance.

A fine day

Trade: 45
Gross: 69
Net: 60.13
LFT: 5.38
Ratio: 0.0138

I was calm and focused, simple and straightforward. Then, I had a fine day. ;p

Anyway, recently I am reading Brett N. Steenbarger’s book “Enhancing Trader Performance”. The ideas are great. One of the enlightening line is about trading personality and the idea of having fun first. That helps me to understand how ppl approach things differently. For an analytical person, going for longer and more precise trade is more natural than scalping. For someone who like to make decision based on little information given, like to take on the risks, scalping is much better.

Hopefully I can continue to grow as a trader and have fun.

Duplication

27th Nov 2007: -15
28th Nov 2007: -43
29th Nov 2007: +27 (no LFT)

There have been quite some struggling these days. But certainly, these are excellent struggle. These are feedbacks that I got to listen. It’s either technical or psychological. Once I find I am in control of myself, I am good.

Today what I did today is simply entering breaking size. Did not enter into trades that I am not too sure. Simple rules that gets nice result. One can succeed in 2 ways, 1. find your own system 2. duplicate what successful ppl is doing

If all these can be duplicated, then why not? Duplication with some personal character, there is your new business. Right? Just got to keep learning.

why not stop trading?

Trade: 141
Gross: 25.48
Net: 4.55
LFT:41.09
Ratio: 0.0018

Today could be like my last trading day, if I stopped trading. Topped at around 50 at 12:30pm. Eating lunch at a right time means alot. Eating at 2:30 basically means missing a nice piece of the market cake. Eating at 12:30pm might end up keeping most of my profit intact. Anyway, let’s talk about some observations here.

MRK was acting well today on news. I was buying it at 57.05, didn’t have a good sense of where it was going to go, got out way too early.

TSO was on my watch list, gapped down on pre-market, went up later, then made lower top, could have shorted it when it broke 53.00

The perception of the market/stock going too high/too low is not useful at all. I am going mostly with the market. However, there are times I am still picking bottom or top, without clear indication. Nah, better change it or else, probably gonna get killed.

A very calm day, even though I drunk coffee

Trade: 92
Gross: 55.00
Net: 45.44
LFT: 3.27
Ratio: 0.0057

I was amazed by my ability to focus on the price movement itself and actually found a pattern out of it, without using charts at all. Sometimes, certain condition can push one into another level, for the worse or better. Nevertheless, I am feeling much better today, for the net, for the psychology, and for how I surprised myself.

I was looking closely into Level II and T&S for identifying weak/strong stock against the s&p. Interesting things happened:

1. I became more confident with my entries
2. I let my winner run alot more
3. Losers were cut immediately

When I got a nice winner, I remained very calm, verbalized my trades, and kept myself in a steady speed. nicely done.

Turkey day

Trade: 130
Gross: 21.00
Net: 5.42
LFT: 7.5196

Decent day. I am feeling okay because I didn’t get negative 2nd day in a row–which used to happen in the past. I didn’t start trading till 11:20pm. I did notice after energy report, oil was down, airline was up. However, I did not switch to a new plan, a bit doubtful about long the airlines at first. It took me a while to actually understand that it’s time to long the airlines.

AMR and LCC were the two airline stocks that I watched. AMR broke out of the opening range later, but I only took a few cents profit out of the trade. Also LCC just went straight up, again, I was like a turkey, scared of losing my profit, got out of my trade too early.

Another note is that when S&P pulled back, AMR also pulled back a little bit, however, it managed to stay beyond its moving average. So I went in when it was holding at its level, definitely a good entry, got out with some little profit. Again, I wasn’t confident enough to let my winner to run.

My thoughts were on track. I need to slowly build up my confidence. I am happy with my patience today.

Partial answer

So my task tonight was reading through Edwin’s blog, from day 1. Then, i got my partial answer for today’s bad trade. I was simply trading against the market during first 1 and half hour and the mistake/emotion carried over to the next few hours.

“They were acting weak, but the market was up big and not coming in at all. I shouldn’t be shorting MSFT and SBUX on a day like today even if they are acting weak. I should wait until the market is negative on the day and then start shorting them looking for a breakout to the downside. When the market is up 100,200,250 points, the stocks might not go up, but there is nowhere for them to go down.”

Trade the market, then the stock. Simple answer.

Do it anyway

By Mother Teresa

People are often unreasonable, illogical
and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you
of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway

If you are successful, you will win some
false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank,
people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone
could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.

You see, in the final analysis,
it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.

(I would say, it’s between you and yourself, it was never between you and them anyway)

Holy I hate myself

Trade: 169
Gross: -19
Net: -44.45
LFT: 49.45

Nothing is more frustrated than I know what is right to do yet I still do what is wrong…

Kindergarten mistake: use more share size than ever when I am already losing a big time!

What a day, I made my way back and then I threw my profit back

Tomorrow, I will write down every entry and exit I made. This will hold me back from being impatient and careless.

Today is quite interesting though. Apart from being impatient, obviously there’s something inaccurate about my entries. Got stopped out alot of times. No big losers no big winners, but too many wrong trades. That added up my day. Could have saved myself by stop trading when I was positive. Two times I didn’t take my winner.

Everyday, there will be something I do wrong. Sigh…

Be patient

Trades: 183
Gross: 55
Net: 25.81
LFT: 1.59
Ratio: 0.0027

Kind of over-trade, but hey, I didn’t give it up when I was down for few hours.

The setups that I was looking for today is

1. early range breakout
2. big number
3. contrary price movement with s&p

Basically I am sticking to these three entry signals, pump up my share size, be patient and disciplined, things should be good. Tomorrow is better.

Ended day early and had great fun with pink eye

+19

Ended the day early. Then got pink eye. Played some bowling. Whole day was relaxed and calm. Did some good trades. I was being patient enough to wait for a good setup. Short post cos I really don’t have much details here. Anyway, great week. Was negative only 1 out of 5 days. That’s pretty good. Give myself a pat on the back.

Nov 14th & Nov 15th 2007

Nov 14th

Trade 104
Gross 18
Net 0.7162
LFT 12.77
Ratio 0.0017

Nov 15th
Trade 189
Gross 4
Net -25.92
LFT 53.26

Totally lost discipline and so much overtrading for today. Kept picking bottom and top, definitely a suicidal! But glad that I finally understand what it means by weak stock. I mean, I understood it, but just wasn’t aware of it, not until I think back about today’s trades. GT is acting weak (market went up, it holds there, market sold off, it got killed). Tomorrow, get my psychology right, stop being so impatient!

More work needed

I need to get to know the market better. I am still naive about the market.

No more trading for September

Gross -48
Net -55

It’s a late post. I traded yesterday, but again ended up negative, actually was being shut down for excessive loss. So I have decided to keep my profit for September (around +160) and stop trading for the rest of September.

I need to research more into different stocks and continue to study charts and have more patience for trading. I will try to post some other stuff on a later date.

2nd day of losing money

Gross -44
Net -48.0036
LFT 48.0036
Trades 26

I took a day off today. I should have written this last night but somehow I just lost my motivation. It’s only the 2nd day of losing. My motivation should not be this low.

As you can see, I did only 26 trades. Out of 26 trades, only 2 trades are winning trades. It’s terrible. The moment I sat down and trade, I just got beaten hard.

I know I am not focused enough. I don’t know if it’s because of moving or is it because that I start to doubt myself again, wondering if I could make it in this business.

I have to go through this stage. I have to.

All over the place

Gross -34.00
Net -44.27
LFT 50.1140
Trades 72

Today should be a beautiful day. Monday. After 2 days of rest, everything should be fresh. Nevertheless, my mind is so stressed out. Whenever I think of moving and other tiring stuff, I just feel terrible. My trades are fine. Took few winners, alot of losers. I should have stopped trading AMX long time ago. All the stocks I looked at today was out of place. Yet, today should be a beautiful day.

One thing is that, i am not focused enough. The milk tea from Tim Hortons is a disaster, bagel tasted like shit.

Anyway, I need to put things together again and make sure I can be calm and focused for the rest of my September.

Over trade

Gross 22.00
Net 8.0936
LFT 35.82
Trade 96

Friday was a almost peaceful day, yet I over trade alot. There are many trades that I should not have got into. I was up nicely about 50 something in the morning. After that, I was so bored of the market that I went into meaningless trades. I still need to discipline myself to stay out of trading when I need to.

September is coming to an end soon. I am expecting something more positive than last month.

New high! Hit 3 digits!

Gross 139.22
Net 127.41
LFT 0
Trade 88

Today is a good day! I took trades slowly and avoided going into meaningless trades. So, I hit a new high! And as you can see, the small difference between my gross and net means I added in lots liquidity and resulted smaller fees today. I stopped trading at 2:30pm as I hit my new high.

Most of my winner came from trading IBN and CBH. The trend is good today. Another thing I did is I started to trade 200 shares slowly. In a situation where my confidence is low, I will start with 100 shares and add to my winning position.

As you can see from the chart below. My big winner was when IBN broke its early day range and all the way down. I closed my position at the very bottom, so that I have maximized my winner. I should trade like this everyday!

Disaster today!! -.-|||

Gross -31.00
Net -40.53
LFT 41.37
Trades 73

As everyone expected, crazy day. I expected, like everyone else. Yet I still got killed on this day. Due to the freaking fuXXed up Level II and time&sale, everything was wrong at 2:15-2:30pm…

I was in 20 cents in the money yet I couldn’t get out from my position. I have to take a market order and got out with 16 cents loss. Then I realized that whenever you try to take the advantage of the market, market kills you. What a good lesson that the market has given me!

Matt was in the same situation as mine except that he was trading the futures which made him loss a big time. I think I was freaked out then. Stunned. Not knowing what to do. Speechless.

Anyway, I will try to focus on the trade and strategies itself tomorrow.

Ok..day

Gross 54.00
Net 38.84
LFT 36.84
Trades 109

My day was okay. I was a bit disappointed though. As you can see from my Loss from top, it is almost half of my net. I was up about 70 something in the morning, and then I took a few bad trades.

Today, my best trades are from CBH where I used mostly trend to trade. This means that I buy on uptrend and sell at downtrend. It worked pretty well. I also added on my winning position which allows me to take bigger winner than what I usually does (>15 cents winner)

Anyway, at least positive. Abit tiring from learning to drive these few days but I guess I will be better and I have to be better.

Quiet day, good trades

Gross 82.00
Net 58.41
LFT 4.19
Trade 145

I came into the office about 20 min earlier than what I usually do. It is nice to come in abit earlier, so everything is not too rush. After yesterday’s rest, I feel energetic and more patient today. 95% of my trades today are with KSS which is a stock that came out of my research yesterday. It turns out to be a nice stock to trade.

I trade with trend mostly this time. I got a nice 19 bucks winner with my last trade. I was waiting for it to broke 57.00. BUt obviously it does not have the momentum to do so. After taking a 4 cent loss from going long at 47.00, I quickly switched my decision and went short at 57.00. It quickly down to 56.81 and I grabbed my profit quickly. Overall, nice day.

emmm..maybe I need some rest

Gross -4
Net -16.19
Loss from Top 16.1979
Trade 90

As you can see from my LFT, I didn’t make much to the positive zone today. Quite tired lately. Anyway, to keep it short, I made most of my money from RIO today and loss them all to trading ACH. Therefore, I have decided not to trade ACH for the next trading session.

Keep the spirit up.

End of August! Positive for the month!

I am damn glad that I managed to stay positive overall for this month, net positive. Probably up about +10 or so, I haven’t check the exact number yet. Today was a nice day. I came into the office pretty late, about 10am (8am mountain time). I don’t usually get into trades when I just arrived in the office. But somehow, I was in a good state. I execute a trade at 9:50am. Got 7 cents profit right there. IBN again. I have been trading IBN for past few days. It was a nice stock for trading.

Anyway, my one of most significant trade in my trading career so far is this one..

after getting about +9 before 10am, I hit -20 loss in next two trades. I entered long at 43.50 IBN, but got flipped to the other side, got out with -20 loss. When IBN get to 43.50 again, I entered long again. I just felt this resistance will be broke. True enough. With the GREAT force of future, it broke to about 43.80, 30 cent profit if i stayed on the trade! but I took only 20 cents profit, got out 43.70. Only then, I realize that Bernake spoke at 10am, that’s why there is such volatility in the market. BOOM BOOM. After the nice ride up, few seconds later, future tank.. that’s what usually happen when Bernake spoke or if there’s a meeting..

When I saw there’s no much strength for IBN to hold, I entered short at 43.69, and got out 43.51, nice 18 cent winner.

Later, I did small trades. Slept for a while. Went out for soup. Try to keep my profit. I end my day with Net +50.39

Yeah. I love the way I trade today. I hope I can stay this way and get my share size up when necessary.

Below I have captured a few nice trade set up. Just for my own reference. They are not good big winner type. But there’s some logic behind them. I will do this more often later on.



In this one, AMD broke the early range (between 9:30-10:00), it will be a good short there when it broke 11.60
With this one, I should get about 30 cent winner if I stay in the trade till two candles go against me. Of course, with the support of S&P. But I did not get into this trade.




This one, when it broke 19.00, it’s a nice short. It also broke the early range.

That’s it for today. I will try to keep my log more updated.

Not a bad day

After days of hitting my new lows… finally a few days of staying near even.. and lastly.. a day of getting almost net +20.. what a tough day. At first I was trading NOK which screw me up pretty bad, I managed to get a few cent here and there. Then I made a good decision of switching to AMD which does not have those stupid unpredictable up and down. I got a quite a nice winner of 7 cents once. It showed nice pattern. I was watching a few thin stocks but didn’t want to get into them. I tried SKS once and I lost 4 cents. I got into SKS again later near the end of the session and managed to grab a few nice trade. Finally I understand what Mat said about they closed the gap and catch the trade. Nice. I am happy. I ended my day with Gross +27 and Net +15. Keep it up.

By the way, one thing I tried to do today is that I tried to hold my winner even though it’s going against me for a few cents if I think the trend is going with me. And it’s a good way to let my winners run.

Significant day

Today I traded CFC, very thin stock. Matt told me about his position trading for past few days and I thought that this is the direction that I am going to, so I try to learn it. I ended up losing big and wining big. Although my day ended negative but I am happy that I tried this new strategy. One thing to note is that I should not trade too many shares with such thin stock as I am not fast enough in getting out my losers and also support/resistance level is very important too. So look carefully into them. Matt gave me a very useful report of his trades, basically describes why and when he got into trades. Anyway. I think I have plenty of rooms to improve. So be patient.

Chopping Market’s personality

Today’s market is chopping, hanging around a small range. There is no much volume. Good that I recognized it and stop trading when there was no real movement and took small profit every now and then. I kept my net positive.

About today’s market, there’s a good read in traderfeed about today’s market

"reduced volume compared with recent norms; drying up of volume as we approach range extremes; choppy trade with frequent reversals of market moves–a sign that locals are dominating trade; and the absence of trending moves in markets that often drive stocks (bonds, currencies). It’s much easier to frame intraday trading ideas if you can figure out the character of the trading day."

Via TraderFeed

It’s important to get a sense of the market before going into any trade.

Days of struggling~

I am struggling to be positive these days. Net positive. I am not consistent enough. I win big and I lose big. The good thing is that I am improving everyday and learn things everyday!

Treating trading as a business, is an excellent way of looking at day trading!

Today’s trade, up and down!

I was up about 20 net in the morning. The market went up and up and I loss all my profit, ended my day with a net -30. I was quite a consistent winner in the morning, trading HD and GLW and made good winner in AMD. But as the market speeded up, I lost my patience, got into trades for no particular reason except for chasing trades after one and another.

I need to be more patient and really trade for the trend. SLOW DOWN!

Some realistic views on trading

* You can not take a $5,000 account and make $2,000 a month with it

* You will not have more freedom then a regular job for the first few years

* You can not learn this business by devoting less then 4 hours a day to it. If you don’t have the time, you may wish to reconsider.

* Becoming a successful trader will take anywhere from 6 months to years on end. Depeding on your mindset and determination. Trying a method, book, system or service for a week is a waste of money.

* If you trade with money you need or are counting on, you’ll fail. This is almost 100% You need to have a savings or seconday source of income while your learning.

* Every method has draw downs and risk.

* If something seems too good to be true, IT IS.

* There is no method with small stops and huge gains

* Taking stops are a normal every day part of trading. Think of them as a business expenses. If you have a restaurant you must pay for product (shell out money) in order to sell it for a profit.

* The holy grail of day trading is realizing there is no holy grail

* Day trading is not easy and requires a disciplined person who can stick to a plan

* Don’t expect too much. If your making $900 a month on an account of $10,000 or less, you’re out performing 99% of fund managers on the planet.

* Jumping around from method to method will only ensure the quick demise of your trading account.

* Believe everything you read above and avoid having to find it out the hard way! It’s brutally honest and may detour you from wanting to continue in this business. Making consistent money is a reasonable goal, getting rich quick is not.

From puretick.com