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.