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Showing content with the highest reputation on 02/27/2019 in all areas
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1 pointHey Everyone I'm going to start posting my daily trades here. I joined this community in March 2018. I did sim for 4 months. Went live in July. Loss $3,000 in 10 days. Went live again in August. Loss $1,000 in 10 days. Went live again in October and I'm still currently trading with that buy in. I haven't been profitable and I am down to about $300 above PDT. Every day I will post my P&L and Tradervue Dashboard, and I plan to post any relevant/interesting trades that I've taken. I'm not the best trader, but like many people here, my biggest problem is self control and discipline. The Good days are ok. The bad days have been extra bad. I've finally realized my limitations on my self control and I have increased my DAS Risk controls. My current settings: Max Daily Loss: $200 Max Pos Loss: $80 Max Shares traded a day: 4,000 Goal is $150 If I my P&L hits $120 in a day, my max drawdown is 20%. My trading is cut off at 12pm Auto Stop on Max Position Loss and Max Daily Loss. I've implemented these slowly throughout the past month. I originally started with just the Max daily loss, until I began to double down and let my big losers run and run and run because I wasn't ready to end my day and then it got to a point, that the loss was so significant that I couldn't exit the trade and had to pray for a reversal. It didn't always come. I've had to implement the Max shares traded and max drawdown, because I've let too many winnings day turn into losing days, mostly by overtrading. The 4,000 shares and 12pm cut off time is my way to combat my overtrading. It is still very easy to overtrade when you are trading 100 shares at a time, but I felt this was the best balance considering I do take 300 shares or so at a time on MU/AMD. I didn't want an AMD day to be cut short because of this limit. Some of the problems that I currently deal with: Walking Away - I have a hard time walking away when I am losing. Often times, I finally quit when Das Stops me Out. This will be one of the things that I report on daily. Stopping Out/Doubling Down - This used to be one of my bigger problems. Again, I hated to lose, so I will let me losers run or double down on my position to try and get out at break even. It works until it doesn't. I've been better at not doubling down with the Pos Max Loss with Auto Stop. Overtrading - My problem since the very beginning. When I first started trading, I didn't have a stopping out problem, I just had an overtrading problem. If anything I had the problem of stopping out too quickly. I tried to implement a trade limit for myself, but then I started letting my losers run a little because it was one of my limited trades for the day. I still let trades run (not as bad as before) , and I still overtrade on a daily basis. I probably average about 12-15 trades a day. Taking Bad Setups - Another issue that I've been working on is my patience and taking better setups. The emotions get to me at times, and I will trade to just be in a trade. Sometimes as soon as I exit a trade, I will find a reason to enter a new one. Short Bias - I have an extreme short Bias. Since Oct 2018, 80% of my trades have been short. Relying too heavily on the 1 min chart - This one, I've been getting better at and its really helped. I used to trade solely off the 1 min chart and at times I still do. Less often than before. These are the problems that I deal with on daily basis. Going to fix all of these on my way to becoming a profitable and consistent trader. I'm going to be documenting my journey to make trading my full time career. I would happily accept any questions, feedback, or critiques. So please feel free to chime in. If there are any particular trades of mine that I didn't share for the day, that you might want to see, feel free to let me know.
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1 pointI feel like this was a decent day of simulator. I made some trades on Friday and broke even but only had one monitor at the time and did not get screenshots of my trades. So this was my first actual day of simulator if you will. I am using an account size of $3000, because that is what I will start with once I go live. I have 12 k I am willing to put towards this, but the $3000 will be used to weather the learning curve. I will only be able to trade the open 30 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays while I have class this semester so I am exclusively searching for 5-minute ORBS on those days. The 3 strategies I am looking for on the other days of the week are 5 and 15-minute ORBS, VWAP False Breakouts, and ABCDS/Reverse ABCDS. I am trying to get in good habits now of always respecting my stop loss, 3-trade limit until I get more consistent, and waiting for proper risk to reward. I hit 1.07% profit on the day on my third trade. I could definitely work on patience and get better setups than what I had today. I have been reading Trading in the Zone and am trying to keep in mind the statistics at play in day trading. Even if I am only trading 50-60% profitable trades, I can still make money if I have the risk to reward I am looking for. But this requires me to respect stop losses and allow my winners to reach their potential. This is just a quick intro and I'll flesh out what I'm trying to do with this journal in the coming days. Please feel free to give me any feedback you want. If I am doing something wrong or confusing just let me know. These are my 3 trades I took today (February 25, 2019): I decided to get in on the short side for GE at $11.51 when I saw what appeared to be a Reverse ABCD pattern. My profit target was the moving average about 30 cents underneath my entry with a partial goal of a 15 cent move. My mental stop loss was 5 cents above my entry, which coincided with the break of a moving average. This was my biggest mistake on this trade. Given that I had such a small size, I could afford to have a slightly higher stop loss, perhaps just above VWAP which still would have only been a small loss of .3-.4% of my account. I got stopped out right at my stop loss, and if I had set a slightly higher stop loss I would have ridden out the movement and gotten the downward movement on the stock I was looking for. My second trade of the day was on IQ. I took a short on it at $27.44. I thought one of the moving averages was the VWAP so I mistakenly believed this was a VWAP False Breakout. I will potentially need to change the color of some of my MAs or thicken up my VWAP to make sure this doesn't happen again. My profit target was the low of the day and my stop loss was $27.7. The risk here was relatively high, at about 1% of my account. So it is not a trade I would take in the future. While the stock did not reach my profit target, I was able to take a partial out for a decent gain and then cover the rest shortly later for an even bigger gain. So while the trade itself was not a great idea, I believe I executed well and got out at a good time. My last trade of the day was on AMD. I saw a VWAP False Breakout and entered long at . My stop loss was a few cents below VWAP and my profit target was high of the day. I believe this trade was fine, and my share size was great. While my profit taking ended up being about as good as possible given the drop that happened in the price after I exited the trade, I believe I still handled the trade relatively poorly. I got spooked watching the price chop on the one minute chart for 7 minutes straight and wanted to end the day at my profit goal of 1% so I took a 50% partial well before my profit target when the price moved in my direction. I then saw the price action indicate that sellers were taking control with lower highs and lower lows and the breakage of some moving averages so I took the rest of my shares out for a small gain. \ February 26, 2019: As I said earlier, Tuesdays and Thursdays will just be me looking for a 5- minute orb. Two stocks nearly met my criteria for entering into a trade this morning, but did not quite get to where I needed them to be. So I did not take any trades today. This is very wordy but I should get more concise as I begin to understand what I am looking for and trying to do. The formatting is also probably weird so please give suggestions if you have any. I will also try to get better screentshots of my trades that includes more of the preceding price action. I just copied my notes from Tradervue and put them in here. EDIT: Added in Feb 26
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1 pointWednesday 2/27/19 Well being score of 5.5/10. Not as nervous about trading today than the previous two days. I did follow my setup yesterday (though poorly executed) and that gave me a bit more trust in myself. My two allowable trades were with SE and BBY. The 2min ORB setup: SE created a “step” setup on the 1min chart. Though the 2nd candle had good volume, the “power” came from the separation between the 1min VWAP and 2min VWAP (almost 1% gap). I waited very impatiently to 9:31:45 EST to take the trade (my new rule). Price did pop a bit but I was getting impatient since it was hovering just below my first target, so I took a partial anyway. But, the market was good enough to reprimand me by popping 20 cents 2 seconds later. The price did reach my 2R level (there were no good levels to aim for partials so I was using xR) where I took another partial. After making a new 1min low I showed that I didn’t learn anything 2 minutes before and exited the trade. The instant I exited the price popped 2%. Which is fine, I apparently needed another lesson in patience. Since my first trade was a winner I am allowed another trade. I saw the 5min ORBs were already running and I didn’t want to chase. I saw BBY setting up for an ABCD. But, I needed to use my newly taught patience. The way I have my ABCD setup is there needs to be at least three 1min candles bouncing off the same tech level. But, it only bounced off the tech level (VWAP) twice at that time. So I waited for the 3rd bounce, which it did. The plan originally was to buy just as it bounces off of VWAP. But while I waited I was getting concerned about the 69.02 tech level (which was a premarket level – that is why it is yellow, daily levels are green on my chart). So we had a premarket level, the $69.00 level and the previous 1min candle respected that level as well. Since the entry above that level still had a >2 to 1 reward to risk ratio (with the high of the day as a target and just below VWAP as a S/O) I decided to wait for it to break of that level for an entry. So when it did I went long. Soon after I realized that I went full share size, though on 2nd trades of the day I decided I should go half shares. So just after a small pop I sold half my shares. Now this left me in an odd situation which I hadn’t thought about. In theory I am still in the same trade with the same S/O (VWAP). But I just took a profit, so my instinct is to exit at B/E. I hadn’t thought about this scenario and was torn. So when in doubt, get out. And I exited at B/E. Now that I had some time to ponder, I have set the guideline to stay in the trade with the same S/O in that situation. What I did good today: Kept to my setup rules. I kept to my 1min 45sec no trade rule. Entered the trade correctly. Waited for my setup on both trades. Kept to my 2 trade/day rule (if first trade is a winner). How did I challenge myself today? Traded outside of AMD/AAPL/MU. Did not even place them on the watch-list or give them a chart. Traded an ABCD setup. What I did bad today: Impatient on my first trade with SE. First partial too early and exited too early. What can I do better tomorrow: More patience is needed, especially on my exit. Will start to document specific exit rules for me to follow.
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1 pointFeb 26th (Sim) P&L After Commissions: ~$15 Trades: 15 Took way too many trades today. I wasn't as selective as I want to be. I did a great job of being patient at the open. Didn't trade for the first 20 minutes, but after that, the floodgates opened. I took 14 trades in the next hour and a half. Thats one trade every 6 and a half minutes. Not good! My plan going forward - My plan was to sim this week on Mon, Tue, Wed, and Friday. The baby has been waking up around 30 min before open which kept me occupied during trading hours on Friday and yesterday. The wife took her today so I was able to trade. I plan to sim one more day tomorrow and then go live on Thursday and then back to sim on Friday. If I feel everything goes well, I will go live again and hopefully stay live on March 4th. After my trading today, i did some reevaluting on my profit taking and R/R. It seems that I feel comfortable with a $15-$20 loss per trade. I've noticed this from today and previous days of trading. That means I need to be making between $30-$40 per winner if I am looking for a 2/1 R/R. I did that 3 times today with one 2/1 one 2.5/1 and one 3/1. I also had two 1/1 winners. I had about 6 losers today and 1 double loss where I broke my stop loss. I had my mentality wrong on profit taking before. I was always trying to hit a homerun and I was trying to get something like $80-$100 per trade. That would be great, but I can't count on that regularly. That would be 5/1! I will get those occasionally, but its not going to be an every trade thing. I need to adjust my mindset on what I currently consider midsize winners. With my currrent share size,making $40-$50 on a trade is a good win and I need to be proud of it. If I took 100 shares of a stock, my current thinking would be "Oh no, your stop loss is broken and you are down 15 cents you need to get out" I also think "Ok I'm up 15 cents, but I'm not here to trade for 15 cents, I'll take a tiny profit at 40 cent gain and more at 75 cents and then some finally for a $1 move". In this case I wouldn't' even take profits until 2/1 and then I'm really shooting for 5/1. I'm trading technical levels, but I'm always looking for the big move and a far technical level as profit. I need to be happy with 40-50 cents and the rest is just extra. $ROKU - I'm making a rule for myself to never ever short ROKU, it doesn't work out for me. When its strong, its strong. I also didn't trade it will. I took a PDC bounce, but there was no real reason to be in this trade. This was a gamble. I need to wait for confirmation that it will actually bounce off the PDC this time. I can't just take it because it bounced off previous times, which is what I did here. It didn't even stop at PDC and pushed right past it. I should have stopped right away, but I held a little too long and then got out when it pulled back. This was a terrible first trade of the day. $ETSY - Price action looked weak and I though the bottom would fall out at any minute. I took it short and stopped out and then short again and stopped out. Second time, I did much better at least and minimized my losses to $1.50. Shortly after I exited, it did break under the 20ema, but I hesitated on the trade. I need to go with the flow. I wanted to take the trade where I did, because it kept the stop loss small but was risky. I didn't enter when it broke under the 20ema because the $ risk was greater but the % of success was also greater. I didn't want to risk the $$ even though it had a higher chance of success. Instead I chose the riskier trade that cost me less if i loss. I also have a way of thinking where I say that I missed my entry and I don't enter which is not always a bad thing. But in this case, I couldn't justify reentering. $CAT and HD - Broke my stop loss on both of these trades after taking winners. They weren't great trades to begin with, but I did take 1/1 profit on CAT, and 2/1 profit on HD, but I let both of them turn into losers. I stopped out very poorly on both and especially HD. I broke stop loss and I ended up letting winners turn into $16 losers each. I need to work on moving my stop loss when I take my first profit. Both also had crossing SMAS and both broke up higher afterwards, if that means anything. $M - Best trade of the day, really proud of this one. Took it short and stopped out the first time, reentered when it still looked short. I almost added more to my position before it started to drop, but I couldn't find the right entry. I covered some when it came down and added a small size to my position. Sold at levels. Felt great with this trade. $HD - Took 3 more trades on HD. First was an intended scalp. I previously traded HD and saw that it couldn't break $185 and it seemed to hold here as well, so I entered with a small size. Almost just a fun trade to see what happens. I was more interested in the 50SMA bounce which I then entered after exiting the scalp. I didn't hold the 50 and I exited and then took it long when it held above the 50SMA. Sold all at HOD at the time. I am a big fan of taking when price action and EMAs cross the 50SMA. $BABA - Very similar to $HD. They were trading around the same time as well. I took it short when it broke the 50 and went back to test it. It did break the 50SMA but I took it regardless with a tight stop above $182. It came right down and I did an ok job at taking profits not the best. Got all out and then was interested in taking the 50SMA bounce again. Again it didn't work and I stopped out. I then missed my opportunity to take it long when it did cross above the 50. Not the best day of trading. I need to work on being selective and cutting out the losers. Hoping to work on my R/R going forward. Be happy with a 2/1 win!
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1 pointPlanning on making it to both, but definitely the summit. I'll know as the date gets closer.
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1 pointThank you Karl! We need someone in Montreal to coordinate this Meetup, who please will read and follow the BBT Meetups - Information & Swag Instructions Thx!
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1 pointThis is going to be awesome! I can't wait to get some merch! In the meantime, I had my girlfriend make a coffee cup for me to use at my trading station. Represent!