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Showing content with the highest reputation on 03/21/2019 in Posts
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2 pointsThursday March 21st, 2019 Sleep: 7 hours. Mood: good ready to trade. First trade of the day was an ORBU in MU. i waited for a pullback but i put my stop too far down and only got 27 shares. i sold half when i thought it was wavering and the last part at my profit target. Not my best trade but not that bad, i like taking quick profits on ORBs because they have a tendency to be volatile and i'd rather be a little green than a full stop. GOOD: waited for a pullback. RFI: too far with the stop loss MOOD: ok CONSISTENT: yes. Waited for the pullback to end on MU and waited for a new 5min high but then i waited for another pullback to an entry that never happened and it took off without me and i'm too tired and i feel like i'm just going to take some dumb revenge trade so i'm calling it quits for the day. still mad i missed this entry it has made 7 new 5min highs in a row since i missed the entry. What i did good today: took a good ORBU in MU What i did bad today: missed a good entry back long in MU What can i do better tomorrow: remember to watch volume for confirmation. Other comments for tomorrow: Keep level headed trading.
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2 pointsMarch 20, 2019 - $GIS (Partial) I had a huge blind spot trading mistake today. Instead of covering at my 1R, I actually ended up purchasing another 1/3 of my position. The biggest problem was that I originally thought I had covered half. I did not pick up on it until I glanced over at my current position size and noticed I had more shares than when I started. I extremely happy with my reaction, as I re-evaluated where I was exited 1/3 to get me to a spot I was comfortable handling and then exited again when the stock broke the 9 MA for the second time on the 1 minute chart. Sample Set Results P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G S G S S P 19 20
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1 pointI've been trading in a different simulator since Jan 29th 2019. I started using DAS this week as part of the BBT challenge. Im not very good at editing my screen shots, but hopefully I get better as I do these journal entries. Made a mistake putting order in first thing. Trade one: My plan was to go short when it broke below 17.00 with target of 16.00 and stop of 17.25 or go long when it broke above 17.81 with target of 18.60 and stop of 17.60. I got in and added to my position as the price rose (this whole time Andrew was also shorting the stock) I watched the price spike twice to my stop, a stayed in because it would immediately fall back down. Then I covered at 17.35. I SHOULD HAVE STUCK TO MY ORIGINAL STOP. Trade two: I got back in short (should have waited longer, did this as a revenge trade), added to position when it spiked and failed. Took profits several minutes later, I was practicing putting orders in as I did this. Trade three: When I saw it fail to move above the 200 average on the 1 minute, I went short again, the first partial on this trade was a mistake, messing with orders again. The stock slowly fell throughout the rest of the day. . Thanks for taking the time to look, any feedback is welcomed.
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1 pointMarch 21, 2019 - $CAG (Stopped Out) Some days you just pick the wrong stock out of the bunch to trade. All three stocks on my watch meet my trade criteria. 2 of the 3 worked, 1 did not. I would have gotten a partial out of $CAG had I not had another blind spot trading error again. I put my entry and stop loss line using the first candle on the 5 minute chart thinking it was the open and close of the 15 minute chart. This caused me to get a later entry with a lower risk to reward. When the stock did not move right away and broke below the 9 and 20 SMA I got out and said I would re-enter if the stock broke my entry point. It did but I did not get a fill due to not simultaneously press "Ctrl N" instead the "N" went into the symbol section of the Montage. After that I said I was not chasing it and cut my losses. Best part was emotional at all. Just moved on to look for another trade. Unfortunately, $MU and $FTDR already made their moves. Sample Set Results P G S G S 6 7 8 S S P G G S G S S P S 20
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1 point3/21/2019 Got chopped and racked up commissions for days. Made about 10 hot key mistakes. Took a lot of trades on $CAG. More than I should have. Trash stock reward of the day goes to $CAG. $CAG - Went short 300 shares after the price action consolidated after a drop. Didn't think that bull run would hold. I covered a minute later feeling like it wouldn't go. Got back in short 200 shares then added 75 more on the way down. Covered half at VWAP. Covered the rest on the pullback. Got back in short 200 shares looking for a fade down through VWAP. I felt some bearish pressure on the 5-minute with a lower high lower low, but the price action closed above VWAP. Stopped out after the price action squeezed. $CAG - Went short again 200 shares again thinking that move was finally coming. Got in under the 9MA 1-minute, but didn't feel the short love. Stopped out again. $CAG - GOT THE CLOSE BELOW VWAP/9MA 5-MINUTE. THIS WAS IT. Nope... Trash. Went short 50 shares (hotkey'd 50 instead of 200) looking for that push down. Set my stop at 25.43, but didn't feel it. Cut the trade off early before the squeeze. $CAG played games. Then of course, the move happened. $MU - Super strong today. Caught a 9MA bounce on the 5-minute. Went long 300 shares and sold 50% in 3 steps. Sold everything afterwards. I think my sell points were maybe too close, but then again, you don't know what's gonna happen. I'd maybe let my first partial go a bit further since there wasn't a sign of a sell off. But, I sold it because it was filling the bearish gap on the 5-minute. $MU - Annnd stupidity struck. Or was it stupidity? I went back short on $MU looking for a reject of the 9MA 5-minute. I went short 75 shares (hotkey'd 75 instead of 300), added 300 more and looked for the move down. Should have waited for more confirmation since the price action closed bullish above the 9MA 5-minute. Got squeezed up and stopped out. Got back in short 50 shares (hotkey'd 50 shares instead of 300) and added 300 more looking for the move down. I covered half at the 50MA 1-minute, then took everything off at break even. Then the move happened so missed that opportunity. Came back with one more trade. Went long 400 shares after the price action closed above the 9MA 5-minute thinking we'd get a move back towards HOD. Stopped out at break even. Sold half on accident then sold all. Lot of hot key mistakes today. Result:
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1 pointThursday 3/21/2019 I had a well-being score of 6/10 this morning. My nerves were good. I took two trades, AMD and MU. AMD was a 1min ORB. 1min candle was strong, then I tried to catch the pullback bounce off of VWAP. The bounce was so fast I had about 5 cent slippage. I took a first partial at HOTD. It immediately reversed and I S/O at B/E. My second trade was with MU. It had a really good “step” 2min ORB. But data is showing that I should wait for the 2min candle break for “Step” setups. The price finally made a clear break after 9:33 EDT. Price immediately reversed after I went long I was stopped out. I thought this was a good trade that didn’t work out until I reviewed it later and saw the 2min candle was larger than 0.5 ATR. Thus the trade should have been vetoed. I don’t measure the candle exactly, I usually just eye-ball its size and it seemed large but OK when I was trading. But it was 65% of ATR and thus trade should not have been taken. What I did good today: Good execution today How did I challenge myself today? Waited for the completion of a setup. I was dying to enter MU early. What I did bad today: I shied away from trading AAPL, which had the best setup, because I thought I have been trading it too much lately. AAPL of course was a really good ORBU. Not the first time I have done that. Also, inadvertently broke a veto rule. What can I do better tomorrow: Choose the best setup, it doesn’t matter if I have traded it every day this week. Be more mindful of 2min candle size compared to ATR. Measure it you have to.
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1 pointWednesday 3/20/2019 I had a well-being score of 5.5/10 this morning. Hopefully spring will bring higher well-being scores. My nerves though were worse than usual. I took two trades, both with AMD. AMD quickly formed a very bullish 2min candle and I took an early 2min ORB. The 2min candle forming look like this when I went long: I did take my first partial too early (due to nerves), but other partials were OK. My second trade was also on AMD. I was looking for a good 5min ORB setup and AMD was giving an ABCD setup as well. Since there was no tech level to bounce off (to take the trade before 5min) I was waiting for the break of the 5min candle. I did hear Andrew took the trade. But, I waited until the third 1min candle bounced off the same support level (my ABCD rule), then I went long. I chose the shares using VWAP as my S/O and a little lower in case I want to add shares at VWAP. The moment I took the trade the price started dropping fast. I added some shares at VWAP, which is not usnual for 5min ORB with a very tight stop a few pennies below VWAP. Since the price blew through VWAP my buy and sell-all were about 1 second apart. It’s actually difficult to see the sell triangle on the 1min chart, it was so close to the buy. Though I waited for the setup, entered and stopped out exactly where I wanted, this trade created some emotional negativity. It took me about an hour afterwards when I reviewed the trade before I realized the issue. I took the trade as a ABCD setup, but my share size, S/O point and share adding were based on a 5min ORB. That doesn’t work. For my ABCD setup the S/O should have been just below the support level with larger shares and I don’t add shares to an ABCD set up. What I did good today: Good setups, mostly good execution. How did I challenge myself today? Took back to back trades on the same stock. That has been difficult for me to do. What I did bad today: Though I didn’t break any rules, I did cross rules from two different setups. What can I do better tomorrow: Must keep setup rules separate, even though they can occur at the same time.
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1 point3/20/2019 Before I post my simulator trades, I need to mention a few things for me to come back and read. Or, anyone else stopping in that may get that AHA moment. I decided to increase my hotkey sizing to include 200,300,400 shares on the short side. I did keep the 50,75,100 short hot keys and also for long trades too. As I've been trading and learning more about myself, I know I am a short biased trader. I see shorts easier than longs and I tend to think more trades are shorts when they are more probable to be longs. That said, today I took several long trades and missed a sell opportunity a few times. Also, missed a few times to cover on a few short trades. Even though some of my trades are negative today, I think the balance I need for my own trading needs to be an increase in equity, increase share sizing and increase in scaling out. I say that because the past few weeks, I've seen great progress in my entries/exits, but I'm still having negative days or close to break even after commissions. It's just tough to grow a small account when you're constantly getting eaten by commissions. I hate to keep bringing that up in my mind, but commissions are a huge factor when they account for over 10% of a daily profit goal of 1% on a $3500 account. For example: If I make 1% on a $3500 account, that is $35. In most cases, I tend to trade 10 tickets. Some times less, but I'm sure my average is around 10ish. One trade in/out whether it works or not is $6 with CMEG (I think that's the name) and $9 with SureTrader. For just an entry, you're already looking at 10% of your $35 profit goal gone. (Assuming you have a winner) That bugs my brain when I'm trading and I try to push more out of a trade and end up missing out on profits. That leads to me stopping out early before moves and cutting profits too soon. This doesn't even include scaling out which adds more to the madness. I tend to be very good at stopping out on time, but sometimes I take trades that aren't there. I do stop out well on those. This could be a combination of already bad trades I've taken or missing out on profits from previous trades. It's a compounding effect. BUT, when I do get good entries, I've noticed that I am awful at exiting. Reason for that is I try to push trades longer than what the market is willing to give because my share sizing is lower. So, if I'm taking 50/75 shares, I try to push more out of that trade without scaling out. Case in point, last week I was positive realized all but Friday, but my p/l was negative due to commissions. I can feel when I'm uneasy while trading. I want to note that I feel comfortable taking big share sizes when the move works out or if my entry was good. I feel comfortable with big share sizing because I know I can scale out as I go. I get uneasy or frustrated when I know a trade was bad or my entries sucked. I don't get upset when I take a trade with big share sizing that just didn't work out that time. I'm perfectly okay internally with that. So, the changes I plan on making are below. Of course, this is me trading in the simulator, but I think I have a solid foundation on my entries. I just need to go bigger and start scaling out more to take better profits. Increase share sizing to at least $5,000. Take more precise trades Scale out on trades at key levels like MAs/VWAP I'm still not comfortable averaging down on pullbacks so I won't be doing that. I also want to add that I seem to take this simulator more seriously when I'm taking bigger share sizes. What I mean by that is share sizes that are relative to what I plan on trading live, but also share sizing that I feel is worth my time. I think I've traded small sizes enough to know where I excel at on my entries and also my exits. Which makes sense on why you trade small to take the thought of sizing out of the equation when training. All in all, I have to face the fact that I suck at trading a $3500 account. I don't have the patience to only take 1 or 2 trades a day. I do have the patience to wait the first 5-minutes for trades and not trade low floats. I've only done it once in months. I am able to keep SOME of my fomo in check, but not all of it. I have the urge to have to trade something and when I do, I need to capitalize on those moves when I do. I'm gonna keep my stops small and let my winners run by scaling out. I won't feel the pressure of letting my profits go back to my entry when I've already cashed out on the move. $GIS - After getting a close above the 9MA and near VWAP. I looked for a squeeze. Thing is, price action was down for the day. Took it long 200 shares at the 9MA 1-minute. Sold half at the break of HOD. Sold the rest on the drop. Could have held that to break-even or a close below the 9MA 1minute. I was thinking it might fade since the price action was down on the day. Or, could have thought about the previous two 5-minute candles were strong. Came back with an impulse short looking for a fade down through VWAP (which came later) and stopped out when the price action reversed. Took another short 200 shares after the price action closed below VWAP and the 9MA 5-minute. Covered half at the break of the 50MA 5-minute. Went to cover the rest and accidentally added more. Covered all then. Took one more short trade 200 shares looking for the VWAP 5-minute reject after closing below VWAP/9MA 5-minute. Stopped out. Could've waited for more confirmation when the candle opened. $TME - Went short 200 shares at the open looking for a push back down to low of day for the ORBD. Got in on the pullback, but the price action wasn't bearish. Went short 200 again, looking for a reject of the 9MA 5-minute. Price action closed above VWAP, but under the 9. I took it short and stopped out. Could have waited for more confirmation here. $NVRO - Traded this one a lot. Went short 200 shares for the fade through VWAP. Covered half at VWAP and the last 100 on a pullback. I wanted 59.80s but I wasn't patient enough. Could have held the last 100 shares until that move down since it was so close to break even. $NVRO - After getting a doji between VWAP/9MA 5-minute, I went long 200 shares looking for a pop. I got out too soon before the move happened. Based on how I was trading today, I would have probably sold half on that pop above VWAP and kept the rest at break even. $NVRO - I got back in looking for a short 200 shares since the price action didn't hold above VWAP. I'm thinking it would fade this time and hit the 20MA 5-minute. Stopped out before the price action squeezed. $NVRO - Took another shot at a long play, Went long 200 shares looking for a move towards high of day. Got the pop, but I walked away from my computer for a few minutes an came back to a wash, lol. Sold for a loss. Got back in 250 shares for a short (hit 50 on mistake and then added 200). Got a move down to the 20MA 5-minute and then the price action reversed. Sold for a small loss. Could've covered some at that moving average. $AMD - Had a good clean break down. I saw the price action at 1030, but decided to not take it. Good set up. Result:
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1 pointMarch 19th P&L After Commissions: -$124 Trades: 11 I struggled and I struggled hard today. I fell into a hole early, and I couldn't quit when I had one trade get me back. I have a problem with red days. I cannot accept a red day. I am doing a much better job at keeping the losers small for the most part, but I can't seem to keep the losing days small. I will keep trading and trading to try and get back to break even or better. It is killing me and my account. I have learned somewhat to stop when I am having a winning day and I am able to end the day green whether I am at goal or not. I cannot end the day red unless I am at max loss. I have turned many acceptable red days into unacceptable max loss red days. As you can see almost every red day is a max loss red day where I hit $150 plus commissions loss and DAS stops me out. The smaller red day losses are days where DAS has stopped me out after hitting 3000 shares. I think on only one of these days, did I decide to walk away on my own. Almost each of those red days, I should have quit before things got as bad as they are. I have a hard time accepting a small red day. It goes against everything you are taught in life, sometimes it is better in this game to admit defeat than to keep going and I am having a hard time accepting that and putting that into practice. One idea is to lower my DAS max loss. That is the next major goal that I have for myself. I need to learn to walk away when I am losing and I am done trading. I lose very often, but I still don't know how to lose properly. Can you spot the sim days? As far as my trading day goes, I took some major losses early in the morning. I should have called it quits right then and there. One of the things that has really helped me was sticking to my watch list stocks. Today they were WHD, STNE, MU, NVDA. I only watch 3 stocks at a time, so I was already breaking a rule by making this 4 stock watchlist. In the morning, I was flipping between MU and NVDA which wasn't a good sign. I kept 4 available in the morning in case WHD or STNE didn't move or went too out of control. That is when I should have swapped it out for MU. I shouldn't be constantly flipping back and forth between MU and NVDA at the open. I didn't trade well, but I am ok with my trading up until I strayed away these 4 on the watchlist. $NVDA - I took NVDA long when it seemed to be holding VWAP. As soon as I entered, it dropped down below VWAP and I had to exit. Stayed in this trade for 13 seconds. It doesn't help that there was a decent sized spread. It then popped up back above VWAP. The second trade upsets me. There was no reason to take this short. I am not sure what I was doing. It never closed below VWAP and was even making higher lows above VWAP. This was a long and not a short. Bad trade on my part. I'm glad to have gotten out for a small loss. $STNE - I usually stay away from wild stocks at the open, but for whatever reason I went to trade STNE. I thought taking a small share size might help, but the candles were still too big. Might have been because I didn't have a great watchlist and I believe at this point WHD was moving a too far from VWAP for me. I need to wait for a better setup when trading. I dont need to always be in a trade. Seemed to be holding the trend lines and the 20EMA. It broke above it on the first trade and I exited. Came back down and I tried again on the trade. Was not good trading. $MU - I was down $90 on my first 4 trades. Not where I want to be and I should be calling it a day there. I didn't even thinking about being done because it was still pretty early in the day. Saw MU was curling up and making higher lows. Went long with a target of $40.40. The previous day mark and where it stalled out earlier in the morning. I sold most of my shares there, but held some for the break. It did break up and I panic exited on the rest of the shares on the first red candle. I didn't need to exit the final piece where I did. I was watching my P&L and I knew how much the trade made me already, so I wanted to lock in the profits and be ~$25 down. I have had trades where they go $30-$40 in my direction and I dont take profit. they end up going back to break even or losing and I wanted to avoid that here with the final piece here. One thing I need to understand is that on the HOD breaks the stock can continue moving. I need to let the stock run more on HOD breaks. $BABA - This is where it all goes wrong. I didn't like my watchlist at this time. Low Volume and not a lot of movement for STNE and WHD. MU was still climbing, but I wasn't going to re enter. I then started searching for stocks. I checked AAPL, FB, SQ, CGC and finally landed on BABA. No reason to trade this stock and I should have stayed away. Took 3 trades, 3 losers. $AMD - After having no luck with BABA, I came across AMD who was moving fairly well. I saw it setting up for a reversal and took it when it broke the 50SMA. I took 300 shares and was targetting the 50SMA on the 5 min at $20.40. It did come down to about $20.50 which was 13 cents and about $40. I really thought it would keep coming down since it was below all trend lines. Just couldn't break the half dollar barrier. It worked its way back up to my entry and I told myself to let it go above the 50SMA on the 1 min because that is where my stop should be. It did that and stopped out. I let a trade go from being +$40 to a loser. Exactly what I wanted to avoid on MU earlier in the day. My greed got me on this one and it was because I wanted to make up my losses that I already had. I believe that if this were my first trade of the day, I would have taken some profits. I need to treat every trade as the first trade of the day. My P&L shouldn't be affecting any moves I make in a trade. Each trade is independent of the rest and the rest of my day. Goal going forward - Learn to accept red days and keep the red days small. They are going to happen and that is ok. I know that nobody can win every single day that they trade. Part of the process is learning how to lose and how to lose gracefully.
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1 pointTuesday 3/19/2019 I had a wellbeing score of 5/10. I traded both live and on SIM. I took two trades, both with AAPL. I haven’t made a market open scalp trade since I was on a self imposed 1+1 trade a day maximum. If you only have one trade allowed , why waste it on a scalp? So I stopped. I use to make this trade a lot since I was live but not for the last 6 weeks with the trade max rule. At the open AAPL created a bearish 1min candle and shot through 3 very strong supports, including a level that bounced five 1min candles in premarket. When it broke that level I shorted. Not a good fill, but that is common so close to the open. The chart when I took the trade: It had a clear target, but when reached it I instinctively took a partial and not a full exit. Six weeks out of practice I guess. Then I tried to stop out at B/E but there is some slippage. Another reason not to take a partial. So I only ended up with a small gain. Due to being out of practice, I am forgiving myself not exiting fully and will call this a good trade. The partial exit on the scalp. The next trade was also with AAPL. A “Vish” 2min ORB setup. The 2min candle had a large wicks, but it still seems very bearish. I waited for the price to break that premarket level and I took the trade. At first I thought I got a really good fill. But then reality set it and I noticed I never let it fully break the tech level. It touched it and bounced hard and reversed. My AAPL checklist: I have the setup in light blue since it technically did not break the tech level so a full setup was not there. But I consider this an early entry more than a setup violation. I actually thought it did break the TL when I took the trade. But my video confirms I didn’t. So I will call this a neutral trade instead of a bad one. This was the moment I took the trade (note it was at the TL not past it): Then got stopped out: Since I took a small share size, due to so close to market open, and a good fill, I lost little on the trade. After I used up my to allowed trades, I switched to SIM. I took a trade with WHD. After trading SIM yesterday I thought it may be useful to continue. I am usually wearly about SIM since bad habits are usually formed. But I seemed to be more disciplined about SIM trades now.This was a 5min ORB, which I took a little before the finish of the 5min candle. It broke VWAP, came back to test VWAP again and I went long when it bounced from it. If I took it at the break of the 5min candle it would have pushed the edge of the 2 to 1 R/R. But, R/R was much better on my entry point. It did finally reach my target (a few cents from it) and I took partials along the way. The volume was dropping every minute, from entry, so I exited the first sign of weakness. What I did good today: Didn’t break any rules on purpose today. How did I challenge myself today? Took a scalp trade. Traded both live and on simulator. What I did bad today: One trade had a poor exit and the other a poor entry. Though neither on purpose. What can I do better tomorrow: Watch for the clean breaks of tech levels. Not the first time I had an issue with this.