Live trading summary of the month of October.
An interesting month. I made 34 trades, which is about average. I am flat again for the month (as usual) but I think positively of this month. I was down -8R by the halfway point. I made a few adjustments and I ended up the month up +0.5R.
The adjustments I made:
First, I switched so I only have one montage. I started taking two trades at once and I was doing well, but I knew that was a bad habit and I needed to stop. Once I did I was better at reading the tape, because I could focus completely on it.
Second, was I moved my B/E stop outs by 4 cents (not in my favor). I missed two HUGE runs early in October by the stock dropping down and stopping me out at B/E by 1 or 2 cents and going on for 10R runs.
Third, I lowered my R from $30 to $10. I always used a R that was the maximum I could handle mentally. But that is not correct. I need to place it in a sweet spot. High enough I feel I am trading live but not stressed about the money. Actually I am increasing now from $10 to $15 next week.
Finally, I set up buttons that automatically setup a limit order at 1.5R for a 50% selling of shares. I take partial profits way to early. With that limit order in and on my screen I have more patience waiting for it. A lot of members of my chatroom set a limit order at 2R, but my data shows that very few of my trades make it to 2R. But 1.5R is common enough to make it worth while.
Though I create a score card for each trade, I don’t track it any more on a monthly level. I am glad to say I did not hit the max daily loss on any day this month (and the last 9 months).
Goals for November:
1) Don’t go hulk.
2) Learn to control your emotions after a loss.
3) Keep using the limit order on 1.5R
4) Increase risk per trade $15.
5) Keep improving health.
6) Keep making SIM trades on 5/10/15 min ORBs
7) Start taking small live 5/10/15 min ORBs. At least once a week.
8] Take a break with the Van Tharp course for traders. There was one recent chapter actually took a month, working almost every day, to finish. It burned me out for the course and I need a break from it. At least a week, but I am OK restarting in December.
9) Work on being able to manage a trade with a bad entry. Either exit or take shares off the trade to renormalize the risk.
10) Allow a third trade if a previous trade was exited well early for a tactical trade management purpose.
11) Stop out at B/E if price reached 1R and retraced.
12) I can look at P/L window again once the trading session is over.
13) The goal is to make money. Stop caring if you are right or wrong about a trade. If it was a good setup and well managed, you will always be right.
Plan for next week.
BABA is in play at the open (1min ORBs) but not showing much for the 2/5/15min ORBs. AAPL is only in play for the 5min ORB. MU choppier than usual and only should be a focus if gapping big or unusually high volume.