My Plan to Trading Success:
Background:
One of my friends from German language class recommended Andrew’s book on ‘How to Day Trade for a Living’. After reading the book, I joined the BBT community in Oct’2018. I was on SIM for 3 months, completed the first BBT challenge. And finally I went live on 8thApr’19. I am new to Trading and hoping my journaling and feedback from fellow members will help me improve.
My preparation before going Live:
These are the books I read before going Live, apart from the BBT classes. It was very important for me to learn as much before going Live. Also, I read these books in the order mentioned below. I also listened to the Youtube audio version of Trading in the zone, the week before going Live and I must say that it helped calm my nerves a bit during the Live week.
-How to Day Trade for a Living by Andrew Aziz
- A Complete Guide to Volume Price Analysis by Anna Coulling
- Advanced Techniques in Day Trading by Andrew Aziz
-Trading in the zone by Mark Douglas
-The 1 Hour Trade by Brian Anderson
Strategy & Goal:
During the first year(or 9 months) in 2019, I don’t have any target to make. My primary goal is to gain experience Live trading, to be emotionally stable when things don’t go my way and manage positions to my plan. And achieve all this limiting my loss. Good thing, I have control over how much I can lose, so I have decided to keep 100$ per week that I can lose (ie. 4000$ till end of the year). This is the max amount I will lose to the market, nothing more. This is not ‘Scarred Money’. It is something that I am paying for my experience. If I make any money along the way, then it’s good. It doesn't mean I dont want to make money, it just means, I am not in a hurry to make money. But I do plan to make a lot of money from trading may be a million $ some day.
I also have the following measures to limit myself at the beginning of my Trading.
Funding Account: I am not funding my IB account fully. I am doing it in 5 small transfers (roughly one each month). This limits my buying power during the initial months. Even if I make a DAS mistake I can’t buy more shares. As I improve my trading I start funding more.
Under PDT rule: This also means, I am under PDT rule, and can make only 3 trades/5 days. This prevents me from overtrading. I am also extremely picky as my trades are limited. I think being picky is a very good habit in Trading.
Stocks to trade: I don’t trade $TSLA, $NFLX which are very volatile. I trade $AMD, $MU and other Stocks in Play on a particular day within my price range ($15-$30) and not very volatile. I trade high priced, volatile stocks in DAS simulator or TradingSIM to feed my FOMO.
Share size: I trade 50-100 shares per trade, depending on the Stoploss and volatility of the stock. I am not using my Margin from IB, but only Cash that I have funded. As I improve my trading skills, I will slowly increase the share size.
Risk Control: Within my 3 Trades a week, first one I give it $50 Loss, 2nd and 3rd one $25 each. But because of my small share size and stoploss, I am well within my allowable losses during initial months. This is second level risk control.
Rules:
Only one trade at a time. This was my main issue in SIM. I get into multiple trades in SIM and end up in huge losses. Even if the action goes my way, I am unable to exploit it to my advantage as I am unable to follow my profit plan.
Stick to my StopLoss: Many days in SIM, I had ignored my Stoploss and ended up in huge losses. Then I make some good trades and reduce my losses. End of the day, It gives me a feeling ‘If only I had respected my StopLoss I would have been green’
Don’t trade within 3 mins: My rule is not to trade within first 3 mins. But if the setup doesn’t exist, then I must wait till 5, 10 or even 15 mins from the open.
Trading Style:
I prefer VWAP trading (VWAP pullback during ORB, Reversal & False breakout after 10AM).
I also like to trade 50/200 MA bounces especially on higher timeframes.
I am not good at MA cross reversals.
Quote I need to remember while Trading: "You will regret more about the STOP you didn't take than the one you took early"