Tommy's journey

[Tommy 55]

Hi All,

 

My name is Tommy I’m part of the 90%.

I’m quite consistent in my results, that’s to say, loosing money more then I have profit but I guess you figured that one out already.

I joined bearbull in January, started out in sim which went surprisingly well at first. Went life in march and well, its been quite a ride, like a rollercoaster you want to keep on riding.

If my name was Mc Donald’s I would say I’m lovin it.

Well actually the truth is I don’t want to ride the rollercoaster no more as it is making me sick. I had put 28000 dollar in my account and I managed to get it below 25000 in 2 months..

My broker is probably loving me, I just checked and I payed 2600$ in commission fees. That’s crazy for just 2 months. Back under ptd rule, it kind of feels like I have blown up my account, its really embarrassing.

 

So something clearly needs to change as I’m not planning to stop trading

I did many things wrong so far but by far the biggest error so far is repeating the same mistakes again and again.  Repeating the same mistakes and expecting a different result is ridiculous.

I also take too many trades, I think that’s clear looking at the commission fees.

 

Im not so active in the chatroom but I enjoy it every day. Even though I have lost money, I learned a lot from the pre market show and chatroom, most of my losses is because of emotion trading. I read trading in the zone and I do get it but… I guess I need to learn the hard way.

Anyway, because I don’t wish to give up and I need help I decided to start an open journal aswell. I put 1500$ extra in my account so I can day trade again.

Yes I could do sim again too I know. I will probably do now and then, will see how I feel.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

may 13th, ended the day with 50 tickers, 2800shares. slight overtrading though the higher number over tickers is mostly due to partialling out.

i sometimes trade the premarket, but only if there is a high volume and price action has good movement, today uber was like that. premarket also had shares for short.

first trade i made was a short, i got in at 39,55. not happy with this entry. i actually wanted to get in at 39,88 but i hesitated a bit and the ask dropped down from that. then i actually tried to put a limit order but never got filled again. the priced dropped quite a lot from that. i know i should not jump in then but the tape really showed no sign of strenght so i just got in with 100 shares. i still got about 40cents out if it which was ok. i wondered if i should let my last partial ride the wave and get out of breakeven at worst but i didnt , i should have.

second trade another short on uber, went short on a pullback to the 9ma but it broke that and stopped out on above the 20ma, still green after this trade. then i shorted it again because it failed to  hold a break above the vwap. not a very good entry, the spread was  bigger at that moment. something to be more carefull of in premarket. my stop was at vwap which was  not great. at  drop i just partialed out 25% and this time i thought i let it reach my breakeven point, it hit my breakeven and for some reason price got higher suddenly and i got out with a loss, pity because it did drop down a lot not long after. this loss happened because i had a bad entry i think. 

 

when the market opened there were no shares for short available anymore so i didnt look at it anymore.

at market open i traded aapl, first i shorted it 3 times... first time was entry at vwap, it went down though not really weak, my last partial was at breakeven, maybe that wasnt a good choice as it turned out to be justa bounce of vwap, i shorted it again though what i should have done is wait for a pullback as i let myself stop out of this. since it bounced again of vwap i thought ok now its gonna go lower.. i shorted again and got small profit but it didnt want to break lower so i got out again. 

then it went above the vwap but i didnt get in immediatly, i started to think that im stuck in a chop again. it formed an abcd so it did get in again, long this time, it went up but again didnt really make a continuous move. 

mu... well, that was a hotkey mistake, i shorted the stock with small share size and then i wanted to add some but in stead i got out of my position.. small loss but mu did make a nice move so that sucked. not sure why i didnt just get in again. i think i felt like i was starting to overtrade again. but seeing the stock move in my direction without me...it made me want to trade more.. so i did

i was watching roku, i had my eye on a short position around 84,40 but was scared to get in, i think i have lost more on roku then any other stock so far. well it did drop and then i got in below vwap, letting me stop out above vwap, i got stopped out but looking at the tape and level2 it looked like it was gonna go lower, so i got short again above vwap this time, i was gonna stop out above the moving average which was a just above.  i partialed out too much too soon i think, this time i didnt feel like letting my last partial come to my breakeven  point again but offcourse thats when the stock makes a nice move afterwards... 

then i was looking a aapl too, i really moved with the spy, whatever the spy did apple did so kinda for fun i wanted to try if i could use that info, i made 3 trades on it, 3 times green but never a big move, last partial i always took breakeven, small sharesize so not much profit, i should have tried this with sim perhaps but at the time i didnt think of that. offcourse jus a few min later as i actually told myself now stop for the day aapl did make a nicer move.

 

how i feel about my trades this time... mm, i want to focus on better entrys so i can have tighter stop and increasing chance for profit. my first trade of the day i felt bad for hesitating when i told myself now is the moment to get in yet i did not.  hesitation and patience, one i have too much and the other i lack. ..

i used quite small sharesizes today, this has the advantage of any loss is small too but when you partial out,.. the last parts has an almost insignificant P/L . this shouldnt matter offcourse since the process is more important  but i still have a tendency to look at P/L during trades and it messes with my decisions.

p/l was 120 but i think half of that will be gone to comission fees.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 14, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

may 14, it was not a good day, i was tired yes, slept about 3 hours the previous day and went to work full day before aswell. not sure if that has anything to do with it but i was out of sync i think.

PL at the end of the day was 0.85cents..., 38 tickers and 3200 shares. so a red day considering comission fees

12 trades in total, 6 looser and 6 winners, my losses were too big 

1st trade was aapl, i went long on aapl , not sure why anymore, looking at it now it looks more like an abcd to the short side, but anywayz it seems i quickly got out and small loss. good thing i realized

next trade was jmia, again i went long but with i think a good entry just above vwap, it started my direction and was thinking of taking a quick partial but i didn't , pl didn't seem worth it to take a partial, again i got influenced by this in stead of acting by price action. price changed direction and i got out with a loss below vwap.

the i traded DIS, i saw a double bottom and went in , it went in my direction but not much, i partialed out , i gave it a bit time but it seemed weak and i thought more likely to go down again so i got out, this was small win,  but still down for the day.

i failed to partial at the better exit price

next a short on roku below vwap, this was ok i think, i was in the green now

 

 

i went back to jmia, i shorted at the point i thought was vwap, this was my mistake due to technical issues.. i had it on a small screen and i didnt realize there was actually still 30 cents between where i got in and vwap. i would have not gotten in if i had noticed better. i stopped out above  vwap, then it did look to me like it would bounce a become a short again, i went in below and got stopped out again,  it popped up and i thought oh, this is actually long , got back in long and stopped out below vwap. i got pissed off at this point, went back short at same entry as i originally had... tried to let it ride a bit but i eventually got out with just a small profit. that was some crappy trading. at 1 point i was down over 100dollar just on jmia.. Jmia took me in the red.. well actually I idid that, damned

up to roku again, i saw something that could be  ahead and shoulders, i have seen it multiple times so this time i tried it out, i got in with what i knew was a bad entry, foomo i think but i should have let the pattern form more first, my stop would have been above the left shoulder at the red line . it went right up to there, i considered adding to my position but i didnt . maybe i should have at this was actually the point i considered best entry. i let it ride hoping to get to vwap, it got close to it but not quit, took most of it off near vwap and the rest when it looked to go up again

i got back to dis, i entered on what i thought would be a pull back didn't really push through and i got out below the moving average, i kinda regretted doing that and went back in with a better entry as the tape and level 2 showed strenght or so i thought. it again dint really give a good push and i gout out with a very small profit, i got out to quickly it showed as shortly after it popped up as i expected it would have done sooner. later in the day i did almost same thing again on this stock but again didn't have patience to let it run. i think i got out because it made my PL for the day back to break even, and my trading wasn't good today so i was gonna stop.

the roku trade before was actually between these 2 dis trades

 

..not happy with my trading today, i really messed up on jmia, didnt show any patience for better entrys or letting  my winner run. i lost a lot on jmia so i wanted to cover those losses on a winning trade and not risk more loss. thats not a good attitude for trading. today i was not in sync, i think i can be happy i could prevent a bigger loss, a few weeks ago this may have turned out a lot worse.

 

 

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

i had a really really bad day today,  PL of -662 dollar and 36 tickers

i should have know today was gonna be bad, it started out with a posiition i had no clue i even took, i only noticed this after i took the baba trade, it was 4000 shares on ge, a stock i never traded before and had no memory of looking at that day,  
i always use hotkeys and i dont even have a hotkey for 4000 shares, not even for 2000. when i noticed it was 120 minus but i didnt get out immediatly as i was looking at the baba, when i got out of baba it was already -200 , bloody hell

it started out ok, i took a reversal on baba, i took a reversal and partialed out once but the second time i wanted to partial i did not get filled untill like 50 cents less, was not happy with that. as my profit got severely reduced
i took another long pretty similar as the first trade, time i could get out no problem.

then another shit thing happened, i got long on baba, 3th trade, i was pissed off because of the ge thing, i dont think i would have taken this trade normally. but so far ok however the price dropped and then i put my stop in with hotkey as i always do.
again i didnt get filledand it kept on dropping , i even restarted das once but it was probably nothing to do with das, i could see it in my order window and couldnt cancel it either. i eventually got filled at the lowest point before the stock turned again.

what the hell?? i was ok with a looser but not like this, i lost 250 dollar on this in stead of the 60 it should have been when i hit my stop. 

now i was eager to get my money back as i felt it was after all not my fault i had such a big loss, -300 before market open

at market open i did another baba trade, the stock pulled back to vwap and i got in short, got 158 dollar profit from it, it was just 100 shares i took.so it felt ok.
after that i had no confidence in the price action from baba so i stayed out.

then roku, this one killed me. i took a bit bigger share, 500 again because i wanted my money back

i went long 3 times,  3 times i stop out and with a big loss after this, offcourse just seconds after i stop out the 3th time popped up nicely and just kept on going, this could have  should have made my day.
The market was against me, or did i do this to myself? i could have gotten in again but i got out the last time thinking im stuck in a chop and i already had a big loss.
i wonder if i had gotten in again if the stock would still have went up since clearly the market was against me

 

i tried shorting it later but that wasnt a good idea either , again a trade i would not take normally. some other small trades but none that went well for me i did too, all emotional crappy trading

oh boy, really dissapointing day, if that ge thing and the baba where i could  not get out didnt happen it would have been a good day, i traded bigger size on roku because of when im probably not ready for that yet.
This is how one ends up in the 90%... frustrating  and dissapointing, makes me wonder if i should really continue with this. but that thought makes me depressed so at least for now i have to get back on my feet. 
i may stop trading premarket as not getting out of a position is really dangerous, it wasnt the first time that happened to me but only when i traded premarket though never this bad.

 i hope you guys had a better day then me.

 

Edited May 15, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

I figured out I can lock my montage and save it like that so I don’t accidentally push a button when I open das but don’t want to start trading yet.

this should prevent at least from getting into a position by accident.

i recommend this to everyone...

Edited May 15, 2019 by Tommy

[Mike B 624]

How do you pick your Watch-list? It seems you have all different types of stocks Low, medium, high float with various ATRs and prices.

I only ask because I found throughout my trading that I need to stick with mid and high float stocks between $10-$55 dollars with ATRs lower than $2.00. Anything outside these parameters, I always ended up in negative.

[Tommy 55]

I generally pick them from the pre market show, mostly just try to see what’s in play but normally not below 10 dollar

roku wasn’t on today but there wasn’t much I liked. Roku makes nice moves often so that’s  why I kept it on As well yesterday. I like roku’s chart but I don’t seem to be very good at trading it, or at least  not with more then 200 shares.

atr is not something I pay attention too much, but maybe I should.you have a point there.

price differences.. I generally trade ok with higher price stocks like aapl but I always take small share size. I have done ok on amd priced stock before too. 

 I don’t trade low float stocks .

[Tommy 55]

may 16,  pl 62, 14 tickers and 2400 shares

i traded mu for a short first, this partly because off andrew calling it out. i did not jump in and waited for a pullback so happy about that, i added on a second pull back
i partialled out to soon but im kinda ok with that, this was a 100dollar trade.

then i went mu long twice and got stopped out twice, i should not have stopped out maybe, it was just a bit choppy but i have wasted a lot of money already in the past with this type of price action.

not a lot of trades today but since i got 2 losses after a nice win im going to stop for today...hopefully.. i feel like having a green day...

will just continue watching the price action for a while

 

 

[Tommy 55]

may 17 , another day, another mess up... PL: -150  

mu had good premarket volume and i did a good trade on it the day before so i took it as my main stock in the morning.
turned out i did pretty much same as Andrew though not quit..

i went short first, but it didn't run and i got out with a small profit, then i went long partialled, added some but it didn't want to push up and i got out again, i got out with a small profit but there really was no reason to get out and  i just felt it wasnt moving and i wanted to trade something else.  i dont have the nerves yet to do 2 trades at 1 time

i went to pins, i also had my eye on this one and i really thought it would be a long since premarket. then when i was in mu i saw it did go up,  thats part of the reason why i got out of mu. i thought i wait for a pullback but i still got in to quickly and got stopped out. i should have waited for some confirmation perhaps. or at least wait to see if it would go down to the moving average, well it went all the way to vwap, in between i got in once more and stopped out. i got in again at vwap and i could take a little profit but really it was not very good either, for some reason probably because i stopped out to much and the initial bounce of vwap didnt go further i thought , well i must be wrong and this is a short. even worse idea off course because it kept on bouncing vwap without actually breaking through much. if anything it should have confirmed to take a long position, but at that moment i clearly didn't think like that.. i took it short and pins finally went bullish as i had expected it to do the whole time...

i had enough of it and went to bidu to basically repeat the same mistakes as i did on pins....this time to she short side.

 

so review of today, i got out of a winning trade to enter a loosing streak.
again disappointing execution, bad entry's, over trading.
i go into trades without really thinking about what is an acceptable risk/reward.
on pins the good thing would have been long at vwap with a clear break through vwap as stop. i should not decide myself what i think is a bottom of a pullback especially if its not  near a technical indicator.
 

i was long biased on pins but

Being biased is not a technical indicator!!!! 

i need to reflect on myself, it seems as im in self destruction mode..time to go back to sim??

 

 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

may 20, pl -39 but with 49 tickers...

first trade on aapl , well there are 6 trades on this. first i went short at the opening, small share size. but it went above vwap, and i got out. it didn't show any sign to break higher and i believed its still a short so i got back in even still above vwap.
well it turned out to be a really nice short but my execution was probably the worst i have ever done getting out way way too fast. i took a small size and if you scale out then there really isnt much left. but that really should not matter.
i was in a winning trade at least my last partial i should have let it ride the wave and risking to get out at breakeven.  its often said dont trade first minutes but in reality the few months im doing this my PL in the first minutes is green.

3th and 4th i tried to short it again. it looked like it was stalling near vwap but i let myself stop out. 5th, i went long took some off and last at breakeven, again maybe i shouldn t haven taken this trade. the volume didn't show it wanted to go bullish yet. but i dont think i  was looking at the volume that time. 6th, i went short 1 more time be;low vwap thinking  it was a fals breakout but stopped out 

 

 amd i also had on my charts. i actually was thinking of going short  if it crossed vwap but then Andrew was calling it out for a long so i was ok..im not going to argue with that. and i just blindly followed him. 
got in at vwap then stopped out. well that serves me right for following someone else. Even Andrew can not be right the whole time.

some trades on roku, i went short on a pullback to the moving average and stopped out above, i tried it 1 more time but got a really bad entry unfortunately and let myself stop out again, that really wasn't necessary.
i stepped back a little and saw this pattern coming up and went for a long. i planned to stop out with a break below the wick of the left shoulder but i let myself stop out just before that, what a shame.
at that moment Andrew called it out for a long too. so i kinda jumped in again, it didn't move very much and i let myself get out of last piece at breakeven which was just a few seconds wick before going up again but ok,...

 

so yeah.. what can i say. im not trading well. 
im getting in and out way too much, it seems the barrier to get in and out has become quite low. 
but im jumping in with the thought that it will go my direction immediately and if not im wrong.  i need to learn more  patience, patience to tell myself what is the reasonable stop which would confirm im wright or wrong.
i probably need to learn more about what would actually be the more acceptable stoplevel.
to tell myself something good, i at least dont let my loosers run anymore as i have done so in the past. quit the contrary mostly now. there is a balance which i have not found yet.

over trading, most of the days, i have no idea how many trades i put. it starts with 1, and then i stop counting.
 

i dont like it but i must accept im not ready to go life. my results are clear, in fact they are getting worse.  go to Sim is something i would tell someone else for sure so why i have not done yet i dont know.
i think im going to miss out on good trades if im in sim, the truth is im missing out on good trades while i am life . and it costs money.

maybe i take a day off off trading.. but i must go to sim, its unfortunate but im not ready. i have know all along but didn't admit it to myself.
im writing this down now because i need to tell someone so i can convince myself. 

one day at a time from now or ill pay when tomorrow comes today

 

 

[Robert H 453]

If you are consistently red, it makes no sense to be live. Don't think of it like you are missing out on good trades; you are saving yourself from further losses. My tips based on your journal:

1. Don't focus so much on the 1-min chart. It takes many years of experience to play price action. Beginners should stick to patterns and setups off the 5-minute chart.

2. Try using the 2-min as your smaller timeframe. Here's an example of where the ABCD was much more clear.

 

3. Overtrading and impulse trades. Read "The Daily Trading Coach" by Dr. Brett Steenbarger to kick bad habits.

4. Trading pre-market involves low liquidity, bad spreads, and unexpected moves. Stay away unless you have a working strategy.

5. Setups and patterns: define them in your playbook. Know what you are looking for everyday. This will help with the impulse trades. If it doesn't meet your setup: don't take the trade.

6. Prove you can trade consistently in simulator before going back live.

Good luck.

 

[Tommy 55]

Hi Robert,

yes you are right, it doesnt make sense to be live. 
ill give it a shot with the 2 min, i still think for the first few minutes the 1 min is better but yes im a beginner and i shouldnt think i know.

i know the book but i havent read it yet.i just got "the new trading for a living " from alexander Elder as i read good reviews about it.
i like reading actually so also the daily trading coach is on my list but ill move it up in priority.

I was thinking im taking setups and patterns but lately i have been doing more impulse trades, its true.

i will continue posting my trades but they will be on sim.

 

[Tommy 55]

25 minutes ago, Marek said:

Agree with Mike, I focus on a higher floats, occasionally I will sprinkle in a trade on a low float but I am very cautious about this as I have a very bad record trading them. The reason I keep trying is b/c I would eventually like to expand the scope of stocks but I have found it's best for confidence to stick within a framework that I have the best track record in.

i try to do both medium and high float, i cant say trading both types is my problem, i seem to make the same errors on all of them.
for now i continue to do both  i think. im not sure yet if one fits better then the other for me. but i do stay away from low priced and or very low float.

[Tommy 55]

may 21, no trades for me.
i had the intention of taken a day off, i did log into the chatroom and my das was ready just in case...
But i stopped checking it after half hour and logged out without trades.

may22 i start again in Sim.

Before i go back live i have to prove myself in Sim. i'm not sure how long it will take.

My first goal i want to set myself is a win ratio of over 65%,  so to focus on making good setup trades.
If i can reach this PL would be a next goal. hopefully with a good winratio the PL would be there automatic. this all depends on the loosers.
its easy to let them run some in Sim and get lucky but i will try to not do this .

Edited May 22, 2019 by Tommy

[Tommy 55]

may 22, PL does not matter at this time

i took 5 trades, 3 winners and 2 loosers.

first qcom. i had my eye on it on the premarket and it looked like it wanted to break the premarket high, it broke it in min2, it went to test that level once but quickly got up again so i went long, stop would be a break below the support line.

my target was 71,34 level. i took a partial then another which i actually tried closer to my target but was not that great, probably just popped back. then i got lower and i got out just above break even, from there it went actually to crack my target so maybe i should have stayed in.

i went long once more after it bounced back from the support, my stoploss would have been below the support but i waited too long , this was a very bad trade.

 

i also trade SE

im trying to put more emphasis on the 5 min, there was an engulfing  candle on the 5, most of the time it goes lower from there so i went short, it was at the low from the premarket so maybe a bit risky.
i didn't really have any target nearby so i hoped for a big move but that didn't happen, still definitely not bad, my last partial was at break even which turned out to be just a spike but thats ok.

i think this trade was ok

 

i also traded roku

my first trade, was pretty bad more like an impulse, there was this long wick on the previous candle and i went long but i really should have waited for some confirmation if this was actually gonna be a long so i got out and good thing i did.
i continued watching roku i wanted to get in earlier around the moving average but i hesitated a bit.  my stoploss would have been above the moving average, not a great entry.
my last partial was too early but i knew that, there wasn't much shares left.

i had more winning trades then loosers but 1 looser i let go too much so not good
winning trade could have been better entry, it was too risky.
i did try to pay more attention on the 5 then i did before. i will continue doing that,  but i feel i need to see the 1 for a good entry