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-- Big Mike, Site Administrator
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New to Big Mike's Trading Forum. Nice to be in the company of traders. I've been trading for 15 years now. Like most, I paid for my education by taking a beating when I was a novice. You always think you know enough, and then you learn some more.
I've made many friends and relatives 100% on their portfolios these last few years. I did that part time and through swing trading. (It was realtively easy following the 2008 tumble.)
I prefer day trading stocks. Things I have learned through the years are:
1. If you day trade, close positions by the end of the day.
2. Use stops and adhere to them. If you use trailing stops, let them go until they are hit or get out by end of the day.
3. 1% to 2% loss of your total capital on any one position. I stick to 1%. Also, if I lost 1%, that would be it for that day. If you have 100k and can trade 400k on any one position, you still use the 100k as your total capital; hence your limit would be 1000 to 2000 loss on any one trade.
4. Aim for a 3 to 1 profit/loss ratio. If your stop is 10 cents, your target gain should be 30 cents.
5. Over trading and not letting your profits hit their targets can hurt you just as bad as not leaving stops in place.
6. Have a system and back test it. Experiment with different P/L targets. Do I trade at market open or wait 15- 30 minutes before getting in? How long do I want to be in a position?
7. Don't keep changing your time frames and indicators until one finally meets what you want the stock to do. If you were wrong, adhere to your stop and move on.
Here is something that happened to me a long time ago and I am sure has happened to others:
You buy a stock at $10.00. You have a stop at $9.75. This is a day trade. Your stock goes to $9.55 and you freeze. You don't sell and say that this will now be a swing trade. A week goes by and the stock is now at $9.00. You convince yourself that you know you are right and that this is now an investment. 2 weeks later the stock is at $8.25. The following Monday a buyout or some other great news comes out and your stock is at 13 dollars. You are going nuts. You sell for a $3.00 profit. You tell yourself that you knew you were right all along.
3 months later you buy another 10.00 stock for a day trade. it goes below your stop and is at $9.65. You remember what happened last time and you think it will happen again. The stock slips to $8.75 a week later. You are not worried at all. You know you are right and the market is being manipulated by the market makers. Well, 1 month later your stock is at $4.95. You feel dejected and throw in the towel. You hate trading and say you'll never do it again. Sound familiar?
Trading is like when you were young and going to school. People told you to study hard, get good grades, etc. Do most of us listen or do we think we know it all? Only when we get older, and it's too late, do we realize we should've listened. Trading is the same way. We've all heard how to do it right, but we just won't listen until we experience the pain for ourselves. Why I ask, why?
did the same thing as yesterday missed the opening trade and counter traded under the CMA . I am growing in knowledge it is not a good idea to go long under CMA envolpe study
very restful night sleep and i started work 1 hour early started out with gold while keeping eye on YM
made less trades need to get trades down more , I stayed with trades longer today
i was trading gold and saw YM trade coming up off Andrews for i have been watching for months
i also had a bone thrown to me on gold with a 60m rising three candel pattern , target 60m 50sma I watched the 5m chart for entry that trade made me positive for the day in gold
very good trading day for me today , i got a late start around 10:00 am eastern and found trade set up easy on 5m chart I also was watchin 20 day 20m Andrews fork and saw trade set up comming
saw this trade coming in YM off andrews fork 2:50 pm eastern
don't have a lot to say , had a good morning , good nites sleep , the pivot studies worked excellent along with the envelope study, i also use a 555v chart not enough room to post trade entries and exits
had a tough afternoon with personal things, and with wind damage done again at business ,
i watched the afternoon trade on YM and same 20m fork worked again
didnt post monday 3-12 , had a meeting with a unhappy client at 1:00 pm and that had me frazzled and on edge that showed up in my trading , manged to claw my way back from a big loss after client meeting took a couple of Tylenol and went to sleep for rest of afternoon session.
I have a lot going on in business right now it is hard to keep emotions in check , lots of stress
tuesday 3-13
doing much better today with a contractor backing us up on work we have done back in the fall , lots of stress from business. the trade set up in gold was an easy one i spotted a rising three candel pattern on 15m gold and followed it on 5m chart keeping an eye on pivot i closed out gold long at the high
OK , little over 1 year later and a lot of testing firing up the trade journal with a trade strategy using a propriety study called BDB "Bank Da Buck's" along with price action
