I was catching up on my blog reading and I found two links to some good reading material. I felt compare to share this great find. Jeff has compiled a list of books on his blog - Master of the Universe's Weblog. You can find it on the top right hand corner.
17700 shares
-1050
I let my emotions get the better of me and gambled. When my losses started to climb I took some 500-600 share trades and they all failed badly. If I use Attitude Trader's grading system, my AI is a -10 today. I need to make some changes because what I am doing now is not working. I need to take some time off so I can draw up a new trading plan. If I am going to take a 1k hit for the day I should be taking well planned trades with stops and targets. If I follow my plan even though I get stopped out of all my trades I will feel a lot better than blowing my money in bad trades.
I am wondering why I am stuck in a rut these days. Half of the month have gone by and I am only up $400. It is frustrating to put in the time and effort only to see minuscule returns. I did not encounter any big blowups. I had 2 days when I lost $200.
I think the volatility is good and the opportunities are there but my psychology is preventing me from taking advantage of the moves. I feel like I am getting even more conservative. A month ago I was able to make more trades and embrace the risks. My performance a year ago in November 2007 is much better than my results now. I had a lot more guts back then.
Since I am only up a little this month, I am afraid of losing my gains and being negative. It feels like a trading day when you make a couple hundred right off the bat. You get sloppy and take a series of loser and end up giving away most of your gains. Now you are in a situation where you are torn between making your money back and fear of losing more and going negative. I have had many experiences like this and I think most of the time things get ugly. This is how I feel about my month. The fear of ending the month negative is crippling.
Sorry to bore you guys with the depressing account of my trading. On the bright side I may be down but I am not beaten. I still have my hopes up and I will keep trying till I figure things out.
In my previous post I had an $800 loss. That happened 2 weeks ago. It took me 9 trading days to recover from my loss. I usually recover faster but the loss I had made me think about my trading style and I felt there was something missing. During these past 2 weeks I made some tweaks to my rules. I think the major change is the incorporating some chart patterns to my trade selection criteria. I think it helps me see some order in the market and it also helps strengthen my conviction when I put on a trade.
I thought my blow ups are in the past since I have been trading small and exercising discipline for over 2 weeks. Today I lost it and got emotional again. I was cursing at my mistakes and praying for my losers to work. I was down around $280 and I took a 500 share trade and lost $150. After that I lost my cool and forced more trades. I lost $800 today and now I am down $200 for the week.
I think there's going to be some big numbers DT's RO. I made $1100 today, effectively coming back from my bad week at the end of September. I made half my gains from going long in the late day rally. When my Esignal Nosignal crapped out I knew volume was exploding. I had to rely on my basic charts in my trading platform. They were a life saver. I was in early and there was this voice that told me to get aggressive and take some size. I did not do it and only took 100 shares of FLS and 200 SPW.
Looks like we did not get a capitulation day yet. I was expecting a reverse head and shoulders reversal and the market to close green. During the day I did not see much selling in the stocks I traded. They seem to be only trickling down. Looking forward to be a little more aggressive when the reversal day comes.
I started trading near the end of 2002 which was the start of the bull market. It is eye opening to see a bear market unfold. If the stock market is still around after this crisis I think the experience I gain will help me in the next cycle.
I took the rest of September off after my beating. I think I had my biggest losing day and worst week since I started trading. Right now I am taking it slow and trading small. I ended last week green with a small gain.
My attitude changed for the better. Right now I am not upset about missing all these opportunities out there. I got into trouble because I let my mind get clouded by the thought of making big gains. I am reading Trading in the Zone again to refresh my memory. I am focusing on being patient and taking trades when I can accept the risk. I am just going to go at my own pace toward better trading. I want to get the confidence in taking the right setups and managing my trades. Profits will come as I get comfortable with my style.
I got myself into trouble again. The past two days I was able to make a come back from being down over $300. Today my confidence was gone. I lost $625 today. My lack of discipline is pretty alarming. It is tough to start every day losses. I think I am going to take the rest of the month and preserve the little profit I have left.
