Saturday, August 16, 2008

Doing a little project so I can get a better understanding of my trading

I read that successful traders keep a detailed journal of their trades each day. They make daily, weekly and monthly reviews to find their weaknesses and strengths. This is one area where I need to devote my time on.

Right now my journal usually consist of a brief entry of a few sentences. I would write stuff like, I was impatient today and traded impulsively, or I started out with losses and they got worse because I forced trades so I can make my money back. I want to improve my trading at a faster pace and this kind of info in my journal is inadequate. I need more in depth analysis.

Today I got a idea. My trading software has a trade analyzer feature which creates a break down of my trades each day. It includes the shares traded, stocks traded, pnl, # winning trades, # losing trades etc. I have been collecting the data dating back to 2006 but haven't really done anything with them. I am such a lazy trader. You might have seen this format before if you follow Dehtrader's blog. I think we use the same broker.

Here is an analysis of Thursday's trading. The day I got hit for a $700 loss. I did not get any big hits. The little losses were the ones that killed me. I had a terrible win rate of 18%. I traded 9600 shares and lost $375 during the midday chop period.

I am going to input the data into excel and do some analysis. It is a tedious task but I think I can get a good understanding of my some of my weaknesses. I am still gathering ideas on how to analyze my stats.




2 comments:

Tomer said...

I guess I know what you mean, I've read it in books as well, that the traders that have a better jounals (detailed etc) are the ones that make money regulary.
Whenever I take screen shots of my trades, I stay disciplined and make money, whenever I don't I lose money, this is a pattern that I'm just realizing, usually when I start trading again I post charts, and I make money, and then after some time I get bored and I don't save the charts, not even 1 a day, and my trading looks like shit.

Lesson learned, do your detailed journal :)

Banker said...

I have been trading for years but do not keep a journal (never really have). What I do instead is write about the market. What is going on, what I think are the driving forces etc etc. I also read....READ ALOT. It has helped me identify trends in the markets (direction, yield plays etc etc), as I trade longer term.

I like the blog I will check in from time to time....Good Luck

About Me

I have been trading for 5 years. It took close to a year before I became profitable. I find that I am improving gradually each year. My method of choice is scalping. My edge lies in tape reading NYSE stocks and staying on the side of the specialist. That is the method I learned when I started. As I build up my capital I will try new styles and trade new markets. In late 2006 my trading hit a rough patch after the introduction of the NYSE Hybrid system. For most of 2007, I have been on a search for new strategies that would help me adapt to the market.