Swings..

I said I closed some swings before the FEDs, well I've closed all of them! and it turns out that since the FED cut interest they all kept going up, but I have no regrets about closing them.

I'll show you a winner and a loser just so you'd get in proportions how my swing trading looks like, I usually go only long in market condition as this (going up!), I look for strong stocks, that doubled at least the last year, and I try to join them when they make a new higher low.

BIDU +13%(best from my swings hehe I'm just showing off all of the others did like 4-7%):

CPHD -2.73%

Great day! +238$

Monday was a great day for me, I sold all of my swing positions due to the FED coming soon, the market has gapped up and my stocks did very well, sold most after a nice solid profit.

From now on I'll minimize my "overnight risk" as much as I can, I see that swing trading has given me 1/3 as much profits as day trading futures has given me, so I think that I'll stick to disciplined day trading.

I took only 1 day trade Monday, for a profit of 4 NQ pts (+75.5$ after commissions), I'll post chart later when I'll get my Internet connection home up and running.

Update:

This is the trade I took, I went long NQ at 2217 since I saw that the line I draw (lets call it intra-day resistance) was broken upward, which signal me to get long, I don't think I'd go short on 2214 and lower since it didn't seem like the time for short looking at the other indexes(s&p and djia).

I somehow knew the market will hit the resistance line there at about 2222 so I just sold for a minor profit, but still, profit is a profit :)

I start to see that I'm evolving my own style, or method, w/e you call it, I wait everyday patiently for the best setup I can find, and I take it, usually risking 2 NQ pts to win 4++ points, this is some nice risk reward ratio, and statistically long term the method should work, so some day I'll lose 40$, maybe 50$ after com's and slippage on one contract, but long term I don't need to be right more than 50% of my trades in order to make money (due to risk reward ratio Begin higher than 2:1).

I hope my positive attitude over trading will finally pay off, right now I'm in deep losses due to the initial mistakes of my day trading carrier, and I know that there are a lot of mistakes I shouldn't make again, and this "1 trade a day" method is the most relaxed I can, and doesn't encourage "overtrading", if I'll keep it going well until the end of November I'll start higher my size, and trade more contacts.

Trading is all about discipline, and patience, trading is the best field in the world, you discover yourself everyday, I really love trading, and sure glad my account had enough cushion to land on when I first started day trading and lost Hugh sums of money :)

If my plans continue accordingly I will be able to quit my job about 3 years from now, it might sound far, but I'll only be 26 by then, and hopefully a bit "richer" than today.

Weekly review

Well this week I didn't put on new day trades, just followed my swings, didn't have time nor did I have the mental power to trade, so I didn't push myself to trade, today I even had a "signal" that could have gotten me a lot of money, but I missed it and didn't feel like trading, next week I'll come with new powers!

Swings have made me +120$ this week, even after the gap down of VDSI, so I think I'll continue swing trading until I see if it fits my trading style.

Hope you guys had a good week aswell.

Gapping down :(

Quick update:
Today my swing position of VDSI have gapped down today and is now -33.95% only today, this have been my biggest nightmare, usually stocks gap down 10% max, and it is ok since other swings are winners and overall I'm usually up, but this is too much, the last straw? might just be.
I'll be thinking about it this weekend, I hate it when stuff like this happen, after I'm finally up 327$ on my day trade, which used to be harder for me than swing trade, I'm almost break even on the month results because of my swing trading.
Also, I think that I didn't day trade in the last few days because my mind was too busy thinking what should I do with the swing trading..

I think that swing trading is too stressful for me, and today's gap down have shown me what I hate the most about this style of trading, this unexpected stuff are terrible for business, in day trade you don't hold positions over night and therefore you go to sleep with the profit / loss that you had that day, and when you come back to trade a week later it remains the same..

I'll think about it over the weekend, any thoughts from my 2.5 readers?

Nothin' much..

I didn't trade in the last few days, didn't find the time, today I'll arrive home late, I might try to trade a little when I come back.

I found out that trading require maximum concentration, so I won't trade while I'm at work, and I won't trade if I cannot focus on it, I think that tomorrow will be a nice day to trade.

Taking things easy, this means I don't rush myself into trades I don't feel sure about, I've found out that it's the best way to trade, but I've found it the hard way while losing a lot of money.
Yesterday I looked at my "expectations" xls file, where I fantasize about great results, and my "take is easy" way have conquer it too, I finally not putting too unrealistic results there, for example I want to make only about 300$ this month, sum of money which can be made in a day, right now I'm up 238$ this month, due to the crazy swings actions, if I take for account only day trade I'm up 327.5$.
And still, my expectations are that in about 2-5 years I will be able to quit my job, which means I'll have enough confidence and money in order to trade for a living, now that is a nice goal to aspire for!

Also, I'll try to test if my swing trading is good for my style of trading, I cannot afford myself making money day trade NQ emini and lose money swing trading, I'll give it a go for the next few months, let's see how it develops.

The market is going random!

First of all I'd like to admit that I don't get the stock market sometimes, today for example I started -200$ on my swings, and after about 25 minutes in I was up already, I'm not sure how can it be but.. I'm happy anyways :)

Today I went to a wedding so I didn't trade, only to come back after hours and see that AAPL is going +11$ after market, so my immediate thought was "hmm, I wonder if it hit my price target.." and it did, my target was 180$ and the stock is up to 185.9, so I just sold my position as described in the following screen shot:

Weired day today, but I'm happy I've got to earn some bucks after all of the harsh time that the market has put us through.

Weekly review. +55$

Well nothing to brag about, this week have shown me that when I obey my rules fully I can make money, while I know that 55$ doesn't count actually as money, it's still not losing money.

I think that by limiting my losses I can actually concentrate on maximizing my profits, but for now I'm happy with the results, my stats for the last two weeks is about 40$ a day on 1 contract, doing the same trading lets say 5 contracts, means making 200$ daily, that is a nice figure right there, but I won't increase size until I will be consistent with my profits for about two months, and then I will only increase my size by 1 contract, taking it easy, I cannot afford such a stress.

Some more personal stuff:

I'm about to buy mountain bicycles Saracen Ariel 2, I'm finally about to be cycling again, didn't do it since I was like 12 or so, last time it was in China going to far away villages, seeing how they live, I love exploring cultures..

Friday skydiving was nice, I did the Fourth level successfully, had some fun in the skydive itself but landed so far that they had to come pick me up with an ATV :) other than that I just relaxed a bit, thinking again about the stuff I wanna do with my 20's.. what I mostly want is to use the time that I don't have real commitment, wife, kids and stuff to explore the world, have fun traveling and seeing other cultures etc..

Have a good week.
Tom

Wondering about trading..

Lately I've been wondering a lot about trading, whether it's possible to have consistent results or not, if it worth it or not, and such.

I see that two of the bloggers (tyro, phileo)quit day trading for a while, and it makes me wonder..

Why do we all drawn into trading? well that's easy, it promises big money with little amount of effort, well the truth being is that it's "enough money" with "a lot of effort", just face it, we all go through a long journey before seeing the real money, lately I've had some consistency and it's still not enough to pay any of my bills, but what my advise would be to gain confidence in your ability to trade, save a lot of money working for a regular paycheck, and only then start trading for a living.

Trading is a style of life, and while it doesn't offer the same challenges as you have at your work, it offer something else, it offers freedom, yes, you've read correctly, freedom, and that is the ability to do your job (in our case trade) from anywhere on the planet, and be able to make as much money as you do at work and more (if you play your cards right), trading doesn't seem like a gamble to me, nor does it seem like something that needs luck, it's just a calculated risk vs calculated profit, you need to love it in order to dedicate a big chunk of your life into it.

I guess trading doesn't suits everybody's lifestyle, and it might be psychologically difficult to handle with days like last Friday (down day for all of the swing traders since the whole market went down), I still believe that if you think positive enough, you will be able to generate a positive results.

+60$ NQ, -230$ swings hehe

Well swings positions are not closed at all, but they made me undesireable "unrealized loss" of 230$ today, I guess it wasn't so smart to take positions one day b4 options expiration day.

I call it a good day since I was able to make money in the NQ's. Anyways I'm glad I'm building my Futures day trading confidence, in the long term I can always decide which style suits me more, the reason I left swing trading a few months ago is a days like this, where all of the market is down and I only have Long swings, which are all red for the day, I had it happening to me many times and decided it is better for my health to day trade, not leaving money on the table over night.

But lately I saw that my day trading has developed to such extent that I can also continue swing trade and make some money "on the side".

Today's trade wasn't so exsiting so I will not post a chart, but again it was in one trade, bahh if I would just short at the beginning of the day and cover in the end... ez money lol :) but no one could have guessed the market will act so bazar lately.

Have a greet weekend,

And on the personal side, I've made a good skydiving jump today, I need 4 more to complete my AFF course and be able to jump out of airplanes alone.. (hehe I think all of us traders are a bit of andrenaline junkies, take dino for example surfing them waves : )

+105$ and loving it :)

Ok you guys, I finally feel more optimistic about my future as a trader, it doesn't mean I will not take precaution steps to avoid being in a "God-Mode" and thinking my trades will always go my way, but I'm starting to trust myself again, and truly believe in myself, and as they say, "with success come confidence", this time they are right :)

What happened?
A recipe for a good trader - First, lose money doing foolish mistakes, and promise yourself you never do them again, Second, lose even more money doing the same foolish mistakes, over trading, thinking "the next trade will save me for sure" and take trades without proper setup, try to scalp your way up, higher your quantity before you can handle 1 contract in NQ (or in stocks 1000 shares instead of just 100).

And Finally (step 3), after you promise yourself you wouldn't make mistakes again, lose enough money that will make you reflect on things for a month, and tell yourself "It's either I survive in this game, or go bust in less than a month..", and trade well, stop losing money, and even start making some.. just a little thought..

So you're asking what happened? I bet you do.. well I believe I'm in step 3, I finally lost enough money to shake my confidence in the business of day trading, and started actually to become cautious, I start following my trading plan by heart, disconnecting emotion from trading as much as I can, and cut losses so fast that two days ago I lost 70$ on 3 trades (2 losing 1 winning) and just finished the day, I cannot afford myself to lose a lot of money in one day, and that is the mistake I made in the start, I could lose 1000$ in one day (on small account!), now was I stupid or what?

Well enough with the educational part about losing money and stuff, and let's get to the report of the day:

Arriving home late after a relaxed day at work, I got back just in time to "miss" the 14:15 short, well at least I think it was a nice setup breaking the uptrend. I saw it with my own eyes, but wasn't able to take the trade since I still have some self confidence issues..

So I waited like a hawk, stocking his pray, which in this case was the NQ Future, and at 14:54 I decided I saw a setup of a double bottom and that the market will break up and took a long @ 2201, setting my stop at 2199.25 (below latest swing low), soon after I took the trade I had a little "heart attack" when NQ went down to 2200.

But hey, it's only a point down, so I stood my ground which in this case was the stop loss :), after seeing the NQ perform well, driving his friends the ES and YM up I figure it would be nice to set what I call a "stop win" at 2203.25, below the next swing low, and after a while (16 min in the trade) I sold at 2106.5, for humble 5.5 NQ pts, it's not a lot, but hey, it's money! :)

Here is the visual:


Oh and did I say Thank you NQ? ahh no, so 10Q NQ ;)

Have a nice day everyone!

Btw - another "1 trade a day", I think it's enough for me to find one good setup a day..

Things look better +130$

Woopy! a profitable day with only one trade!

Today I've made only 1 trade since I see that whenever I overtrade I lose money, so I just took 1 trade and it's enough for me for today, I couldn't take the morning breakdown because I was at work, but at least I got to take the reversal.



At 14:26 I took 1 long NQ@2163.75 , which I took since the downtrend was breaking down and the 2nd resistance point of NQ was hit, also I saw that during the last few day NQ couldn't go lower than that point so I figure it is a strong support, soon after dealing with my "greed" issues, I sold my position at 14:42 @ 2170.5, which is a 6.75 NQ pts, give me this "much" points everyday and I'm happy, for now I trade only 1 contract, but in a few years when I'll have enough capital 6.75 pts with 10 contracts will be 1300$, which is almost half of my monthly salary today hehe :)

Notice it's not the end of the trading day just yet, but after a nice "performance" as this I'm finishing my day early, going to eat and stuff,

Have nice day

Yet another losing day -70$

Today I've made some mistakes, but I'm still happy with the result, let me explain..

Ok so the first trade I took was stupid, but it was stopped right after losing 2 NQ pts, and then I made another trade and decided to sell on profit after 2 NQ pts, so were even now right? Nope, commissions make me be on the downside at the beginning of the day.

Then I had spotted a beautiful setup, took it, and it actually ran 4 pts up, and I really wanted to sell 3.5 pts in up but greed have made me not to, I saw that the direction of the trend is changing against me and still waited for the initial stop loss, not good, at one point I wanted to quit at the entry and just be even, but stupidity didn't let me.

As for the rest of the day I had spotted two 5pts NQ moves and froze before taking them, so I decided to just quit the trading day very early, and put myself into a test, when I first day traded I would open my trading platform after saying I wouldn't, but nowadays I do all sort of thing in order to avoid it, yesterday I just went having fun with friends, and today I tested my self control and stayed home, with the computer, and yet didn't open my trading platform, that is why I said up there that I'm still happy with today.

Hope to have a better day tomorrow :)

Monday trades..

The PnL for today is -8.5 NQ points and here are the mistakes.
First of all I traded at work even thought I have a rule against it, so the trades were stressed, and not nice.

Since I'm new to NQ I didn't put myself auto stop loss like I have 10pts in YM, so after investigating the charts I set myself a rule of risking only 2 NQ points each trade, unless the market volatility grows (happens rarely).

You know what is freefalling? this is what I did with the futures today, just letting them fall on me, it's not good for business, also I traded against the main trend, even thought all markets confirmed that there might be a direction change.

The second trade was stupid, I didn't know how exactly should I risk so I just went on with the trade, and quit too early, it was eventually to be a winner but I sold at it's weakest point.

Note to self - next time you don't have time to trade, just don't.. you need a piece of mind in order to trade.

+5 points at NQ..

I feel like a changed trader, lately I take my trading in a more mature way, I don't over trade, and I feel my confidence is building with every success I make, and I don't get arrogant after a winning streak, this was learned the hard way, after believing so much in my "good calls" for trades and going without a stop.. so this is what I did today:

At 12:47 I thought the market will continue his rally up, and took a long position:

soon after taking the long position I saw that the market breaks down and figured it would be a nice time to sell my long for a small loss(1.5pts) and join the bears with a short position two minutes later (at the same price that I've sold my long position).

It looked like this:

After that I had enough of real money day trading for the day, and put myself a "paper trade" of long 1 @ 2185.5 at 13:30, I'm happy it was a profitable call, even though it was only on paper, I still happy with my result.

Overall I had a nice day, my swings did nice today and once I'll see some of them I'll put on charts and investigate how I reacted with the positions.

The market did well today

I didn't take any trades today since I freezed over the first ideal trade (1 pm), I didn't take the short like I should have, and then I had regrets and wanted to take long thinking it would continue up, then when I saw that I did 2 mistakes, freezing and then making a false call, I just didn't feel like trading for the rest of the day, so I didn't get in sync with the markets today.

I know it will happen from time to time, and I just need to think positive, it's was for the best that I didn't take long thinking the market would continue his longer term trend, but yeah, I could have made some nice money shorting today, lesson learned, do not hesitate, usually my calls are correct, and if not, so what? losing 50$ for winning 200$ is a good deal., even if I lose 3 times I still get to earn money in the long run.

This is how the first set up that made me freeze look like:

Good trading day today!

I'm glad to say that today I finally got it right, after a long time of losing many trades for the "market noise" in YM, since I'm well undercapitlized and can't take such a big loss, I finally did the right thing and moved to trade NQ.

I got back from work (Israel.. I come back at about 12:30am your time), trying not to think about work too much, too many strange things happen lately, boss being bitchy etc, so after eating dinner I went to look at my stocks screen, which I'll soon cover (fairly simple), and lurked the futures good.

After watching some cool skydiving videos I saw that ES is about to make a move, and the volumes of NQ confirmed, so after my market compass (ES / YM / NQ) which was ES this time showed me that there is about to be a move, I looked at NQ, and figured I can risk 2 points to see if the market really changed direction in the second half of the day.
I tried buying NQ@2186 @ 13:45 but couldn't get a fill, I wanted this trade badly since ES was really showing it's about to change direction, so I put an order @2187 and got instant fill, had a small heart attack at 14:10 since NQ moved down to 2185.5, but then continued to trend nicely until I had enough and got out at 2192.5 (+5.5), I could of stayed in this trade and make more bucks but I had to go so I just sold as high as I could.

NQ Chart:


ES my humble market Compass of the day:

Swinging again!

After almost half a year of only day trading and mainly losing money, I'm glad I decided to mix it with swing trading as I think my day trading became more controllable and the less I trade the more quality I find and make more money.

VSEC did great for me today!

I hope my swing trading will improve with time, now that I'm posting I'll share my success and mistakes as I like learning from other people. just so you know I trade des woodruf style, after watching his videos I was inspired by the simplicity he put things on and a week after watching his videos I opened my own trading account :)

Trading lightly lately..

I had some Internet connectivity problems so I am not trading too much lately, maybe its also a way for me to relax and reflect on the past 4 months that I've been day trading at.

First of to summarize the last 4 months, "I have learned a lot!", I never thought it would be so difficult, I've lost a lot of money, but I call it tuition money, maybe it was too much ,but at least I learned from it, I got to know myself better, what kind of trader am I, I set myself more realistic goals than I did before.

Friday was a nice day, I didn't pull the trigger at the beginning and missed the first breakout here:

But later in the day I did take a trade and got 4.5 NQ points, lately I switch from YM to NQ, I see that YM is too volitile for my small capital, I still follow NQ ES and YM at the same time to confirm my signals, so finally I'm up 90$, hehe long time that I didn't trade.

Have a great week!