Invested $7K and in Week 4: August 2011:$2,312 profit, Total profit in 8 weeks: $4,982

Following is a screen shot of my week 4: August 2011 Trades. Back to trading this week, broker issues seems to have been resolved atleast for now. After taking last week off not only did I analyze where I was going wrong but also how my broker was operating in different market conditions. I did try to open accounts elsewhere but taking money out from my existing account and transferring it over to new brokerage accounts would easily take about 2-3 weeks. Hence, I decided to stay with my broker for now. 


Overall a good week of trading, after some disastorous first weeks of August. It feels good to be back in the greens. At the end of the day, ALL I CARE ABOUT IS WINNING.

dchsn6

I HEART TRADING CAUSE IT'S MY LIFE

For me trading is a game which I try my best to be good at. It has a lot of similarities to my actual life.

1. I learn more from my losses than from my winners, just like in life when I'm down and out and I got nothing left to loose I come up with some great stuff which drive me out of the hole I had digged myself into.
2. Losses happens in trading but I don't take it personally, it's just a decision which went wrong. Just like in life when I make a bad decision it's not the end of the world but I learn from it and move on.
3. Cut your losses fast and let your winners run. In life, it relates best to relationships. There have been a lot of times when I became friends with someone and don't feel that he or she would be a good friend, I end everything and move on and develop long lasting relationships who improve the quality of my life.
4. I can never master the game (trading) but I can always improve, just like in life, nobody's life is perfect but you still live and learn and try to improvise on it.
5. While trading I am emotionless, I have found a system which works for me and it might not work for somebody else. In life, people need to find things they are good at, blindly following people has helped noone and copycats have never survived.
6. In trading when the day starts I am never biased whether the market or a stock is going to go up or down, I simply let the charts tell me during the day of what is happening at that point of time. Similarly in life, I am not biased toward a situation or a human being, I try to explore the situation or person by myself before I make a decision.
7. In trading I leave my ego at the door, I learn through out the day , I learn from each trade I make and never think I know everything cause every trade and every stock reacts differently. Similarly in life, I learn from different situations and relationships cause each one of them is different.
8. In trading being discipline is the key i.e. having a game plan and executing it. Similarly in life, having a goal and having steps to achieve it is the key.

Trading has taught me all of the above, even though I might struggle in trading i.e. profits might be lacking but it has taught me much more in my life than I ever thought.

dchsn6

Invested $7K and in Week 2: August 2011:$5,280 loss, Total profit in 7 weeks: $2670

Following is a screen shot of my week 2: August 2011 Trades. Tough 2 weeks. I won't be trading this week. I would be doing a lot of reading and self review.

Damn It brokers

I always thought if you trade a plan, you get the results but I didn't realize the importance of a good broker until this past week. Markets were volatile yes, but the more important thing is how your broker is reacting to those situations. My broker has just been ridiculous, the spreads between bid-ask has gone as high as 50-70 cents on options which has made not only profit making but also breakeven trades impossible. (the spreads on options and stocks can be manipulated by your broker)

I will give you a simple example of what I mean.

Let's say I am trading AAPL stock and its price is at $374 and its August 12 2011 $370 call options had quotes 4.50-4.75 (which means you buy it at 4.75 and sell it at 4.50). Therefore, when I expect the price to go up I buy August 12 2011 $370 call options for $4.50. Hence, just when I entered the trade I am down 25cents per share (if  I am trading 10 contracts which is 1000 shares, I am down $250 bucks).
Here is what I have noticed with my broker, as the the price of AAPL goes up, the bid-ask spread starts to widen , let's say now the price of AAPL is $376 and August 12 $370 call options would have quotes of 5-5.60. (which means you buy it at 5.60 and sell it at 5).

Honestly, I am a day trader who's looking for $2-$5 moves in a stock which corresponds to $1-$3 moves in options. Hence, wider the bid-ask spreads , I would need a bigger price movement just to breakeven.

A lot of people ask me why I am noticing it now.I noticed it only after reviewing my last two weeks of trade which have been total disaster. I decided to sit and down and review my trades and this was my observation.

My broker's trading platform at times is not able to send my trades to the exchange and yes, sometimes their trading platform would be down for a couple of minutes during trading day ( but never before or after market hours). --when I spoke to my broker the response I got is trading has 'TECHNOLOGY RISK', my response 'the only job of the broker is to have the technology up and running so that they are able to send the order I send, so I guess my BROKER is a RISK'.


I have been put on Platinum list by my broker effective August 1, 2011 and my profits have gone down and losses have accumulated to a large extent since August 1, 2011. Is there a coincidence, its for the reader to decide.

I will be out of Toronto for a few days, will try to update my results by next week.

dchsn6

Worst 2 weeks of trading

Month of August  has just been utter nonsense trading by me. Currently, I am still in profits from the day I started trading , however, the losses accumulated  these past two weeks have reduced my profits substantially.

As a trader, its time for me to sit down and review the reason for the losses I have been accumulating.
1. Not Sticking to my plan.
2. Not cutting losses early.
3. I can identify buying patterns with ease but my ability to identify pattern to shorts are the worst (and when the markets have been going on a downward spiral- its not helping the matters).
4. Chasing stocks.
5. My Broker which is Questrade is not helping the cause, every now and then I am getting stuck in trades and am not able to send orders because their backoffice is not able to communicate to the exchange.

What I am doing good
1. I am not doubling up after my losing trade (this has been my biggest improvement, a trader always have a tendency to double up after their losing positions trying to make up for his previous loss and in the process losing all his capital).

What I am looking to do
 For long positions I try to determine the relative strength of a stock by following S&P500 SSO or QQQ, to short I will be looking at inverse ETF'S like TZA or SDS (I will take short positions only when these inverse ETFs have a buying pattern in it).

I am restricting my self to trade only 3 patterns.

I would have said wish me GOOD LUCK, but in trading LUCK has no meaning nor any importance, neither has HOPE.

RISK MANAGEMENT (which is how you manage your trades is of prime importance) is something I would be giving the highest priority to.

ALL I  CARE about is WINNING. I am a big believer of comebacks, as long as a person haven't fallen into hole too deep to dig out of, comebacks are always possible. (im my case if i loose all my initial $7K, then comeback would not be possible at all).

dchsn6

Invested $7K and in Week 1: August 2011:$2,820 loss, Total profit in 6 weeks: $7,950

Following is a screen shot of my week 1: August 2011 trades. Markets haven't been easiest to trade. But I violated my rules and got what I deserved. I have spoken to a couple of experienced traders and according to them this week was the hardest to trade. But I am not making any excuses for my loss, I know what I did wrong and improvisation on your weakness is the name of the game. After all all I care about is WINNING!!