Monday, December 3, 2007

What I Learned Today

Okay, well a lot of this will sound obvious or perhaps repetitive. I've read these same things many times before. I am writing this post mostly, for myself.

As far as I can tell there were 3 main factors to my "blowup" today.

1. Amazingly poor trading in AG, my second worst stock of the day. I made 10 unprofitable trades in the stock, 1 profitable trade.

2. CF. I played the "anticipation" game and lost. Meaning that instead of waiting for him to break a downtrend line to purchase, I continually anticipated the break and it never broke the line.

3. "Pyramiding" incorrectly. I was adding to my positions in stocks too late, or sometimes, too quickly. Pyramiding may work in a strongly trending market, but in a choppy trendless market, it is not a good strategy. On days where there is no clear trend or strong movement, it probably is best to buy (or short) once instead of aggressively adding to the position.

In short, I made lots of bad decisions today.

Here are some "rules" I've written down so that maybe in time I will remember them.

* Don't try and pick tops. At least wait for a pullback and a failed test of the high. Anything else is insanity. ESPECIALLY at the open.

* If a stock doesn't drop below your entry don't needlessly second guess your position. Winners sometimes develop slowly. Give them time and let them run.

* Don't trade trendless, low volume stocks.

* If you trade a stock 3 times in a row unprofitably, you're churning it. Leave it alone.

* Unless you're trading with levels from the previous day, or unless a stock is breaking some pre-determined level on it's daily chart trade the open with half size.

* Pay strong attention to the levels set in the first half hour of trading.

13 comments:

Ragin' Cajun said...

DT,

today was a rough day, I picked the perfect day to get chopped around.

I took home a loss today too.

Dinosaur Trader said...

Ragin,

Sorry about that. Did you trade much differently since it was your first Remata day? Or was your fuck up unrelated to that?

-DT

Ragin' Cajun said...

I traded differently, and got chopped to pieces.

Bubs said...

Today was rough, I made most of my money at the open and just watched the rest of the day.

HPT said...

Just remember DINO,
Your "BLOW UPS" ain't got Shit on mine...I'm the blow up KING!
I doubt there will ever be a better BLOW UP artist in the VO than ME!

HPT............out........ :)

Dinosaur Trader said...

HPT,

I gladly yield the "blowup" award to you.

-DT

Sanglucci said...

Damn like that HPT???? What happened man... I mean how bad could the blow up have been>??????

Dinosaur Trader said...

Sang,

Check my earlier post today linking to HPT's site. There, he has a post up with a link to his big disaster days of the year.

For awhile, he renamed his blog "High Probability Blowup." You should check it out, definitely "blogroll worthy."

-DT

Sanglucci said...

Holy shit HPT.... that's some shit rite there I don't even know what to say... Most of those posts came from earlier this year so it looks like u been cuttin those kinda days out??? Maybe..? Hopefully? But you said it yaself on ya blog man you still here and still at it...

Bluedog said...

DT,

Bad day, but at least it forced you to rethink your trading rules. It's a good list and shows you're refining your technique. It's only a matter of time before you will become UNSTOPPABLE. ;)

-BD

Dinosaur Trader said...

Hey BD,

Good to see you back! How was it "down under?"

-DT

lawrence said...

HEy guys i guess there are some days that is really hard to pu t in any trade.

Therefore i feel that even though we are day trader, we should not be trading everyday. We should wait for the signal to come and not go for the signal.

Patience always pay off well.

No trade no lose...
Trade will either yield win or lose

Never ever force yourself into trading...

I guess just a one of dip for you dino... just get over it and start again fresh today. Let make a killing today. I expect a slightly bullish day.

Bluedog said...

DT,

Thanks! It was F$#%!'in awesome, mate!! You would have loved the surf at Noosa. I wore boardshorts and a rashguard, and ripped it up in 4-6' perfection while sea turtles and tropical fish swam below.

BD