Gaining Traction
Since my "hell week" from early last month, where I lost 5 days in a row, I've been on a decent run. I've been green about 2 of every 3 days and have booked $2000 in gains. Surely, a $24,000 year is nothing to be too proud of, but all of those gains were made entirely from the new style of trading I've been working on... no "old DT" plays.
Once you get the hang of a style of trading, and gain confidence in it, making more money with it is as simple (okay... or as difficult) as increasing your position sizes. Since I've been trading largely with 200 and 300 share positions, it shouldn't be too difficult to almost get to a living wage level of earnings again.
I've been trading extremely lightly... trying hard to identify exactly the right time to enter positions in order to maximize my gains and control my losses. I've been very careful with my position sizing. I haven't had any psychologically damaging loss days... in short, I feel as if I've made some real progress. I mean, I know why I'm making money, and when I lose money, I know what I'm doing wrong. I also know that I've left a lot on the table, even with my small size... I could have done much better this past month even with my small lots.
Perhaps my hell week was the bottom. Anyway, I've been bouncing along this bottom for so long, that I'm cautiously optimistic at best... but I feel better, at least.
My best trade of the day came in CMI. HCPG alerted to a possible short through $66. It was a little wild early, but calmed down right by the opening low to plunge through $66.50. I caught a quick half point on 400 of the 500 shares. The other 100 shares I stopped at my entry, hoping for a larger move.
Unfortunately, the "larger move" I was hoping for came in the middle of the day, when I'm loath to trade. I also wasn't quite sure how to handle the stock since it had already violated "the number" in the morning and sharply rallied back through it... so I missed it.
Too bad.
I also had some decent trades in XTO and CSH. Again, the best thing is that I kept my losses in check. My worst loss of the day was on a 100 share position in FCX, for $58.
Off to the beach for some sunset dining with friends. It's way too hot to hang around in the house...
Anyway, here's the stats:
P&L, $270
Best, CMI, $205
Worst, FCX, -$58
4800 shares traded
9 stocks traded, 4 winners, 5 losers.
10 comments:
First of all - congratz for another positive day!
Now for the bad news...do you really believe CMI was a good trade or was it more luck than brains?
One of the worst things than can happen to a trader is taking a bad trade and making money. IMHO this is exactly the case here, so I'd watch out from geeting in to trades based on similar situations.
This is, of course, my personal opinion and may or may not agree/accept it.
congrats!
SH,
No, I think it was a good trade. The stock had big volume, was weak in a surging market, and near a target low from a little over a week back. The intraday setup was far from perfect, but I had a good entry and a low risk exit.
So overall, I'm happy with it. It did what I wanted it to do immediately after I entered. I'll take it.
-DT
What part of the country do you live in? Where I'm at we're still waiting to take off our winter coats. Enjoy the beach, I'm jealous!
East Coast.
Where do you live? Alaska?
-DT
Close enough...Portland, OR. Been 55 and raining for what seems like months now. Oh wait, it has been months.
That's actually a place I want to visit. Everyone tells me I would want to move there if I checked it out.
Anyway, I'd take rain and 55 over 95 and humid anyday... it was nice at the beach though...
-DT
Portland really is cool...very livable, clean, lot going on and pretty progressive...you just don't move here for the weather (although our summers are some of the best anywhere IMHO).
Great job! I love success!
hi dt.
i live in portland and i gotta say portland summers are one of the best! speaking of which, it's mid june and i am still waiting to see some sun!!!
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