Hi, I'm here to improve my trading skills by keeping this journal as I believe it's a good way to improve everything. I've started to trade about 6 months ago, but I had a full time job in Bay Area as an IT guy, so didn't have enough time to learn trading. I've started with ETF's like UGAZ/DGAZ, was profitable until it dropped from $60 to $20. Of course I didn't sell anything, I expected it to go up but as I know already it's not going to happen when the winter is ended. I still keep UGAZ and hope that I will return my money this winter, when\if the price will come back, but I understand everything I did before wasn't really trading, because the only "indicators" I used is support\resistance. While working at my job, I found few people who trade and traded long time ago, so I had an opportunity to ask them questions and make sure that the whole market is not just a big scam. After I realized that it's real to make money trading stocks and any other securities, I've made a decision that I need to quit my job and start to trade. Since I'm an immigrant, I've moved temporarily back to my country where it's much cheaper to live and started to trade. I've been trading only for about 2 months already, have read about 4 books, watch YouTube videos of different traders and try to find any information that can help me to trade.
At the beginning I couldn't understand what to do at all. I've configured my soft, I made a watch list, had 6 charts that was looking during trading time, but it made everything more difficult because I couldn't focus on one thing. But after time your eyes slowly catch something and you see that there are repetitive behavior. I can't say that I have my strategy already, I don't, but I have few "situations" that I try to test.
For now I try to handle my emotions, because I just started to trade with real money last week, and lost about 70% of each position. I've started to trade options, first day it was BA, I've shorted and could make 10% in 10-20 seconds, but was too greedy to sell because expected it go deeper. After few moments it began to go up, and I just was looking how I lose my money, I just couldn't close the position because didn't want to lose even $1, I was sure eventually the price will go down, and in fact I was right, but it happened later than I expected. It happened next day, and it dropped even lower, so potentially I could make a very profitable trade IF the price of options didn't decrease every day, because of Time Value, of course I didn't know about that, so I've paid about 70% for that mistake.
Emotionally of course I wasn't that good, but it took me only few days to use same amount of money for another trade. I kind of had my plan, it was APPL stock, I was looking it from the beginning, at the moment where I decided to short it, believe me or not, my broker just didn't let me make that trade because the website was lagging, and after 3-4 seconds the stock just literally tumbled down, if my broker let me short that position I would make 100% in about 30-60 seconds and could return all my loses from the previous trade. Of course I was upset but still wanted to return my money, that is where I started to make mistakes again. I saw that the stock went down along with the whole market (SPY) so it started to go back up, since I didn't use my brain anymore, I've shorted it just hoping that it will go down again. It went little bit and stayed there for a long time, without huge volume, so I SHOULD HAVE closed that trade because I didn't have idea where it is going to go, it was pure gambling. So rather than taking small profit I decided to wait, and it started to go up, after I started to see "-" before my earnings, I couldn't stop the position again. Long story short, I've lost about 90% of those 2 contracts, because when I see that I lost for example more that 20% already, I feel like either I wait until it goes back to my price or I don't care and ready to loose everything. When it started to go up, I even made one more movement, I bought 1 contract for long (call), so I can somehow take back some of my loses if it will go against my short (put). It could be even worse mistake, but luckily I made about 40% with that call so at least I didn't blow up my account.
Okay I've texted a lot already, so I need to focus on few goals for the next week:
1. Train myself to close position if it goes against me without any hesitation, just do it right away.
2. Don't try to be a millionaire making one trade, remember that it's a game about consistency and discipline.
3. Stop trading if I feel that emotions control me.
4. Find my setup, by testing few already existed.
1.
2.
At the beginning I couldn't understand what to do at all. I've configured my soft, I made a watch list, had 6 charts that was looking during trading time, but it made everything more difficult because I couldn't focus on one thing. But after time your eyes slowly catch something and you see that there are repetitive behavior. I can't say that I have my strategy already, I don't, but I have few "situations" that I try to test.
For now I try to handle my emotions, because I just started to trade with real money last week, and lost about 70% of each position. I've started to trade options, first day it was BA, I've shorted and could make 10% in 10-20 seconds, but was too greedy to sell because expected it go deeper. After few moments it began to go up, and I just was looking how I lose my money, I just couldn't close the position because didn't want to lose even $1, I was sure eventually the price will go down, and in fact I was right, but it happened later than I expected. It happened next day, and it dropped even lower, so potentially I could make a very profitable trade IF the price of options didn't decrease every day, because of Time Value, of course I didn't know about that, so I've paid about 70% for that mistake.
Emotionally of course I wasn't that good, but it took me only few days to use same amount of money for another trade. I kind of had my plan, it was APPL stock, I was looking it from the beginning, at the moment where I decided to short it, believe me or not, my broker just didn't let me make that trade because the website was lagging, and after 3-4 seconds the stock just literally tumbled down, if my broker let me short that position I would make 100% in about 30-60 seconds and could return all my loses from the previous trade. Of course I was upset but still wanted to return my money, that is where I started to make mistakes again. I saw that the stock went down along with the whole market (SPY) so it started to go back up, since I didn't use my brain anymore, I've shorted it just hoping that it will go down again. It went little bit and stayed there for a long time, without huge volume, so I SHOULD HAVE closed that trade because I didn't have idea where it is going to go, it was pure gambling. So rather than taking small profit I decided to wait, and it started to go up, after I started to see "-" before my earnings, I couldn't stop the position again. Long story short, I've lost about 90% of those 2 contracts, because when I see that I lost for example more that 20% already, I feel like either I wait until it goes back to my price or I don't care and ready to loose everything. When it started to go up, I even made one more movement, I bought 1 contract for long (call), so I can somehow take back some of my loses if it will go against my short (put). It could be even worse mistake, but luckily I made about 40% with that call so at least I didn't blow up my account.
Okay I've texted a lot already, so I need to focus on few goals for the next week:
1. Train myself to close position if it goes against me without any hesitation, just do it right away.
2. Don't try to be a millionaire making one trade, remember that it's a game about consistency and discipline.
3. Stop trading if I feel that emotions control me.
4. Find my setup, by testing few already existed.
1.
2.
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