Called it a day

[stuie1963]

I Don't mind opening myself up on here and state that I have given up on my day trading adventure. The last 8 day's have seen me have a loser to winner ratio of 18/1.Thats with me using pivot points ema's and 20 years TA experience. Without trying to get all X files, the majority of my trades all reversed on me within minutes of putting them on(if you tried to do that in your favour it would be impossible).I understand it does not make sense because the markets costs millions to move 1 point so why worry about my £100,But even a retard with a mouse in his hand could achieve a better trade win average than this. I will remain suspicious and leave this game to better men than me. I would like to say if your a trader in the US you don't know how lucky you are because the FTSE spreads/commissions/whipsaw indexing make day trading UK stocks almost impossible.
stu

 

[Mr Fox]

I Don't mind opening myself up on here and state that I have given up on my day trading adventure. The last 8 day's have seen me have a loser to winner ratio of 18/1.Thats with me using pivot points ema's and 20 years TA experience. Without trying to get all X files, the majority of my trades all reversed on me within minutes of putting them on(if you tried to do that in your favour it would be impossible).I understand it does not make sense because the markets costs millions to move 1 point so why worry about my £100,But even a retard with a mouse in his hand could achieve a better trade win average than this. I will remain suspicious and leave this game to better men than me. I would like to say if your a trader in the US you don't know how lucky you are because the FTSE spreads/commissions/whipsaw indexing make day trading UK stocks almost impossible.
stu

Good Afternoon Stu,

May I offer you my sincerest condolences, and hope you attain success in what ever you decide to do.

The markets have a funny way of exposing all of your fears/weakness's, and do a very good job at exploiting them.

It takes a brave man to actually admit that he has been bested, and in any walk of life, be it a stressful vocation, or stressful relationship, knowing when to walk away is a major, yet difficult decision.

All the best for the future my good man.

Best
John.

 

[stuie1963]

Good Afternoon Stu,

May I offer you my sincerest condolences, and hope you attain success in what ever you decide to do.

The markets have a funny way of exposing all of your fears/weakness's, and do a very good job at exploiting them.

It takes a brave man to actually admit that he has been bested, and in any walk of life, be it a stressful vocation, or stressful relationship, knowing when to walk away is a major, yet difficult decision.

All the best for the future my good man.

Best
John.

Cheers John Thanks for your kind words

 

[timsk]

Hi Stu,
Sorry to hear the markets have put you through the mill of late. If it's any consolation - you're not alone. I doubt there's a member here who's actually traded live who can't relate to your comments. If you can walk away and forget about the markets and not look back - then good on you. As John says - best wishes for whatever you decide to do. If not, you could do what I've done in the past which is to take a break and then come back to it afresh. You've then got two choices as I see it: either to pick up where you left off and try and analyse what went wrong and find a fix, or scrap that whole approach and go back to the drawing board. Doing the latter and coming at things at a completely different angle (by changing timeframe for example) - may pay dividends. Needless to say, (but I'll ay it anyway), don't resume trading with live funds until you have a tried and tested methodology that you have confidence in.
Good luck!
Tim.

 

[Pat Riley]

I Don't mind opening myself up on here and state that I have given up on my day trading adventure. The last 8 day's have seen me have a loser to winner ratio of 18/1.Thats with me using pivot points ema's and 20 years TA experience. Without trying to get all X files, the majority of my trades all reversed on me within minutes of putting them on(if you tried to do that in your favour it would be impossible).I understand it does not make sense because the markets costs millions to move 1 point so why worry about my £100,But even a retard with a mouse in his hand could achieve a better trade win average than this. I will remain suspicious and leave this game to better men than me. I would like to say if your a trader in the US you don't know how lucky you are because the FTSE spreads/commissions/whipsaw indexing make day trading UK stocks almost impossible.
stu

Hi chap. Are you sayin you've been trading for 20 years and because of just the last 8 days' performance you've decided to quit?

 

[Pat494]

He'll be back, perhaps stronger and wiser than before imho

 

[Charlton]

I Don't mind opening myself up on here and state that I have given up on my day trading adventure. The last 8 day's have seen me have a loser to winner ratio of 18/1.Thats with me using pivot points ema's and 20 years TA experience. Without trying to get all X files, the majority of my trades all reversed on me within minutes of putting them on(if you tried to do that in your favour it would be impossible).I understand it does not make sense because the markets costs millions to move 1 point so why worry about my £100,But even a retard with a mouse in his hand could achieve a better trade win average than this. I will remain suspicious and leave this game to better men than me. I would like to say if your a trader in the US you don't know how lucky you are because the FTSE spreads/commissions/whipsaw indexing make day trading UK stocks almost impossible.
stu

Number 1 - don't call it a day so easily. If you really must then, ok, trading is not for you

Number 2 - you only lost £100 - is that what you are saying ? - then you don't really have enough capital IMHO

Number 3 - put TA, EMAs etc to one side for the moment. Learn about risk and how to manage it

For property they say the number 1 aspect is location, location, location.

For trading the number 1 aspect is risk, risk and risk

Charlton

 

[0007]

I Don't mind opening myself up on here and state that I have given up on my day trading adventure. The last 8 day's have seen me have a loser to winner ratio of 18/1.Thats with me using pivot points ema's and 20 years TA experience. Without trying to get all X files, the majority of my trades all reversed on me within minutes of putting them on(if you tried to do that in your favour it would be impossible).I understand it does not make sense because the markets costs millions to move 1 point so why worry about my £100,But even a retard with a mouse in his hand could achieve a better trade win average than this. I will remain suspicious and leave this game to better men than me. I would like to say if your a trader in the US you don't know how lucky you are because the FTSE spreads/commissions/whipsaw indexing make day trading UK stocks almost impossible.
stu

This is your quote from another thread "20 years of trading buy and hold. This Monday I start day trading with I G. due to redundancy at 51. I am looking to chat to people in my area which is kent .Good luck to all fellow traders."

With 20 years buy and hold experience it's not surprising that the huge jump to daytrading – considered by some to be one of the most difficult ways to trade – hasn't been very successful. My swing trades often go into reverse at the start but due to the nature of this kind of trading it's not a problem and doesn't have the psychological effect you have suffered with daytrading.

Why not consider a different methodology? At least have a go with paper trading to establish a method that works for you. You don't appear to be a tearaway trader straight out of school with your hair on fire and a phone in each ear – so why not have a go with something more commensurate with a mature and steady mental outlook? That wouldn't require intense concentration for set periods. I find that helps me a lot. Why not just modify/adapt your old buy and hold strategy with a gradual tactic of reducing the hold times until you find the period that suits you? Were you successful with buy and hold? If so, try to extract its good points and work on ways to overcome its disadvantages.　You might find it useful to consider the American markets. I moved from the FTSE 100 to the S&P 500 (shares, not indices) – mostly nice and steady with loads of choice regarding volatility and I just find it easier to trade. With IG you can trade as low as £0.24 per point which makes it low risk. It also has the overwhelming advantage that you don't have to get up early in the morning and there is plenty of time to do your pre-trade study before the open.

You might also find it useful to think about why you went for daytrading. If it was to get rich quick you already know the answer to that; or if it was for the excitement it would appear that you have had enough already. My point is that you have to find a trading method that suits your personality and lifestyle – it's no good trying to make an unsuitable method fit you. And of course you only know it's unsuitable after trying it eg. daytrading. This is a classic manifestation of Sod's law - which is always lurking in the background. But that's all part of this game – you have to kiss a lot of frogs until you find your prince.

I would urge you not to give up too easily. Sit down, have a long think and tread gingerly back in to the trading world – use the shallow end of the pool where the learner swimmers are! That is, of course, if you really want to do trading as opposed to getting rich. If you enjoy trading you will eventually crack it and the money will follow. I wish you the best of luck – but I've found that it's methodology + trading probability + hard thinking that actually produces results.


　


　

 

[stuie1963]

Hi Stu,
Sorry to hear the markets have put you through the mill of late. If it's any consolation - you're not alone. I doubt there's a member here who's actually traded live who can't relate to your comments. If you can walk away and forget about the markets and not look back - then good on you. As John says - best wishes for whatever you decide to do. If not, you could do what I've done in the past which is to take a break and then come back to it afresh. You've then got two choices as I see it: either to pick up where you left off and try and analyse what went wrong and find a fix, or scrap that whole approach and go back to the drawing board. Doing the latter and coming at things at a completely different angle (by changing timeframe for example) - may pay dividends. Needless to say, (but I'll ay it anyway), don't resume trading with live funds until you have a tried and tested methodology that you have confidence in.
Good luck!
Tim.

Thanks Tim I will give it some thought and maybe go back to buy and hold. The idea I had was to use my experience of the market to earn a small income every month, but I have realised experience in buy and hold is completely different to day trading.
thanks for your support
stu

 

[stuie1963]

This is your quote from another thread "20 years of trading buy and hold. This Monday I start day trading with I G. due to redundancy at 51. I am looking to chat to people in my area which is kent .Good luck to all fellow traders."

With 20 years buy and hold experience it's not surprising that the huge jump to daytrading – considered by some to be one of the most difficult ways to trade – hasn't been very successful. My swing trades often go into reverse at the start but due to the nature of this kind of trading it's not a problem and doesn't have the psychological effect you have suffered with daytrading.

Why not consider a different methodology? At least have a go with paper trading to establish a method that works for you. You don't appear to be a tearaway trader straight out of school with your hair on fire and a phone in each ear – so why not have a go with something more commensurate with a mature and steady mental outlook? That wouldn't require intense concentration for set periods. I find that helps me a lot. Why not just modify/adapt your old buy and hold strategy with a gradual tactic of reducing the hold times until you find the period that suits you? Were you successful with buy and hold? If so, try to extract its good points and work on ways to overcome its disadvantages.　You might find it useful to consider the American markets. I moved from the FTSE 100 to the S&P 500 (shares, not indices) – mostly nice and steady with loads of choice regarding volatility and I just find it easier to trade. With IG you can trade as low as £0.24 per point which makes it low risk. It also has the overwhelming advantage that you don't have to get up early in the morning and there is plenty of time to do your pre-trade study before the open.

You might also find it useful to think about why you went for daytrading. If it was to get rich quick you already know the answer to that; or if it was for the excitement it would appear that you have had enough already. My point is that you have to find a trading method that suits your personality and lifestyle – it's no good trying to make an unsuitable method fit you. And of course you only know it's unsuitable after trying it eg. daytrading. This is a classic manifestation of Sod's law - which is always lurking in the background. But that's all part of this game – you have to kiss a lot of frogs until you find your prince.

I would urge you not to give up too easily. Sit down, have a long think and tread gingerly back in to the trading world – use the shallow end of the pool where the learner swimmers are! That is, of course, if you really want to do trading as opposed to getting rich. If you enjoy trading you will eventually crack it and the money will follow. I wish you the best of luck – but I've found that it's methodology + trading probability + hard thinking that actually produces results.


　


　

Thanks 0007 some good points there,i will reassess and keep everyone posted.

 

[Pat494]

Just looking back on my own experience - in the beginning I traded more and more with shorter and shorter time frames to get to grips with the beast. Thus spent most waking hours around my trading PC.
On reflexion I should have stuck to day trading and had the rest of the day to do something else. So it depends how time rich you are and what you want to achieve too.

The above may be entirely irrelevant to you but then again..........?

 

[stuie1963]

Hi Pat
I was finding the major market moves happen in the first hour by then most of the companies trade sideways for most of the day . The problem is, if you see a company flying up the mm's raise the spread on the buy side so your almost £60/80 down on spread alone before you start, so your left to pick up the pieces of a choppy sideways trading market for the rest of the day or jumping in on a trend that has moved a long way and the risk reward goes out the window.
stu