My Trading Log

[RobertGO]

I have been learning to trade for around 6 months now so I thought its time to start trading small. The trades I will be making are position trades as I have another job so it wont be the most interesting trading log to start with but I thought I should do it anyway...
I will put as much detail about the trades as possible once I have closed them, feel free to comment.



Just placed my first trade,
Ticker: OAS
Price: 44.60
SL: 41.00
PT: 52.50
RR: 1:2
Here is a picture of the setup.

 

[RobertGO]

I closed my first trade early on Friday 20/12/13, I thought it was the best thing to do because Christmas is next week and I'm new to this so I thought I should sit it out and see what happens.

Opened: 44.60,
Closed: 47.17
profit: 5.7%

Altogether I was happy with this trade, I was a little bit nervous on the first night I was worrying about a large gap down but I guess I will get used to that in time.

All of my trades will look like this as, touch on trend line and close to the 200 day MA, stochastic just coming above oversold and volume touching the 35 Day MA within the last 3 bars.

Any comments?

 

[RobertGO]

Trade 2: 03/01/2014

FleetCor Technologies, FLT.
Open: 117.75
Stop: 111
Target: 130
R/R: 1:2

Looking at it now I have made a mistake, some resistance at 119 as you can see in the picture, I will leave this for a while to see if it breaks it.
Touched on trendline and above 200 Day MA, Increase in volume above the 35MA and stochastic heading towards overbought.

Possibly going to open a position in FOSL tomorrow.

Finished reading reminiscences of a stock operator this morning, I recommend this to anyone else in my position, just starting, it is a interesting read although a bit confusing at times with the dated language.

On the left of the picture you can see the stocks that I'm looking at opening a position in if there is a +ve day with increase in volume. View attachment 169822

 

[RobertGO]

Trade 3: 06/01/2014

Fossil Inc, FOSL
Open: 121.00
Stop: 115.50
Target: 132.50
R/R: 1:2

Been looking at fossil since last week but I didn't like how there was such a large volume without much movement so I stayed out, looks like it was the right thing to do. Anyway, it has the same setup as the last 2 as you can see in the picture. After 2 more trades I will increase my trading size to half of what I plan to trade with.

 

[RobertGO]

Trades 2&3 Haven't really worked in my favour this week I am currently down around £75 total how ever I am confident FLT will start to work in my favour next week, FOSL though, I am not so sure, I may close this on Monday morning.

Currently I am risking 1.25% of my money (£100 per trade, 100/8000), I look where I want to place the stop loss (1.5xATR below the trend line) and then I work out how many shares I can take on. Soon I will be moving the amount of risk up to 2% and then to 4%, if I am confident enough and doing well, in summer.

I also have a limit of 4 trades open at any time, at the moment as I am 16 and studying A levels I do not have a lot of time because of revision ect.

I have been looking at a stock, HAL. It was mentioned on a US programme earlier this week as being 'cheap' so I decided to look at it and it was on the trend line I drew in last month. It looks like it could be a good trade, I may open a position in it on Monday. I have also been looking at DPZ (I had dominoes pizza last night and it was amazing;p) but there is resistance at 70 and its finding it difficult to stay above, I may consider a position in DPZ if it breaks 71.50.

My new book got delivered last night, Market wizards - Jack D. Schwager. So far so good!

If you want to follow my trading journey on twitter for daily tweets on what's going on then follow @Trading_Journey, I wont say much on here until the weekend in long replies like this, its easier to tweet when I'm out of the house.

 

[timsk]

Hi Robert,
You appear to be doing fine - well done. At the risk of sounding like a patronising old git - you're very wise restricting the amount of time you devote to the markets. Focusing on your education is WAAAAAAAY more important. The markets will still be here when you've got all the qualifications you want/need. Lecture over! ;-)

Regarding feedback from members on what you're doing - you might get some if you pan out a bit more on your charts to show a greater amount of price history - as here's not a lot to go on at present.

If you don't mind me asking, given your age - I'm curious to know how you've managed to open a brokerage account that allows you to trade U.S. stocks? If you'd rather not say - no problem!
Tim.

PS. Robert - I've just had a quick look at FOSL. Something major has happened there - hope your stop loss took you out where you wanted.

 

[RobertGO]

Thanks for the reply, finally someone speaks..
On the rest of my trades I will zoom out to show the max # of daily candles. I have sent you a message regarding the account opening.

 

[timsk]

I have sent you a message regarding the account opening.

Thanks Robert - and I've replied to you.

Regarding FOSL, ProRealTime were displaying a price spike down to around $10.00 at the time of my post. It's erroneous data which has since been corrected and I've verified the price on StockCharts as being around $118.01. Apologies to you and anyone else who may have been alarmed by my comment.
Tim.

 

[RobertGO]

I will no longer be posting on this thread or on this site unless I feel it is necessary, I was contacted last week by a full time pro Trader and spoke over the phone with him. He let me realise that success in trading isn't going to come from using textbook trading strategies or visiting trading forums for advice as useful as it has been getting me on my feet and giving me an idea of what trading is about. I feel now that I am trading, I will have to learn my own way without taking advice from strangers who may pretend to be professional traders when really they could be 16 year olds like me, who wants advice from a 16 year old?!
Rob.

 

[timsk]

. . . without taking advice from strangers who may pretend to be professional traders when really they could be 16 year olds like me, who wants advice from a 16 year old?!

Hi Rob,
As I'm the only person who has replied to your thread, I assume your comments and those of your mentor are directed at me. Allow me to clear up any misunderstandings.
1. I'm 53 not 16! If you want, I can provide contact details of lots of members who have met me and will be able to confirm that I'm am the person you see in my profile.
2. I'm not pretending to be a professional trader!

It's true that forums like T2W have their down sides and, certainly, not knowing whether the post one is reading is written by a 16 year old who doesn't know their ar$e from their elbow trading wise or by a city professional managing millions of £££s - is high up on the list. However, with experience one can work out who knows their onions and is worth listening to and, additionally, there is a wealth of quality information here if you can be bothered to look for it. Therefore, I urge you to reconsider your decision. Why turn your back on the views of thousands of people and put all your faith in those of just one person? That's a very high risk strategy if ever there was one!

Tim.

 

[RobertGO]

Hahahah no!! It wasn't aimed at you! You have the little staff badge I don't doubt you! and I will still be here looking around I'm just not going to post, I will probably just PM people i think are legit for help instead of making it public I might annoy some people but well

 

[timsk]

Hahahah no!! It wasn't aimed at you! You have the little staff badge I don't doubt you! and I will still be here looking around I'm just not going to post, I will probably just PM people i think are legit for help instead of making it public I might annoy some people but well

Hi Rob,
Well, there are those who would argue that you should doubt the comments of staff like me more than anyone! To be fair, they're correct in as much as I am just an ordinary member too - and you would be wise to treat anything I say with the same way you would anyone else.

PMing people is fine - the facility is there to be used. Be aware though that, sadly, there are those who abuse it and might view you as an impressionable young lad who is ripe for grooming. In a trading context this means they provide fantastic help and support for a while and, when the time is right, offer you the holy grail for a fee. If this is all done out of public view via PM, no one will be able to help you. So, always be mindful of the saying: 'fools rush is where angels fear to tread'. I know you're no fool but, equally, the scammers are everywhere, using ever more sophisticated tactics to part new and inexperienced traders from their money. Be careful!
Tim.