Well, it was another day with much to do other than follow the market. I was on for about 45 minutes, roughly 11:30 to 12:15. The first thing I noticed was that IB had no shares to short of my favorite trading vehicle, the SKF! This was a first for me and I still don't know if it was some sort og glitch or not. The ETF has so much liquidity that it seems unreal that no shorting was possible. Anyway, I was looking at the SRS, GS, and UYG also. GS seemed to be moving enough to give a good chance at gains but I favor the SKF and decided to focus on it although from the long side only.
I went long at 168.25 and picked up 39.5 cents. I had been watching for a continuation move from the prior two candles (1-min) to confirm the reversal of the down leg between 11:57 and 12:01pm. While long, volume was shrinking so I knew this brief covering rally I was a part of was ending. I decided to clear out with the very modest 39.5 cent gain in anticipation of another drop. That drop soon materialized because the very next candle was a $1.62 move down.
Like yesteday, I'll take my one trade gain and prepare for my day-job duties; this one an appointment at 2:00pm.
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1 for 1, 100%. Gain of 1.23 per share.
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February Recap - Added on May 8th, to bring the whole blog into the same format:
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74 for 108 in February, a 68.5% success rate.
(Approximately! Two bad days on the 24th and 25th didn't list any trades out of frustration so I haven't done the research in IB Statements to determine the actual activity. I'll count the losses for now and not the individual trade activity.)
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Monthly Loss of -$6.19 per share.
Days traded: 11
Days with a gain: 8; 72.7% success rate.
Days with a loss: 3; 27.3%. three losing days really killed me, -2.53, -8.00, and -4.50 per share
Hey fellow rs,
ReplyDeleteFinally found you after you left chat. Wuz wondering if we would ever hook up again. Sorry I didn't write down ur email when u gave it to me but hey let's connect via email, maybe u can come over and leave me ur email http://slotmarket.blogspot.com/
Can't believe we're trading the same thing.
Hey BC,
ReplyDeleteI haven't figured out a good set of rules yet for trading the ETFs. But they make such a great moves - FAZ, SKS, I hope to figure them out eventually. Happy trading!
Hey Slotmonkey! My old RS buddy from the left coast! I'll go to your site and check it out! Hope you are finding some success with your trading or at the very least, learning.
ReplyDeleteHey Charlie... getting any sleep? Ha :-) Yeah, I hear you about the ETF's. There sure appears to be a lot of opportunity there. Just got to get a feel for it. Thanks for dropping by...!
Hey BC,
ReplyDeleteAt first, I was shocked to see huge gains and huge losses. Then I saw that you are doing paper trading. Do you do trading with real money OR you are mainly paper trading like Charlie?
I think it might be a good idea to paper trade using the same position size as you would do with your actual trading. It will help simulate the actual experience.
Good luck,
RJ
Thanks for dropping by, RJ. Appreciate your insight. When I first started trading in October, I did work out of my real-money acct. I'm down about a $1,000 or so on $35,000. At the same time, I was trading my simulated acct, mostly to learn the IB platform and get to know the momentum style of trading; at the time, in the old GOTS chat. I have drifted a little from that style of low-price momo stocks because of the long learning curve associated with getting to know the former runners. I am trying to learn price and volume at this point in my training and the memorization of a given stocks' prior patterns was an added burden that prevented me from actually participating except when Muddy called out a stock in the chat. I would sometimes sit a full day in front of the computer and get a chance to trade two or three times! However, that method is a good one and one I hope to revisit at some point.
ReplyDeleteLeaving the low-price GOTS method for a while and moving to high ADR ETF's meant starting back down on the learning ladder and delayed my willingness to go to my real-$ acct. So, I am in a training phase and have a target of about 1000 trades before considering the real-$. Everyone has a different opinion, mine is that the simulated account is excellent training, if taken seriously.
To me, position size is not a factor in my training regimen, although I can see where some would differ in that opinion. I was reluctant to discuss the actual dollar values when I started the blog, and I still don't. You'll notice that I measure gain and loss on a given day in price per share. The only reference to actual dollar amounts is in the screen shot, and that started quite recently. I was actually concerned over bringing dollar amounts in because at this point in my training, it is irrelevant. I am strictly learning price movement and the influence of volume. I am learning to trade the market, not learning to make money. That comes later. When I measure success and failure with price per share, it is easy to assign a number of shares traded and calculate any dollar amount of gains and losses you want. e.g. I picked up about 39 cents per share in the above post. On a hundred shares, that's $39, 500 shares it's $195, and with 1000 shares its $390. The reader can assign any value he or she wants to fit his or her situation. In my trading, I disregard it altogether. I paper-trade blocks of 1000 for ease of calculation and simplicity of measurement.
Thanks again for stopping in and appreciate your input. I've been following your blog for a number of months and appreciate the effort you put forth. Good luck trading, RJ.
This is a great comment by the way, just finally read it! Almost worthy of a post.
ReplyDelete