How 'bout that stock market?

Simplicity is where its at! You trade 100 lots?!?!?! Holy crap! Congrats, you are my new idol. You weren't kidding when you said you could pull 50k out of the market everyday... Thanks for the advice on the pairs and the stops/targets... I would've had to figure that out the hard way.

Well... i've only got 99 contracts to add on and i'll be nipping at your heels! ;) Are there good times in the evening to trade Forex? I want to still play the ES during the day but I get bored around 8pm CST, and stay up to roughly midnight. Any good chances for oppritunity in there if I were at the charts?
 
da3dalus said:
Simplicity is where its at! You trade 100 lots?!?!?! Holy crap! Congrats, you are my new idol. You weren't kidding when you said you could pull 50k out of the market everyday... Thanks for the advice on the pairs and the stops/targets... I would've had to figure that out the hard way.

Well... i've only got 99 contracts to add on and i'll be nipping at your heels! ;) Are there good times in the evening to trade Forex? I want to still play the ES during the day but I get bored around 8pm CST, and stay up to roughly midnight. Any good chances for oppritunity in there if I were at the charts?
Click to expand...

You have the Eur and US open are good, I dont screw around after 6:00pm est most days because of false trades show up. I dont go for grand slams I just want my 40-50 a week. Also I am not trading the next few months still having tax issues from 2001, been 16months so far with the IRS they are fucking trash. Make sure you do your trades right because the IRS is retarded.
 
Happy FOMC Day Gentleman! Things are bound to get bumpy around 2:15EST today. Hold onto your hats. This has the potential to be a historical day in the markets on way or the other. Good luck to all!
 
I almost ended up on the wrong side of LEH. "Luckily" I took all but 10% of my trade off the table yesterday after making decent gains in a few days [short]. I'm glad I wasn't one of those poor short sellers who squeezed the market up 100 points in 1 second.

SLB and XTO have been treating me well.
 
I don't know how you guys do it. I'm the king of losing money in the market. I haven't actually sold anything for a profit since 1999. I still have a bunch of junk that there's no point in really selling now and I had what I thought was a nice conservative mutual fund go insane, turns out it was made up of mostly banks. Thankfully I managed to get out with only a 10% loss. I quit, I've read so many books on investing and trading and followed Motley Fool for years. I just don't get how to pick them, when to buy and when to sell I guess!
 
robr said:
I don't know how you guys do it. I'm the king of losing money in the market. I haven't actually sold anything for a profit since 1999. I still have a bunch of junk that there's no point in really selling now and I had what I thought was a nice conservative mutual fund go insane, turns out it was made up of mostly banks. Thankfully I managed to get out with only a 10% loss. I quit, I've read so many books on investing and trading and followed Motley Fool for years. I just don't get how to pick them, when to buy and when to sell I guess!
Click to expand...


It's hardest for people in IT to trade because the market is not a set way, that took me 3 years to understand. Also anyone that has mastered there field of work has a hard time because it's a lot different. I love the market but It's a lot different then do this this and this and make money, I have changed the way I traded about 4 times now in the past 7 years due to the market changing.
 
Ryanmcd2 said:
It's hardest for people in IT to trade because the market is not a set way, that took me 3 years to understand. Also anyone that has mastered there field of work has a hard time because it's a lot different. I love the market but It's a lot different then do this this and this and make money, I have changed the way I traded about 4 times now in the past 7 years due to the market changing.
Click to expand...

Hey, I'd love to learn, I'm a sponge and a pretty bright guy and actually enjoy hard work and research. I just can't seem to find the right learning materials!
 
Ryanmcd2 said:
It's hardest for people in IT to trade because the market is not a set way, that took me 3 years to understand. Also anyone that has mastered there field of work has a hard time because it's a lot different. I love the market but It's a lot different then do this this and this and make money, I have changed the way I traded about 4 times now in the past 7 years due to the market changing.
Click to expand...


This is SOOOOOOOO true. You have to be ready to switch it up at any time. No one method works day after day.

Looks like I got out a little early on LEH, ouch could have made another 25k just today alone. No sense in being greedy though.
 
Until you can look at past stocks that did well and understand why people got in before the stock had the run, and why people got out at the right time, the stock market is just going to make money off you.

The vast majority of friends I have that lose $ in the stock market all have the same losing trends.

1. They sell on the way down instead of buying on the way down.
2. They buy on the way up instead of selling on the way up.
3. They have little to no conviction to enable them to avoid the above because they either don't do enough home work or don't know what homework to do (they let fear overwhelm them).

To first figure out what makes you profitable takes a lot of time and has a steep learning curve for most people.

I follow a long list of criteria for each stock I buy or short. I made a lot of $ today relatively speaking. I already knew exactly what stocks or at least groups of stocks would go up or down depending on the fed's actions-even though I'll admit they surprised me.

Any decent bank with even a little reputation still intact after this ordeal would skyrocket today after any substantial cut. Goldman, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, etc. Gold has been a basic give away for the last month or two IMO.
 
I'm in for that seminar... some of you guys seem to be making more in a day than I make in 3 months. Are you also losing more money than I make in 3 months on some days? The traders here seems to always talk about how well they've done, but I don't really often see any mention of how much anyone has lost. That gives the impression they're always right, which to me and my common just seems impossible. There would be a lot more wealthy people if it were possible to always (or almost always) be right.
 
robr said:
I'm in for that seminar... some of you guys seem to be making more in a day than I make in 3 months. Are you also losing more money than I make in 3 months on some days? The traders here seems to always talk about how well they've done, but I don't really often see any mention of how much anyone has lost. That gives the impression they're always right, which to me and my common just seems impossible. There would be a lot more wealthy people if it were possible to always (or almost always) be right.
Click to expand...

Hey I put my pick for LEH up here for everyone to see. As you see someone else on the same thread was on the other side of the trade. I do lose money trading everyone does but unless it takes a fast and hard down turn I have a set limit where I get out... using stops. I have lost a lot of money at times but have made a lot more than I have lost.

IMO LEH was a no brainer by just looking at the charts and option movement, but that is how I see things. Someone else may look at the same information and try to trade LEH a different way.

I really wish more people here had taken my tip on LEH, at least with some calls or LEAPS.

Is anyone playing the gap fillers today?
 
robr said:
I'm in for that seminar... some of you guys seem to be making more in a day than I make in 3 months. Are you also losing more money than I make in 3 months on some days? The traders here seems to always talk about how well they've done, but I don't really often see any mention of how much anyone has lost. That gives the impression they're always right, which to me and my common just seems impossible. There would be a lot more wealthy people if it were possible to always (or almost always) be right.
Click to expand...

Thats true of all investors and traders... Always quick to point out their amazing days, and yet develop amnesia when talking about the loosing ones.

Back in my newbie days (not so long ago) I lost 600/per contract one day revenge trading against the market. I now limit myself to a max loss of 200/contract per day. If i hit that level I quit trading and start fresh the next day.
 
I agree with the blogger and have been and will continue to be bullish on gold and short the dollar.

However, I'm not stupid enough to fight the fed because unless we get back on a gold standard he's the boss, for better or worse.

Want something to look out for? Watch for the double top or the head and shoulders move on the technical side in the next month or so.

I often get stuck on the marco side of things but you can rarely trade macro trends, gold and the dollar being an exception right now. Otherwise you have to figure out what's moving in what direction and get a piece of it while you can. You could have called a tech crisis in 97 and been brilliant but you would have missed out on a lot of $$$ over the next year. My biggest profits from this year will be shorts unfortunately from the US marketplace's perspective. The housing crisis party is just getting started.

Expect forclosure rates to continue increasing month over month for the next 6 months and increasing at a slower rate for the year after that. Uncle Ben can cut rates all he wants and the government can make up all the bail outs they want-no one can stop the housing markets momentum and if you are on the wrong side you will get crushed.
 
sahtt - You give great advice! I've been a bit worried about the inverse head and shoulders pattern in the charts right now... Its certainly been respected and the fed rate really kicked off that pattern heavily.
 
To be honest, the instant I'm worried about something I change my positions. Better safe than sorry. I used to rely on hope as a strategy but didn't realize it or wouldn't admit it. I didn't do bad, I just felt nervous about my investments and felt like I needed more "insurance". I didn't really know what I'd do if the market tanked. I say "hope is not a strategy" at least once a day between myself and others I talk to about investing.

I try to have a plan no matter what happens. OK, that sounds good, but what's your "magical plan" actually consist of? Just so I don't sound full of it:

As long as the macro trends stay the same-
-LONG gold, no matter what (this would change if fed raised rates but that's 1:1000 odds for tomorrow)
-if/as the market pushes higher, based on the volume, I'm LONG international medium->large caps that I still like; specifically tech, CSCO for example.
-I'm LONG energy cautiously. That means I've dropped "usual" oil plays and am sticking with stocks that don't depend on the price of oil for revenue (doesn't mean their stock won't go down like they are) such as SLB, NOV, etc.

-SHORT the dollar, british pound
-SHORT over leveraged housing stocks
-SHORT title insurance companies
-SHORT just about anything relying on housing I can find that hasn't had a significant drop since the subprime drop down to 13000 earlier this summer.

I had a lot of fun over the past few days though, only once or twice a year you get "easy" money like that.

The basis of that strategy is to be balanced and profitable. If the market tanks the stocks I'm short will get hit the hardest first while I try to get out of ones I don't want to be in. Gold and the dollar should respond how I like them to as well. If the market skyrockets my long stocks should make more profit than I lose before I cover my shorts.
 
Okay here is my trading story.... I started in 1999 when I talked with Derrick Lenord at NSX 99 here in Atlanta. He turned 60k into a little over 8 million and I wanted to see how he did it. So every weekend I drove 150+ miles just to sit and talk with him, I did this for month, I also watched everything he had, video's tapes, whatever. Then I found out he did not know what he was doing, lost it all and is now in Jail for Fraud. After that I was kinda screwed, that's when i blew out my 1st 10k. After that I found someone else who used to work for a big firm he showed me what he knew over the past 13 years, good stuff and he could not trade his own money to save his life but he could trade others fine. He left the market and moved to FL to do RE investing. After that is when I started getting good "or so I thought" Then I went from 10k to 13k until Sept 11th when I was long chkp and lost 7k in a few days. Again blew out the account lol. After that I found someone that could trade and knew his stuff, this is where I spent a lot of time on Money Management and took the time to work the numbers. I traded full time for about 1.5 years and was doing it in 2006 doing very well trading from him. I took some time off due to my wife passing away to get my life together, trading at home sucked bad enough but now sitting there by myself was killing me. I am starting to trade off the 4 hour bar so I don’t have to stare at this screen all day long. Oh Also I traded the 3min and 1min of the S&P E-Mini, that was my fave. Now I am trading t he EURUSD and GBPUSD and love it. I will be glad to help anyone with trading but you really have to want it and over come your emotions, you have to be able to say you’re wrong and if you lose on a trade and did not screw over your rules you have to be able to say you did well. When where you taught that loosing is okay??? Also about win / losing yes I have both, I have made over 100k in a day and lost 60k it happens but if I am up or down 50k on the day it does not matter anymore I do not get excited I just do what I know and that's when you know you have mastered trading. If you take a trade and still get excited you are trading with emotion and need to get past that.


P.S. sorry about the wall of text :biggrin:


Here is exactly what I am trading right now, this strat and love it

http://www.forexfactory.com/showthread.php?t=14630
 
Great post Ryan. You touched on the key of trading - Emotions. Its good to hear your story of blowing out accounts, because it kind of defines professional traders that are good at what they do. You have to get through the learning curve the hard way. Ok, you probably don't HAVE to, but 99% of them do.

I was lucky enough to get in with a great mentor, not a snake oil salesman from the get go. This was after I fell down the rabbit hole of indicator analysis, and trying to pair up that perfect system that could never lose, and that took all of the decision out of the trades. It doesn't really exsist.

I started gungho and with about 9k in my trading account. Within 2 months i was around 5k lighter in the account and had done every emotional trading mistake you could. Revenge trading, over leveraging, GAMBLING. This spurred more holy grail searching for a couple weeks and trying some new systems until I came to realization it wasn't the system, it was me. I finally committed myself to mock trading and really developing my emotional control and patience while trading. I still get a bit excited when I get a winning trade, but I don't beat myself up if I get a loser... its just part of my job.

By the time I came around to this my account value was around 2k, and i'm currently building up my account slowly, but surely on one contract.

I love what I do, and wouldn't want to do anything else. I certainly haven't "Made it" by any means, but I paid myself a salary last week for the first time in months and I think i'm on the right track.

Cheers!
 
da3dalus said:
Great post Ryan. You touched on the key of trading - Emotions. Its good to hear your story of blowing out accounts, because it kind of defines professional traders that are good at what they do. You have to get through the learning curve the hard way. Ok, you probably don't HAVE to, but 99% of them do.

I was lucky enough to get in with a great mentor, not a snake oil salesman from the get go. This was after I fell down the rabbit hole of indicator analysis, and trying to pair up that perfect system that could never lose, and that took all of the decision out of the trades. It doesn't really exsist.

I started gungho and with about 9k in my trading account. Within 2 months i was around 5k lighter in the account and had done every emotional trading mistake you could. Revenge trading, over leveraging, GAMBLING. This spurred more holy grail searching for a couple weeks and trying some new systems until I came to realization it wasn't the system, it was me. I finally committed myself to mock trading and really developing my emotional control and patience while trading. I still get a bit excited when I get a winning trade, but I don't beat myself up if I get a loser... its just part of my job.

By the time I came around to this my account value was around 2k, and i'm currently building up my account slowly, but surely on one contract.

I love what I do, and wouldn't want to do anything else. I certainly haven't "Made it" by any means, but I paid myself a salary last week for the first time in months and I think i'm on the right track.

Cheers!
Click to expand...


I really love it and with my job I have people to talk with, it's a lot easier going to work when you know you really dont have to if you dont want to.. Ever :) Also I would love to chat with you sometimes because everytime I talk with someone about tradeing we both learn something. Also one thing I found out about trading is I can trade pretty much any "system" or indicator and make money, Hell throw up a 32EMA on a 5min and I will make money, I even went so far as made the price action hidden and just had the indicator and did okay lol. It's really all about money management.
 

Similar threads

Chris_Lum
New owner, ownership Review
Replies
6
Views
655
Chris_Lum
Chris_Lum
Chris_Lum
MITA short shifter review
Replies
2
Views
371
Chris_Lum
Chris_Lum
R
How to remove panel under steering column
Replies
8
Views
160
rustymufflers
R
M
How much would I regret getting an Auto (and old ABS, NA1) instead of a 6MT
2
Replies
26
Views
956
MotorMouth93
MotorMouth93
annointed
Memorabilia NSX Art (piston + rod)
Replies
10
Views
786
annointed
annointed
Back
Top