Perhaps I can relate. I'm probably trading 1/4th your size and my adrenaline spikes like I'm being held at gunpoint when I enter a sizable position. If you don't mind me asking, what to you consider large size relative to your account size? Thanks for sharing, and excellent work today.
Hey Luis thanks for the congrats and thanks for reading. Those quotes from other guys have been very helpful to me. I hope that you find something helpful in those quotes and in this journal.
Thanks In2Deep. I really appreciate it. Large size? Hmmmm. Tough question to answer since I am trading full prop and I have access to far more capital than I truly need most days. So, large size for me in most trades (just based on my primary intraday trades) would be anything greater than 2k shares/position (at this point in my career that 2k minimum should be much higher, but I've allowed myself to become complacent for too long). In my botched COP & XOM trades the liquidity is easily there for an individual trader to take 10k+ shares..so that's what I'm working toward ultimately. The biggest position I've ever taken is 50k shares..and that was the best day I've ever had and it was a layup trade. For the most part, being a prop trader makes the concept of large size a totally relative thing based on any given trader's psychology. After you attain the skillset for trading it's all about forcing yourself to be uncomfortable in order to grow. Embracing discomfort is difficult but it's the only way to grow. But it doesn't mean that you jump from 100 shares to 1k shares b/c that would probably force you to totally lose it...incremental steps are the best. I've found in my own experience and from speaking with traders much better than I, that growing size is a gradual daily process where you have to be constantly vigilant and disciplined in getting into proper position size all the time. Once you do this long enough at a given tier, then you continue to push those boundaries in order to grow. A great proxy for whether you're pushing yourself to grow is how often do you feel like you're being held at gunpoint during the trading day? As long as that feeling isn't associated w/holding a loser too long and it's just you trading under normal conditions, then you know that you're forcing yourself to grow. We all started trading 100 shares/trade, so if that's where you find yourself now, you're not headed down a path that most traders haven't already walked. Keep pushing!!! Thanks for reading and it's good to know that people are watching and I'm being held accountable for my trading goals here on ET.
Today's Results +$3546.60 (no overnights today) Solid day today. As always, I could've done better, but I'll take it. I don't have time right now to update my most significant trades of the day b/c I have jam-packed afternoon and evening. Good luck tomorrow.
Today's results: +$1334.77 Just happy to make any money today. My main goal was not to do anything stupid. I stayed out too late going to parties and shows last night and didn't get to sleep until almost 4am. How did I even wake up to trade? I don't know. I rarely do things like this but its a special week in the city that I'm in. On to the day's most relevant trades -- btw I stopped trading around 11am to leave and go to sleep...I'm going to be having a night similar to last night tonight so tomorrow may be similar... Best winners QCOM +580.60 (easy short at the open....I thought about leaving the office to go home and sleep after this trade after the first 5 minutes but decided to stay) MHS +537.22 (should've made a lot more...didn't have my wits today) TLT +304.40 SPY +98.10 (dabbled when I should've dove...but I usually lose money in SPY...but I played it off of the bounce on support early right after the QCOM trade with only 1k shares) Worst losers Didn't have any losers over $100 bucks today...just a bunch of small losers...I had a few that were kind of large, but I ended up making my money back and flatting one of them (LO short) and turned one into 2nd biggest winner of the day (MHS) Lessons for the day: Don't stay out drinking and partying and expect to be able perform at your best. The only good thing I had going for me is that I went to the gym before hitting the streets. Still...it was a classic night (I have the pictures to prove it) and I have no regrets...and that's why we'll be doing the same thing tonight and tomorrow night and probably Saturday too. I don't really party as much as I used to, but when this time of the year comes around, I have to participate.
I'm probably done for the day...I may trade some quad witching if I can get a good connection from starbucks later on...Ridiculously awesome night last night...actually can't wait for this annual week of debauchery to come to a close so I can get back to business as usual...I didn't wake up to trade until 10am this morning...a lot of opportunities missed Today's results (as of now unless I trade later I'll post) +585.80 Biggest winners JPM +735 -- got long the news Biggest Losers Just 3 small losers Good luck all.
Not including anything whatsoever trading-related, I had one of the most amazing weeks of my life this week by making a lot of new friends and making 2 new great VC contacts from Silicon Valley. I hope that we end up doing some business together in the near future. It's really terrible about the young 27 year old kid from Benghazi that was killed by a sniper after speaking with CNN..."a candle loses nothing by lighting another candle." Nice quote. Now we're dealing with this entire Japanese earthquake/tsunami, Yen intervention, Libyan war (Operation Odyssey Dawn), and I guess Bahrain and Yemen remain very uncertain...and a few dozen protesters in Riyadh as well? Interesting times for the world and for the market. As far as this upcoming week is concerned, my goal is to continue the momentum of good trading now that I can return to my normal working schedule. The market is still in a correction and as of now, I have no interest in holding overnight swing trades. Unfortunately, I've been far too tired to create a watchlist for tomorrow as I've been recovering from partying non-stop since Wednesday night until 5am last night. Good times. Good luck to everyone this week. Thanks. "My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." ~Cary Grant
Today's Results: -$111.67 Currently holding CVX long overnight -- sorry Idk the price but I bought it within minutes of the close, so we'll see what happens there. It's amazing how much 5 days/nights of partying will take out of you. I rested all day Sunday and went to bed early and I still woke up tired. Got to the office about 5 minutes after the open, which means I had zero time to prepare for the day or assess the major news of the morning before the open. I took a nap after leaving the office after the close and I'm hoping to have my energy levels return to normal. I traded less than 10k shares today b/c I left the office after about 2 hours b/c I was tired as hell. I wish I had just held my SINA long from this morning, put in a trailing stop and called it a day. I would've at least made about a $1-2k today. On the bright side my newest automated system (it's still in testing) had a great day and made $1700 (only 100 shares/position and it doesn't include commissions) hypothetical dollars. So I'm glad to see this thing continues to kick butt. Hopefully it will be live soon if this continues. I guess technically I made about $300 bucks today since my 2 live automated systems made a little money today, but really I can't count that since this journal is all about my discretionary trading. The market is definitely starting show a little strength now if you just consider price action BUT volume was very light today...NASDAQ volume today was among the lightest days of the year. SPY needs to crack 130 and the NAS needs to crack the 2700 level for this light rally to really gain some steam --- preferably with stronger volume. Good luck.
Today's Results (thus far): -$655. 66 Super slow day for me. Still had a huge opportunity at the open but didn't make very much on it....did a good job taking 15k shares of it but I pressed the wrong button and as a result I received some REALLY poor fills on 1/3 of my order -- unfortunately I cannot share this trade. Pretty much since then, the market has been very slow and there were some opps, but I didn't capitalize. No excuse really. I'll continue to watch...and if my P&L changes I will update. That's all folks!