Klaorman, Thanks for the post. I'm reading "Trading in the Zone" right now too. Great book. Trading is all about emotions isn't it! Hey, I was curious which chat room your with now? I'm with mtrader.com now. So far I'm very happy with them. I tried millennium-traders.com for a while too. I don't want to rely on chat rooms as a crutch but I think they really help for learning set-ups and for getting a feel for what other traders are thinking. And it's someone to talk to. (This career can get lonely sometimes). I've heard realitytrader.com is pretty good. I may try them out.
Thanks, neo_hr. It took parts of 3 days to write the thing, and I sorta rushed the ending because I just wanted to wrap the monster up. I might add more later...but then again, maybe it's enough! huby, I used mtrader.com for maybe 1 1/2 years. It took some getting used to, but I got into its rhythm after a short time. I actually liked other moderators and members like Chris and threei better than Ken Wolff. Mtrader's separate swingtrading room (with Brandon, Toni, and later Bo and Snoop) came with the membership, so I checked it out after a few months and kept its window open, too. After awhile, the kids started leaving the mothership, as Chris and threei formed realitytrader.com. Then the swingtrading people took off to start teachmetotrade.com. Then Bo and Snoop left from there to join realitytrader.com to form their own swingtrading room. Sometimes I think it's a conspiracy to try to get you to pay for all of the rooms separately (when before they were all had with one low, low price), but then the fleeting thought passes. I took a look at what everyone had to offer and stuck with Brandon and Toni at teachmetotrade.com (cheesy name, though). I don't want to rely on them as a crutch, either, but I think of them as an extension of my eyes and ears, or as an advanced trade scanner(!). My emotions got the best of me today. There were short setups today that I missed because I couldn't pull the trigger. They would've produced nice gains. Usually, when shorts are called they're stated as "short when XXXX breaks below this price." I don't use bullets, so when the price breaks I usually can't get in; I have to wait for the bounce. But when the bounce comes I feel like maybe the trade's not working or maybe this is support so I hesitate to short into it. Of course, that was the best time to short as the stocks fell big afterwards and I'm left with another "DOH!!" instead of dough. Then I feel exhausted because of the mental games I play with myself. I asked Brandon about my shorting failures and he said, "When you see enough of these setups work, you'll be able to pull the trigger." I know I should forget the price action when the setup triggers ("It looks too strong" - "The futs are going the wrong way" - "There's too much support on the bid") and just accept the risk that the stop entails, but knowing and doing are two totally different things to me. It's certainly a struggle, but the plays are there; I just have to go get 'em.
Two years ago I came across an article in the July 1999 edition of Playboy magazine entitled Extreme Wall Street. The article is about the exploits of a stockbroker turned day trader. This trader used direct-access software to trade Nasdaq stocks at Maverick trading in Salt Lake City. I skimmed through the article and found it kind of interesting. I told my girlfriend to have a look because she was interested in mutual funds. She half-heartedly looked it over and gave it back to me. I read the article againâthoroughly this timeâand since that moment my life has been changed forever. Although I have owned mutual funds since 1995 or so, I have to admit I never paid much attention to the stock market. Since I never had much money, I was not very interested. I never really understood what the Dow Jones Industrial average was, I just knew that went it was up it was good and when it went down it was bad. I didnât have a clue what a Nasdaq was, and I did not understand trading or even know that trading as a career existed. The article in Playboy was a pretty good description of trading in general, and most what was written there is still valid today, although the market environment has drastically changed. I had a hard time sleeping for the next two weeks after I read itâ¦I was excited as hell. The article had convinced me of two things: 1. You could make (or lose) a lot of money trading. 2. I had the type of personality that successful trading required. I have never been a very competitive person. Donât get me wrong; I always wanted to be the best at everything I attempted. But I was never concerned about being better than the next guy, but I knew I could be as good as that guy if I applied myself. Also, I have always been a very patient person and have taken a long-term view of things. For these reasons I knew I would be able to accept losses. From the article I knew that if I could accept losing money before I made money, I could be a success. It made sense to me; after all, most businesses require a significant amount of start-up capital, and then will lose money before they start making it. I was also very excited about trading because I knew it was something I could do from home, and it was a way I could be my own man and support myselfâ¦and I would still have time for playing my drums, skiing, and anything else I wanted to do, which having to commute to and from a full-time job barely leaves time for. I thought to myselfâ¦let me get this straight, I can work from home, make a lot of money, have time for all the things I enjoyâ¦and all I have to do is be smart and click my mouse at the right time? I am in!! I made these decisions two years ago and I can honestly say I am as excited about trading now as I was on that day, even though I have yet to quit my day job. But I have come so far and I have learned so much, and I feel I am on the cusp of a great success. So my first thought was, âWhere am I going to get the money to day-trade?â I had about 12,000 stashed away in mutual funds, which had been growing at an exorbitant rate in the bull market. I thought, well I will wait until the 12 grand becomes 20 grand and I will trade with that But I ended up moving my money into a savings account around February of 2000 when the market started to tank. By the time I was ready to trade I had $15,000 in my savings account. So that became my trading stake. My second thought was since I was going to start with a relatively small trading stake, I better learn every nuance about trading that I could before I got started, because I could not afford to lose a lot of money. I decided I was not in a hurry, because trading was something I really wanted to do and I did not want to put myself in the position of not being able to do it. I started to read everything I could get my hands on about trading, starting with the Internet. To this day I have never stopped. I have read about twenty books about trading, and perused many websites and trading threads. At that time I was also buying and getting my computer equipment together. After many trials and tribulations (including having to buy a brand new computer after I had started trading) I finally got a reliable system together. I now have a DSL and a cable modem connection, a backup computer and three big monitors. Next, I decided I needed a datafeed so I could watch and learn about the market. In February of 2000 I started watching the market through Q-Charts, and in April 2000 I switched to using Realtick, which I have been using ever since. In July of 2000 I also added Mwatch to my arsenal, which is a stock scanner that uses the Realtick datafeed. I started papertrading in May of 2000 and did about 240 papertrades to October of 2000. I took my 20K papertrading account to 16K. I wasnât exactly happy about that, but I felt I was ready to take the plunge, so I started trading in November of last year. Unfortunatelyâ¦after all that preparationâ¦I still didnât have a clue about the true nature of trading. Because of my preparation however, I started trading very small, (only 25 shares) and very conservatively, and I always kept my stops, something I have done to this day. Fortunately, at the same time I started trading I joined the chatroom at Realitytrader.com, and this was the point when I finally started to learn and understand the true nature of the market. I joined this chatroom because I had met one of the room leaders, Chris Schumacher at the online trading expo and had a nice talk with him over dinner. I also knew of his partner, Vadym Graifer from Siliconinvestor.com and I knew he was well respected by many traders, and I had enjoyed many of Vadymâs posts (under the alias Threei) on that website. It was at this point Vadym and Chris opened my eyes to my pre-conceptions about stock movement. With their mentoring I learned to trade based on tape reading principles. I had started to learn to view the market from its perspective. In January of 2001 I experienced my first taste of trading success when I had three winning weeks in a row. After that time however, I started to experience some difficulties. Some were technical, (related to my computer) but my biggest problem was psychological, fear had crept into my trading and I wasnât sure how to get rid of it. I started avoiding certain types of trades because of my fear of losing. I understood the nature of the market, I had read and learned so much, but my fear of losing was preventing me from taking the trades I need to take to be successful. Fortunately, I came across a book called Trading In The Zone by Mark Douglas. This book had a profound effect in the way I think about trading, more than any book I have ever read, or any website or trader I have ever talked to. I used to have questions about trading...after I read this book, I didnât have any more. Because of this, I left the Realitytrader chat room in March of 2001. If you have not read the book, obviously I recommend it highly but let me briefly explain my realization and more than thatâMarkâs five fundamental truths of the market which have become my firm and undeniable beliefs about trading in general. 1.Anything can happen. 2.You donât need to know what is going to happen next to make in order to make money. 3.There is a random distribution between wins and losses for any given set of variables that define an edge. 4.An edge is nothing more than an indication of a higher probability of one thing happening over another. 5.Every moment in the market is unique. To put it simply, Trading In The Zone explained these simple concepts to me in such a way to where I understand and can act on them to the core of everything I am. I have not traded with fear since, only with respect for how fast the market can move against my position! Because of this insight my winning percentage is in a slow uptrend, as are my point gains, and equity curve. Now the market is my teacher. I let the market unfold in anyway it chooses and take immediate advantage of opportunities that conform to my trading setup. By the way, I now only use one trading setup. I am intimately familiar with it. When the market conditions are right for my setup, I trade. When they arenât, I wait for the conditions to arise and then act without hesitation. The last thought I would like to express in case it is not apparent is I really enjoy trading. I have given this some thought. I have wondered why I enjoy trading. I came to the realization that I am only truly happy when I am learning. This is why I became a musician. I am a drummer, and almost every time I sit down to my drum set I learn something new. In my opinion the market is the ultimate game, because every moment is unique, and there is always something new to be learned. Great Prosperity, Alex
Alex What a great post. You've helped lift my spirits after a day where I imploded and decided to share my wealth (or lack of it) with the market. Luckily I'm at the small share stage of the learning curve. I have taken exactly the same path as you and I'm at the stage that you were at last November. I only hope I can survive with the same enthusiasm you are showing.
Thanks guys. Mac, I firmly believe if you trade small (relative to your account size) keep your stops, and trade with an open mind and without fear, all that is necessary to profit from the market will eventually become known to you. It is just a matter of surviving the learning curve and never, and I mean EVER, giving up.
As I posted in the feedback section, I think this is a great thread. With all the new members around here, I think its time for it to be revived. There are allot of new senior & elite members around here & It would be great to here some of your stories.
Come on guys I am sure we have more stories to share this holiday weekend. DAYTRADERNYC, I am interested in hearing your story.