Owner: The Denarii Trader URL:http://trader-denarii.blogspot.com/ Join Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:56:30 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: A day traders journal on how he is trying to learn to make a living from the markets Site statistics:Click here
July results 8/4/2007 2007-08-04 09:07:00 After feeling like I turned a corner i n June, I feel like I turned back. The net for the month was -387.64. I calculated by using everything - net all stock, futures and forex trades minus commissions plus interest minus data fees. I like to look at my trades with and without the commissions in them. My two accounts have much different fee structures.-Some stats - over all 33-18 with stocks being 22-14, futures being 11-3 and one big losing trade in forex 0-1. My average gain was $65 and average loss has $126 which is where the problem is. In June, my average gain was twice the average loss but that reversed this month.-I started focusing on index future tradings. I think you need to do that with market going crazy. I hope to add a few regular future trades in the near term (Beans in the Teens). I think my trading going forward will be the index futures for overall market ideas, short Big Mouth stocks when I can, maybe throw in a x-trade or two, and if the forex presents an o Read more:results
My Job is killing me 8/3/2007 2007-08-03 19:27:00 It was a crazy and great day in the MT chat room. Things were really slow until the market dived at 2 PM this afternoon. This just kills me because I am running around between home and work and doing other job related things missing these great trades. I am proud of myself because in the slow morning I was out trading MT! but I missed my EURO trade (see below) and was pissed. Then I missed the bringing of the sell off and never could get a trade pulled off at work.-Regardless, MT has spent a lot of time this week explaining his trades. This has been a great learning experience. He is not trading some black box but just simple chart patterns, indicators and so forth. None of the trading I have posted here has been a black box. I believe in learning the markets by the patterns and the feel. No, silly computers here. This is why I enjoy MT's chat room because I am learning so much (and I am an old fart).-Above I posted the charts of the YM futures. Do not take my notes as being perfect.
Very slow morning 8/3/2007 2007-08-03 10:07:00 That missed EURO trade is a real PITA. Made a couple of future index scalpes and made $190.
Damn 8/3/2007 2007-08-03 08:36:00 I missed the EURO just by a few ticks. Had orders under 1.37. The low was 1.37.
Friday Morning Thought 8/3/2007 2007-08-03 07:42:00 The jobs report is out and the YM dropped about 50 points. Just before the numbers they had rallied for 25 points. Why I do not know but someone had a guess. The EURO gained about 30 pips and that might be the morning sell point. After the numbers come out, I look at the reaction and the re-reaction to the numbers trying to game things. If the EURO comes back to unchanged and starts moving higher then its a buy in my books. I never trade in the first 15 minutes after a very good number. The EURO might be setting up for a buy under 137.0 risk 25 pips and I would figure out at the end of the day if I hold it or not. Read more:Friday
, Morning
Not Much of a day 8/2/2007 2007-08-02 18:49:00 This whole bridge thing has my head not screwed on right. I did not prepare today and I did not trade well at all. Made a couple of bucks but it felt like I lost a lot. It is weird. I did not understand how my brain is wired sometimes. Some of these disasters effect me and some do not. I never understand why. I am going to try to get some good sleep tonight and be better for tomorrow.-The numbers:Stocks: noneStock Futures: Gross +55 Net +40 contracts 6Forex: none
Thursday Morning Thought 8/2/2007 2007-08-02 06:54:00 I hate the major networks. I have been watching this morning the coverage of the Bridge collapse and all I see are the National anchors trying to pick apart the situation and find all the bad points of the situation. It sounds like from a lot of the coverage there was a common people doing a lot of heroic acts. The idiot from NBC just keeps picking on "Was their Panic? Did you see died people? Did the construction workers bring the bridge down? Was the response too slow?" I want to throw up. I know the area and it is very hard to get down to the river at that point. There is a lot of amazing stories of people helping including a group of teenagers bring a pregnant lady to safety.-On a market note, the futures are nuts back and forth. I t looks like we could be getting toward a good bottom here. A good place to get good longerterm technical information - go look at Jason's work - SentimenTrader.com. He is from Minneasota too. Read more:Morning
, Thursday
Bridge falls into Mississippi River 8/1/2007 2007-08-01 20:33:00 I cut my blogging short tonight as I heard this story on the TV. I grow up in this area and have been over this bridge so many times as a kid. I am freaking a little so many friends in the area - Peace.http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070802/ap_on_re_us/minnesota_bridge_collapse Read more:Mississippi
, River
Helter Kelter - ON STEROIDS 8/1/200 2007-08-01 20:12:00 "When I get to the Bottom I go back to the top of the slideWhere I stop and I turn and then I go for a rideAnd I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeh yeh yeh" - Beatles-Did you know we had a 10% move in the markets since the close of trading yesterday? But you say the Dow was up just a 150 points! If you add up all ups and downs of the major moves today, you come up with about 1400 points. Amazing.-My trading was ok today. MT kicked ASS today. - The numbers:Stocks: Gross +55 Net +50 shares traded 1000Stock Futures: Gross +170 Net +130 contracts 18Forex: none
Helter Skelter 8/1/2007 2007-08-01 09:55:00 This bouncing around is insane. Up a little on a bunch of small future trades. Need to take a break. Trying really hard not to fat finger any trades even if I miss a few.
Tuesday Morning Thought 8/1/2007 2007-08-01 06:55:00 New month same crap. The markets look very messy this morning. The futures are taking dives all over the place. Two points here - two points there (S&P). The market has scared enough body were even the Big Mouth does not seem to have his magic to pump stocks. I hate all the TV commentaries - stocks are do this and that because of this and that. Bottom line is people who have stocks are selling stocks and are having problems finding people to buy them.-In the few minutes it has taken my to type this, the YM (Dow) futures have gone down 60 points and then gone up 40 - all in a blink of an eye. Read more:Morning
, Tuesday
FSLR 7/31/2007 2007-07-31 20:14:00 Can some one tell this stock to make up its mind?? Is it a $100 or $120 stock??? Inquiring minds want to know.-Too much unnecessary stress today. Got to layoff of the corn syrup. Time to go chase parked cars.
GIMME SHELTER before I ...... 7/31/2007 2007-07-31 20:01:00 crap in my pants!!!!. Or should the title be "Let's party like it's 1929!!!!!" Ouch and as I write this the futures are falling apart again.-Today was a day, I should just not trade. I had to get up early for a conference call which was cancelled in the middle of night but before I knew it I had made coffee and bathed - silly me. Then I decided it was a good day to upgrade my Anti Virus software(see note below) - silly me. So being not in a right frame of mind, I tried trading - silly me. As the totals showed, I lost $200 but each trade I fat fingered something about everyone of them and then panicked - silly me. I was off balance from the get go and never regain my footing. Then more computers problems and I said "F" it - time to go to work and have more fun - silly me.-Don't trade when you are tired, too stressed, too hot or cold, too pissed off.-The numbers:Stocks: noneStock Futures: Gross - 160 net -199 contracts 18Forex: none - I am really wishing I had my head on straigh
Software upgrades 7/31/2007 2007-07-31 08:05:00 I hate them. I like IB but they pushed something during the middle of the day and it took too long to install. Today - I renewed my anti-virus software. Threw a comedy of errors that the installations did not tell me about - it took 90 minutes to upgrade. Way to stressful. I have been in the business. I should know better - lol. Read more:Software
, upgrades
Mental Game 7/30/2007 2007-07-30 20:48:00 Trading is such a mental game. The knowledge of the markets, trading patterns, even an edge I all know or have but the mental part is where I come short. I truly believe if I took all the trades I see I could have a 70% win ratio because I wait for the good setups. I also believe I would have bigger winners than losers on average. The combination of the two would be a winning trader. The stupid little thing call fear comes in to play. That is what is holding me back.-I have for the most part conquered my fear in Racket Ball. Fear in Racket Ball??? Let me explain. When I played in the past against players equal or better than me, I would think ok if I can score X number of points I have a chance. Maybe if he has a bad day. And so forth. I was not thinking about winning but how close of a lose or game I could make it. This stupid mind set would never allow me to play my best. So players not as good as me, I know that and I would kick there ass. Players equal to me, I would a goo
Monday Morning Thought 7/30/2007 2007-07-30 06:45:00 Most of the speciality programs the CNBC puts on I like - examples looking at Wal Mart or Mc Donalds but the series Being or Thinking or Wanting to be a Millionaire drives me crazy. The format is like a game show and Erin is over the top with her comments but in the last show I saw, a few points stuck out to me:1) The Tax laws are written by the rich to mainly help the rich.20 Poor people think like poor people, middle class like middle class and rich like rich.3) Most rich people help each other stay rich or get richer.4) The biggest line that stuck me is the middle class wants security while the rich want freedom. Freedom and security are opposites of each other in the business world. Think about it. Security is working for someone else. Freedom is working for yourself. Read more:Morning
, Monday
, Monday Morning
Chat Review - DayTradeAdvisors.com 7/29/2007 2007-07-29 19:07:00 First of all I want to say I am not getting paid for this review. I am doing this review because Missed Trader (MT) has helped me a lot over the last few months with my trading and my thoughts of becoming a full trader one day. He helped me so much I thought it would be nice to try helping him to get his new service going at DayTradeAdvisors.com.-I came across MT thru Virtual Office - the Dinsour Trader had put together on his blog. MT trading numbers were/are incredible. You can go see the totals at DT's site yourself or you can see the individual transactions at Stockalicious. Meeting MT and others like him on the web has been great learning experience for my trading. I have added many new tools and markets to my trading. MT was been very helpful in that.-MT's service is something relatively new on the web - you are able to trade along and learn while the market is moving. There are many sites that have chat rooms both profession and non-professional but the difference here is MT
Good Day and Grrrrrrrr.... 7/27/2007 2007-07-28 07:31:00 I am blogging this just as I get out of bed on a Saturday morning. I hope it makes sense. I really get frustrated with myself when I get to focused on one thing and miss a bunch of other things. As I have written before, I love trading the steel stocks - mainly AKS, NUE and MT. Even thou the market was a mess, it seems like people buy AKS most Friday morning thinking it will be the next steel to be taken over. As you can see in the above chart, it had a perfect buy setup. I like to trade them when I can get a risk of 10 cents or so, thinking I could make 30 to 50 cents. On Friday, this sucker ran two full points. A plus 20r trade. Grrrr...Above is the YM futures again. It is crazy, but I had really not traded the stock index futures much since 1987. When I started day trading last year, from time to time, I would try pulling a few inter day ticks not of the QQQQ's. That was one big PITA. Once I became Blogger friends with MT, he convinced me that trading the Mini's were muc Read more:Good Day
What can I say???? 7/26/2007 2007-07-26 21:26:00 What can I say? This is a market that traders love and investors hate. When I got up this morning and saw the premarket mess, I knew this was going to be a crazy day. We had already had a few. I noticed quickly my planned trades were going to be a bust and I could not find anything in premarket that excited me so I thought the best course of action was to watch MT trade today.-I posted in the charts above a few of his trades during the time I could watch. (Damn day Job). As you can see from the results, he makes many thousands of dollars a day while I am still learning. In my defense, I will say I am getting closer.- The chart to the left shows 3 trades in the NQ futures. The first trade went for 4 points and I was on the phone for work. The second went for 4 points - I nailed this one good. And the last MT got a great trade off but I only paid a commission. I was watching the tick and it looked like I could cover and resell at a higher price. That higher price never came.-The
Internet Problems 7/25/2007 2007-07-25 20:57:00 I am trying to get in a short post tonight. My internet keeps cutting out.-Work was a great pain for me today amd I could bearly watch the markets. I can not get my trading account to display correctly now.-The numbers-Stocks: gross +86 net +82 shares traded just 600Stocks Index: none but I had orders in a couple of timesForex: none Read more:Internet
F-ing Panic Again 7/24/2007 2007-07-24 20:53:00 I continue to be painfully stupid. I am like a little baby mouse and the market is this big cat. An example of this is SNDK today. I wanted to short in the 57.50 t0 57.75 area. I had a beautiful opp to do that around 8:30 and again just before the open and right after the open. I wanted to be short 1000 shares and to do it in two pieces. I missed the pop just before the open - 9:28:00 so I shorted 500 at 57 even a minute later. Not expecting too much of a pop, right after the open it ran to 57.70 quickly in three minutes. I could see it running out of stream but my brain went into panic mode - time to cover. I said to myself - hold on for a minute. It looks to be dropping. It dropped nearly as fast as it rose pausing at 57.00 so I covered. Thank God - A break even trade as I watched it drop fairly quickly to under 56. I should have shorted the second 500 bunch at 57.50 for a cost of 57.25 and easily made a point or so. Idiot. It is only money - right? I wish I could think in terms of i Read more:Panic
, Again
Frustration again 7/23/2007 2007-07-23 20:54:00 Words from a Pink Floyd song rang threw my head - "If you don't eat your meat - you can't have any pudding. How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your Meat!" Translated - "If you don't enter a trade - How can you make any money. How can you make any money, if you don't enter the trade!!!!!"-Four Big Mouth stocks and this is how they should have been played. - First TSRA - short on premarket popped at 43.95, stop at 44.40. Quickly after open stop moved down to 43.90 and stopped out (break even). Later at 10:30 go long for a gain.-Second GLW - go short on open 27.10, stop at 27.40. Follow stock down for a nice gain. No Heat.-Third TOT - go short on open 83.05, stop at 83.75. After open moved stop down and get stopped out for a break even trade. Later around 83.05 go long for a half point gain.-Forth CY - go short get stopped for break even. Go long and get stopped for break even. -So you play TO and TSRA with 1000 shares and CY and GLW with 2000 shares. Net in my mind sho Read more:Frustration
A do Nothing Day Aagain 7/20/2007 2007-07-21 09:21:00 Had chart problems with IB again for the fourth day running. I took a break from Big Mouth stocks for a while. This month they have been much much much harder to game. i could not find many setups myself. The blogs were not getting much either except MT had a couple of good Futures trades.-The numbers-Stocks: Gross +7.14 Net +5.14 shares traded 84 - yes 84Stock Futures: Gross +10 Net +5.20 1 lotForex: None Read more:Nothing
Back on a Pony again 7/19/2007 2007-07-19 20:25:00 I would like to say I am back on the horse (brain thinks of a different meaning) again but I did not trade big or much. I wanted to regain a mental footing in the market today seeing I am having a bad month. I only did four trades today. In fact I had no other orders in the market. I was a nice simple day to put the brains back together and I am grateful.-Two of the trades are above and are from MT and his new Blog service. Because I was trading small and slow I did not follow his trade ideas to a "T" but the way I did it, it worked out better for me. I made a fast $75 in CLWR and $55 in LVS with very little heat. In MT's chat room today, every single one of his trades were for profits - some small but all for profits. MT is the best trader I know on the net right now. I can only hope to be just like him when I grow up.-I also got a trade idea from the Blog Wall Streak. I believe Ugly put it together. There are a couple of good traders there too, giving many good ideas. T
A nothing Day 7/18/2007 2007-07-18 20:47:00 Did not sleep well. Had to get up for a early morning call. Had technical issues with IB. Could not get a web site to load properly. Again by seconds missed two good trades. In a very bad mood.-What more do I need to say?-The numbers -Stock Gross + 6 net +4 shares traded 400Stock futures - noneForex - none
Wednesday Morning Thought 8/8/2007 2007-08-08 07:36:00 Last night was crazy. I have lived in NJ for 20 years now and I do not remember a storm like we had last night. The amount of lighting was incredible. For about 20 minutes it was like the nigh had turned to day because it was so bright with so many flashes of lighting. We lost power for two hours and winds were insane. Before we had strong winds and tons of rain, but this was the first time in a longtime the lighting was this crazy.-We have rally in the market were we are getting close to the 50% retracements of each of the indexes. The Dow is leading the pack. Day should be interesting. Read more:Wednesday
, Morning
A do nothing more day 8/7/2007 2007-08-07 19:31:00 Other than my bonehead move this morning and missing a couple of trades (maybe I should just use market orders), I did nothing today except work related stuff. So please read the post below. I need to catch up on some emails.-The numbers:Stocks: Gross -22 net -27 shares traded 1000Stock Futures: noneForex: none
A boneheaded rookie move 8/7/2007 2007-08-07 09:54:00 A way to make money is check actively traded foreign stocks and see if their moves in the US make sense compared to the move in their markets. MT is one of my favorite stocks to do this with. MT was down 5% here and only 2.5% in France and the other steel were down but not buy much.-Nice trade setup and I screwed it up. I bought at 60.95 - stop 60.70. Looking for a small quick move. I moved the stop to quickly again and got stopped out with an ok gain but my stop had more shares than my position. I forgot to see I did not trade a full position. Idiot - so I covered quickly and loss a couple of dollars and then got to see the stock moved smartly up.-Got to sit on my hands.
Tuesday Morning Though 8/7/2007 2007-08-07 06:30:00 Most mornings this is just going to be a random dumping of my brain as the coffee begins to kick in. A fun start to the morning as I had to get up early to be on a client call. Guess what the client did not show so I lose an hour of sleep for nothing.-For some reason , the volume in stock index future usually picks up around this time but other than the ES, things look slower than days gone by. A friend of mine who manages over 25 million in funds for people and is in the process of getting a lot more, bought leveraged EFTs at the close of the market on Friday using margin in the accounts for the first time ever. He is very happy today and we will see if he stays happy. He was a doom amd gloomer and sudden decided to turn very bullish as he states "longer term" on the market at the end of last week. He does this a lot by gut feel but has done very well over 20 plus years.-The markets look relatively stable this morning with the futures a little below fair value. I have a feeling Read more:Morning
, Tuesday
Where the hell did that train come from - 8/6/2007 2007-08-06 20:16:00 One of the frustrating things in my trading life is not knowing if I will be around when a major turn happens. After not getting a big melt down this morning MT and his chat room was looking for a bottom. If you look at the chart above, a near perfect triangle was being formed where the volume of the retest was a lot lower than the first spike down. A beautiful pattern and the lows were just being taken out in a way that kept most people nervous. -As I stated, I just felt like screaming because the turn looked like it was going to happen and I had other things I needed to do. And boy what a turn in the market it was. The last few days for me is like being in the middle of a super highway. You look one direction and you see cars fly by going down. You turn around and see cars flying by going up.-My trading was ok. I chicken out of one order and missed two other by a couple of ticks. That would have turn an okay day into a great day.-I am cutting this short because I just got my 4th 24 i
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