I didn’t trade yesterday because I thought everything looked ugly. Today, I thought lots of trades looked good, but I was usually wrong. I had 1 small win, 1 small loss, and 2 break-even trades. In total, I lost 0.02R, but in dollar terms I lost maybe $150 or so. No big deal, but a sucky close to the month and it’s looking like a less than satisfactory week ahead of me. I have a number of things to do this week that may keep me from trading much the rest of the week.
Even when the markets go down, like today, they finish the day flat. It’s sickening, and I think it is the cause of all the brittle market action. Whoever is holding up the markets needs to take a rest and let things stabilize. rrrrrgh…
October 31st, 2006 at 6:34 pm
hmm? your R is $7500?
October 31st, 2006 at 6:40 pm
actually that wasn’t a question. more like an exclamation.. so u don’t have to reply.. wasn’t digging
October 31st, 2006 at 10:50 pm
@ryuu: The $150 is due to (1) commissions and (2) a slightly larger risk on my losing trade. I don’t know how I manage this, but it seems like I always risk a little more on the trades that turn out to be losers. Weird, huh?
November 1st, 2006 at 4:07 pm
is it because you let it run a little longer to see if it goes back your way?
November 1st, 2006 at 4:30 pm
No, of course not. The risk amount from trade to trade won’t be identical every time, at least in my experience.
November 1st, 2006 at 4:56 pm
oops! so that’s what you meant.
some people don’t vary their R values though…
November 1st, 2006 at 4:59 pm
I try not to vary mine. I always buy round numbers of shares, so if my exact target R would say to buy 2384, I’ll buy 2300 shares. It can make a difference. I never round up.
November 1st, 2006 at 5:00 pm
actually, I assumed that you have a fixed R, and when you said “it seems like I always risk a little more”, I thought you meant you risk a little some more even after it hits your stop loss.
my bad.
November 1st, 2006 at 5:06 pm
crap.. that previous comment got in before i get to see your reply.
now i get the picture..
which broker do u use? i’m a little more than concerned about the commissions.. after about a hundred trades, and having a break even account, considering that i’m with @meritr@de, that’s $1000 in commissions
am thinking about switching to IB.. have you heard any horror stories about them?