Today’s trading
I was disappointed with my trading today. It was a tough, choppy day and I lost some money – but that isn’t what upsets me. Looking over my watch list I see many opportunities that I didn’t take advantage of – I missed a lot. I didn’t lose a lot of money and I didn’t really break any rules, but I just felt all over the place and unfocused. I didn’t feel in control. I really don’t want to lose control over my trading but a day like today makes me feel like it is slipping away. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to take tomorrow off and think things over, but I doubt that I will.
I usually quickly go over charts in the morning before the market opens, but I have decided that I need to do some more work. I want to form a closer relationship with the stocks on my watchlist. I want to know them well. When I trade them, I want to understand them. I feel like that with some of the regulars on the list, but not with most of them. From now on in the evenings I am going to go over the daily and intraday charts of all of the stocks on my watchlist.
October 3rd, 2006 at 5:44 pm
As a dummy trader, isn’t the whole idea trading gappers–and if so, there is no real watch-list like there is a watch-list for break-out traders like as traderjamie. you seem to want both, no?
October 3rd, 2006 at 5:50 pm
I trade the high alpha stocks, so they are my watchlist – I go through them in the morning to find gappers.
October 3rd, 2006 at 6:56 pm
am I nuts or is there is something wrong with this market. I wanted to quit after today… I did not expect the push to new highs. Usually, even if things don’t go my way, I’m flexible enough to change direction. But something about the way things have been moving feels artificial… I’m baffled. It ain’t just the cheap oil??? Day after day I get caught off guard and that doesn’t usually happen….
Anybody else have the feeling?
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:00 pm
I figured it was because I’m a trading n00b, but apparently this is a crazy time in the markets for a lot of people…
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:34 pm
[...] It was not a bad idea to scalp some small trades during the days like this. Market did a turn in the afternoon and moved up. It was just another tough trading day. [...]
October 3rd, 2006 at 9:52 pm
Some would say the markets are being manipulated to reach new highs just before it’s time to vote to keep your republican in the house. Because “everyone knows” that voting for a democrat is like voting for a market crash. lol Putting on tinfoil cap now.
I personally just think it’s natural. Look. We’ve seen a flight back to big cap stocks, which pushes some very visible indices up to very visible new highs. They need a break from all this up movement, but they aren’t getting it. Partly because oil recently plunged, which causes lots of stocks to look different all of a sudden from a valuation perspective. And we finally got a fed pause on rates. So, we’re getting weaker and weaker thrusts up in the most watched 30 stocks, and the moves are also getting more and more choppy. The quarter just ended and the volume that we missed so much in August and September is just starting to come back. And, since all this change confuses fine young speculators like ourselves, we actually contribute to the problem by trying to guess on the fly what it all means. It will all shake itself out soon enough, though some of the rules may have changed when the dust settles.
October 3rd, 2006 at 11:09 pm
your frustration of the markets could be your frustration of the past 2 monthes, impatience may be growing. You have done well – take 2 days off. Dont trade when you feeling impatient.
October 4th, 2006 at 9:12 am
[...] Dear Diary, Today I will be Trading Light™. I felt a little out of control with my trading yesterday and I would like to remain the master of my domain. Based on yesterday’s trading, the following stocks are worth noting: [...]
October 4th, 2006 at 9:16 am
Fenner & ExEngineer: yeah it seems like a lot of traders are having trouble
Richard & Paul: good points – thank you for your comments