Hello .... Anyone There?

That's what you are probably asking yourselves by now about my blog.

I apologize. I know ... I need to post more as everyone is dying to know how things are going with me, but quite frankly, I just haven't found the time to do it the past couple of days. I need to make an effort to do it, even if it is small. The problem is I have a limited amount of time on my hands, so in my spare time, I am choosing to read about trading methods or the markets rather than blog. I am going to try and make a change and post something regularly. I said this before, but this time, I mean it! However, don't be disappointed if it is only a little paragraph or two.

OK ... with that out of the way, let me get to my life :-)

On Thursday, after my last post, I actually had a really good day. I didn't trade as much and I was very particular about which trades I entered. I believe I ended UP around $50 at the end of the day. My coach acknowledged that even though I didn't trade much, taking off the day before and observing actually looked like it did me some good.

Unfortunately, I couldn't repeat the performance on Friday. I know I entered a lot more trades and I was careless about entry and exit points. However, my coach seemed to be more pleased with me trading more than actually making money, so maybe I was doing the right thing. I believe I was down $70 or so.

Monday was a nightmare ... in more ways than one. First, I lost about $170 .. that sucked. Second, I couldn't concentrate at all because I had a pounding headache. More on that later.

Yesterday wasn't much better as I lost right around $100. In fact, yesterday was the day that cumulatively put me in the hole 1,000 smackers. Congratulations, David! I was doing careless and reckless trading and was pissed at myself at the end of the day. I was trying to trade reversals and bounces off trendline support and it was not working. However, I kept doing the same thing over and over again. I couldn't stop myself during the day, but when the final bell rang, I reflected and figured out that I was a moron. I made sure I was not going to do it again today.

Today, I finished UP around $40, and did a much better job of controlling my trading emotions. I didn't trade nearly as much which was actually bad for me. A lot of the trades I held back on would have been pretty big winners. Regardless, I figured out today what works for me and I going to finish up the rest of the week trading this way to see if I can be consistent.

So ... what is my revelation you may ask? A fellow trader let me borrow a book of his which I read over the weekend. The name is "The Stock Trader" by Tony Oz. Although this book was written in 2000 when stocks moved 20 points in a day, the principles hold true in today's trading. The whole premise of the book is to spend four weeks trading with the Tony Oz. You follow each one of his trades. He tells you what he is looking at, what he bases his decisions off of, and what his risk/reward ratio is. He doesn't use any fancy indicators, just simple support and resistance ... and it works! That is what I have based my trades on the two days I have been successful. I strayed the other days and recognized my ways.

So ... here I am. A math and numbers guy, thinking I am going to use all these different technical indicators and oscillators because I know how they are derived, and the one trading style that makes me money is the simplest style there is ... chart reading for support and resistance. It is actually quite boring. But exciting when you can end the day in the black.

So ... what is my next step?
I am going to continue trading this style and see how it works for me. I am going to be a little more aggressive with it than I have been the two days I have ended the day positive. It should still work as long as I do not become too impulsive.
Meanwhile, I ended up purchasing the $150 piece of software and am going to work on building a system that can also help me throughout the day. This will be fun as I can come home in the evenings and do some programming. (I actually kind of miss the software side of things .... not the bureaucracy ... just the technology). I found a deal with a market data company that will supply me with 120 days (1-minute) backfill worth of stock data for $30/month. This is to substitute for the $10/month deal I had with my broker. I don't have to pay any expensive exchange fees because I am not getting real time data .. that is the trick. And as far as I know ... this is the only data service that can let me do it. So that seems to be working itself out.

All in all, I have to say I am making some progress. That may all fly out the door with another losing day tomorrow, but I feel good right now. The one bad thing is I have had terrible headaches everyday this week. I think it comes from staring at a flashing computer screen all day. Not only that, the lights are real dim where the traders are, except where I am sitting. There is a pretty strong fluorescent light above me and to my left. I have been noticing my headaches are just behind my left eyeball .... and they hurt. So ... I have dimness/darkness on my right and a bright light on my left. I am going to start wearing a cap to work and see if that helps shield some of the light. Of course, this will only add to my accelerated loss of hair, but if it saves my eyesight and spares me from headaches, I just might have to do that. I am also looking into changing where I am sitting. Maybe that will help me as well.

Anyway, I hope everyone is doing well. I also hope this entry tides you over until the next one. A big "Thanks" to all of you who leave comments. You are my motivation to continue documenting this journey. Hopefully, there will be more positive entries to come!