Worlds Worst Day Trader – could it be me?
That’s how I’m feeling at the moment! It’s funny how the joy of winning doesn’t compare with the feeling of depression and despair of losing.
I did ok yesterday and today, I lost but I feel much worse today than the joy I experienced yesterday. In fact, I expect to at least be up every day so unless I make a lot of gains, I don’t feel any joy or pleasure in my trading winnings. For those that follow my blog, you’ll notice that I can’t seem to ride those winners well so there is hardly ever any joy in my trading.
There was a time when I put in a trade and I completely forgot about it.. I think it was a Forex trade and after a few days, I logged in to be shocked to find that I had left a trade open and it was 800 points up!! That was my biggest ever win trading the markets and needless to say, it was a mistake! There was absolutely no skill in it and my mistake had boosted my account.
Anyway, here are my trades of today.
I bought right at the wrong point, got in at 12823… the market immediately went the opposite direction and I got stopped out at 12805 for -18.
The next trade was a short at 12795 and I got out at 12790 for +5.
Another long at 12796 and got out at 12810 for +14.. I chickened out here as the market moved another 10 points my way.
Then a series of disasters… a short right at the bottom at 12801 and then another short at the next bottom at 12822 for a total (for these two trades of -37)
Total for the day is -38. In the scheme of things, not much of a loss but just annoying that in the 5 trades I placed, 3 were bang on the top or bottom (except I went the other way) and one was incredibly close to shorting at the bottom. My one decent entry, I close far too early.
Perhaps I should do the opposite.. I would have done rather well!
My advice would have to be don’t trade the DJIA. Ask yourself how many people you hear of trading it for aliving rather than say the S&P mini, the answer will be none! I gave up the dow and things improved hugely. It is too choppy and it plays with your emotions too much. It’s partly based on it only having 30 members and some news for one stock impacting the market hugely right off the bat, you don’t get this with the S&P. If you can only dedicate time to the market from say 6-9 I honestly suggest you do it to fine end of day trades, maybe use a daily FTSE chart and use the same technics you are using now. Cut your size down and hold for longer. The spread you’re paying become less and it becomes much easier to make money. Good luck!