I just dont get it. Everytime i get into a stock that is going up it goes down the second i enter, if theres a stock that im in i sell thinking its going to tank and then it goes through the roof, everytime i chose between which stock i chose to buy the one i do end up buying either doesnt do anything or goes down while the other one goes up. I JUST DONT FREAKIN GET IT ANYMORE!!!! What the hell i am doing wrong here? Is it my emotional state? Cuz i get very emotional everytime i purchase a stock. I know im new to trading but this is driving freaking INSANE!!!!! What should i do? Did anyone of you guys have a similar start like im having?
It happens periodically, when market environment rotates and makes a dependable method irrelevant.
But its always good to review whether your TA methodology is really that good over a long term or were your previous results just down to a run of good luck.
Hard to say anything about whether your decisions are good/bad without knowing how you make them. But a common issue is over-concentration on the entry.
In either case, smaller trade sizes are less heavy emotionally.
But its always good to review whether your TA methodology is really that good over a long term or were your previous results just down to a run of good luck.
Hard to say anything about whether your decisions are good/bad without knowing how you make them. But a common issue is over-concentration on the entry.
In either case, smaller trade sizes are less heavy emotionally.
counter_violent
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The issue sounds like one of Context.
Are you just picking stocks randomly based on how the trade is setting up, ie some chart pattern?
Which stocks are we talking about here and which market?
0007
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Tomorton's advice is good. For whatever reason this is happening my suggestion is to revert to paper trading until you have sorted it out. It could be a bad patch but if you don't know the analysis of your system well enough to be sure of that then you are taking risks in uncharted waters. My suggestion is to go back over all those "difficult" trades (and the good ones if there are some) and work out why you entered - what were your criteria? did you conform to them? Have you done enough testing to know whether they are any good? Or, is it a psycho problem? Quite difficult to analyse for yourself but from my experience if paper trades are ok but not the real ones then it's worth looking at yourself. I suspect experienced traders on here might be able to help better if you can give more details of you strategy and philosophical approach. At least you are being honest with yourself and admitting there is a problem. That's a good start.
darktone
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Its the pesky pink jumbo that only a handful of players seem to notice
you can be other guy
▼
or you can be like them
and play a game of endless technical circles..
------------
Who you gona be Chancho?
THNAKS PEOPLE for the advice. I guess im not as ready as i thought. It just seems strange cuz i can pick winning stocks with relative ease its just when i get into a stock i begin to doubt. once the doubt sets in i begin to panick and the stock seemingly begins to go down. I try to sort out my feelings but for some reason the confidence isnt there as suppose to when i pick a stock when im not in it.
Mr. Charts
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Other factors include the time frame. Maybe you are entering a trade and exiting within the normal volatility range of the stock in that time frame. Try using ATR (average true range}, but bear in mind that on just one candle moving sharply the ATR can become insignificant.
You might be frustrated but don't get emotional. Don't fight against the problem, solve it.
You might be frustrated but don't get emotional. Don't fight against the problem, solve it.
Izzy Fuente
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What helped me very early on when I was trying to trade everything and having similar problem to you was to cut right back to learn very well just one stock. Read everything you can about company and sector and new developments in industry sector. Become a true expert in a specific stock. Watch how the stock moves, understand it's accounts and management team and who's interested in that company, who's invested who's buying who's selling. Know everything you can about this company. When you are an expert and can trade it profitably. select another stock for similar process. You invest your time in learning and making profits rather than blowing up across a wide spectrum which you don't know so well.
Izzy
Izzy
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timing dude .............timing............step back .........confirm your bias / direction ...then attack on retraces .........don't try to enter/ride the moves late in the pulse..........they will always come back and take a breather ...........
forex is notorious for this
N
timsk
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Hi cashclay,
I think we've all been there and felt the way you feel - so you're in good company. In addition to the comments that others have made, I've attached a simple line chart which may help you to look at what you're doing in a different way. Apologies for not annotating the chart - it's just easier and quicker to do it here.
It's a 15 minute chart (M15) of the German Dax - not that it matters - any chart of any instrument in any timeframe will illustrate the same point. The gold line is price. The green line is the high printed in any M15 period. The red line is the low printed in any M15 period. The grey line is a 5 period moving average (MA) to give a rough idea of trend.
Suppose your methodology is trend based so that you resolve to go long when price (gold line) is above the MA and short when price is below the MA. Clear so far, I hope? Now, to help ensure you don't experience the problem you've outlined, when going long, try to enter when price is below the gold line and as close as possible to the green line. Equally, when going short, try to enter when price is above the gold line and as close as possible to the red line. This should help you to enter in good value areas that aren't temporarily overbought in an up trend or temporarily oversold in a down trend. Hope that all makes sense.
Tim.
Izzy Fuente
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Hello tomsk. If price is gold line how can decision be made when price is above/below gold line? I think you mean MA line, grey? But more honestly, I've seen as many suggest the very opposite. Sell when price above green or buy when below red. I'm not convinced any fixed strategy based on lines will provide viable long term edge.
welcome in the world of trading.......you are buying where the others are selling to you.....decent trading is about anticipating the move, if we move after it moved we risk to get caught on the wrong side unless you are counter trader.......in trading is best to have a plan and know your levels, if you dont know where the stock is coming from you should not trade it.
alexaherself
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timsk
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Hi Izzy,
To help him avoid the problems he's outlined in his OP, it may be helpful for him to think of price in this way and to see where he might enter long positions as near as possible to the south bank of the 'river' (i.e. the green line on the chart) and short positions as near as possible to the north bank of the 'river' (i.e. the red line). By doing so, cashclay will be trading at value, avoiding what Elder refers to as Greater Fool Theory trades.
Tim.
The red, gold and green lines all represent price in one form or another. Perhaps I didn't explain it very clearly, but what I was attempting to do was to get cashclay to think of an instrument's price movement in terms of a river that meanders about, getting thinner in some places and wider in others. The gold line can be thought of as a large boat navigating its way along the river in the deepest channel.
To help him avoid the problems he's outlined in his OP, it may be helpful for him to think of price in this way and to see where he might enter long positions as near as possible to the south bank of the 'river' (i.e. the green line on the chart) and short positions as near as possible to the north bank of the 'river' (i.e. the red line). By doing so, cashclay will be trading at value, avoiding what Elder refers to as Greater Fool Theory trades.
Quite so. If I've understood you correctly, this is what breakout traders tend to do and, if it works for them - there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. My suggestion is a specific response to the specific problem outlined by cashclay: I'm certainly not saying that it's the right approach for everyone. Far from it.
Again, I agree completely. The line chart is not intended to be a fixed approach solution or to provide a long term edge - sorry if I gave that impression. It's merely a device - a way that may help the OP to see where he's been entering his trades and to enable him to think about where he could have entered them to avoid the problems he's been experiencing.
Tim.
M
malaguti
perhaps there isn't a problem at all and that Darktone has highlighted the issue albeit in a rather vague way
You could look to time your entries better as Timsk points out or of course you could choose not to as timing isn't necessarily the answer in my opinion.
After you enter a trade price can either go up, down or flat so you have a 33% chance of getting that outcome right immeidately after you enter. That could be the same on a daily chart, hourly, 15min, 1 minute thats why I say timing isn't necessarily the answer.
Chances are you will still have the same issue if you try harder and harder to time perfectly your entry. So why bother trying to perfect what is often considered the least important part of any strategy. the entry.
What has more effect is where you exit. Accept that the market can do either of 3 things and so long as your stop is not hit (or the reason you entered isn't invalidated) let price do whatever it wants.
If you got the initial direction right, price will indeed try to play with your mind but chances are it will go back in the direction that you intended.
so whats really important is getting that direction right and then once you've got direction under control (that too takes time) then make sure you have a stop taht gives you room to let price do whatever it wants to do
just my opinion of course. but from what you've described then don't go looking for a solution to a problem that every single one of us faces. price can only do three things, same for every one of us.
You could look to time your entries better as Timsk points out or of course you could choose not to as timing isn't necessarily the answer in my opinion.
After you enter a trade price can either go up, down or flat so you have a 33% chance of getting that outcome right immeidately after you enter. That could be the same on a daily chart, hourly, 15min, 1 minute thats why I say timing isn't necessarily the answer.
Chances are you will still have the same issue if you try harder and harder to time perfectly your entry. So why bother trying to perfect what is often considered the least important part of any strategy. the entry.
What has more effect is where you exit. Accept that the market can do either of 3 things and so long as your stop is not hit (or the reason you entered isn't invalidated) let price do whatever it wants.
If you got the initial direction right, price will indeed try to play with your mind but chances are it will go back in the direction that you intended.
so whats really important is getting that direction right and then once you've got direction under control (that too takes time) then make sure you have a stop taht gives you room to let price do whatever it wants to do
just my opinion of course. but from what you've described then don't go looking for a solution to a problem that every single one of us faces. price can only do three things, same for every one of us.
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