I went long the S&P500 at the end of the day today. I think we're oversold and expect a bounce over the next week or two. Hopefully, I don't get slaughtered, LOL.
I had 3 trades today, 2 wins and a loss, this was my loss trade:
Eu 15m
My risk here was 33.1 pips (huge) and just above 2% of my capital.
I did cut my loss short and end up with a -1.38%
Why did I enter here? God knows. I bought into resistance and into the 00 number, in brief I entered where others where selling to me by taking profits. Bravo.
I was bull and I think I was right to be but it was a day to be very cautious, in hindsight I think my lack of patience and concentration got the best of me.
The best way to enter was after the news with a double bottom bull flag, but by then I was short the UJ which I considered a better option taken in consideration the circumstances.
Are you using a charting software or built-in api with your broker that is drawing those lines for you or are you placing them on the chart after the fact? Are the lines automatically placed upon the chart for you or do you have to draw them yourself?
Good question.
I draw them every day, they are my levels, here I expect price to react somehow.
Mostly I trade only the European open, not more than 4 hours a day, often I take partial profit at the next level, move my SL to BE and let the market decide what she want to do and cover the rest at the end of NA session, when there is a strong setup I stay in with the full amount.
It is not easy to stay sit but as Livermore said: “After spending many years in Wall Street and after making and losing millions of dollars I want to tell you this: It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It always was my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!”
What do you mean by you draw them everyday? Do you draw the lines on a chart for the previous day?
Yes, every day and on my previous day, I trade the previous day patterns.
Why? How wide are your SL and TP? What if, on a volatile day, it drops below SL only to immediately rise to your TP? What do you think about using a time stop instead of a price stop?
My SL varies from 5 to 30 pips, there are based on technicality and volatility, I do not have TP as I explained before, I do not follow rules, I have guides which help me to adapt to the daily market conditions. I play counter attack, if I see weakness I play aggressive, if is not clear I play defence, here reading like the art of war will help.
Yes it does happen sometimes where my trailed SL to BE is triggers and then continues in my initial direction but I am not worried about that, first I protect myself the best I can (in most cases I took some profits at my next level before trailing my SL). But most importantly I am not here to control anything, anything can happen at any time, my edge lays on probability and fluidity.
I use price stop to indicate to me when I am wrong that my reading and timing are not spot on and it is time to take the appropriate distances.
I do not actively trade Forex. That is why I have accidently barraged you with questions.
once we don't go mad and risk too much..things will be fine..the market can go any way..down i lose some more..up i make some back..as you know..it is not a real loss until i close the trade..not like my es option trades which have expired worthless..will sum up the whole lot when all trades shown here are closed
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What do you mean by you draw them everyday? Do you draw the lines on a chart for the previous day?
Why? How wide are your SL and TP? What if, on a volatile day, it drops below SL only to immediately rise to your TP? What do you think about using a time stop instead of a price stop?
I do not actively trade Forex. That is why I have accidently barraged you with questions.
There is a view that the best forex pairs to trade are those that have deliberate intervention by government. So CHF and JPY were good to trade until last year when the Swiss decided not to intervene any further. Before this it was relatively easy to make money on these two. Does anyone else think the same?
You didn't answer me so if i bought RIMM shares at $130 and still holding until $9 you are saying i didn't lose anything hence i didn't sell ? What about if i bought euros at 1.4 and still holding until now according to you i didn't lose anything as long as i am still holding ?! I can give 1000 example ...
Is that amateur hour ?! :whistling
Mark To Market - MTM :
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marktomarket.asp
Personally I do not trade the swiss, but I will trade the JPY occasionally, I try to focus on the EU and GU, trading them all the time gives me that familiarity in movements and in patterns.
That view make sense, if traders trade a few instruments all the time they will gain a further edge.
again..you either fail..or are not willing..to accept the facts
leaving analogies..definitions..and all else aside for now..let us look at some facts
i bought 100 xiz a few days ago..the price went up.i was showing a profit of roughly $90..i did not realize my unrealized gain..next..the price went down..i am showing a loss of roughly $350..i did not realize my unrealized loss
what happens next will obviously affect my trade value..last night i added another 100 shares
my reasons are a different discussion..the facts are the facts..no matter what anyone may think or say
Exactly. The unrealized gain was only temporary and now it is an unrealized loss. You still have not realized your unrealized loss, which means it can still become an unrealized gain again. At which point you can sell and make a realized gain.
The facts are the facts and unrealized does not equal realized.
You still have a chance to sell at a profit.
yes..that is the objective..but in order for me to risk money like this..it is best to have a few things worked out
2. i did not buy 1000 shares..as that would be taking on too much risk..and tying up my capital that i can use for other trades..as it is better to diversify when buying and holding for even a short period..as in days or weeks..not seconds or minutes
3. i might decide to realize my loss if the market tumbles some more..it will all depend on what actually happens next..and how fast it happens
it can depend on the instrument chosen..like..aapl provides opportunities every day..low priced low volume wide spread stocks do not..but in general..you are correct..you are better off sticking with one instrument as long as it provides adequate opportunities
we were talking about the majors in currencies and yes they do provide daily opportunities if a trader is able to trade the various market condition available.
What interests me, is what the view was upon diversification prior to Markowitz winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1990 (Sveriges riksbanks pris i ekonomisk vetenskap till Alfred Nobels minne).
Riksbankens pris i ekonomisk vetenskap
I found an interesting implementation of his theory from the Wharton School of Business. You can choose the number of assets upon which you wish to diversify from 2-9. You enter the coefficient of risk aversion, expected returns, standard deviations, correlations, initial portfolio weights that sum to 1.0. The inital weights do not necessarily matter as it will optimize it and determine the weights based upon whatever maximizes the objective function and brings the least risk.
http://finance.wharton.upenn.edu/~stambaugh/portopt.html
Let us examine how the UK views the taxation upon unrealized and realized profits. If you close, i.e., realize a transaction upon an equity and the like, there will be a stamp duty tax. If you do not realize a transaction, i.e., unrealized profit or loss, there will be no stamp duty until it is realized. Obviously unrealized does not equal realized as far as stamp duty.