Another good day of trading...

While it is true that it was pretty slow today, it was still a good day for trading.  The market looks like it will wait until tomorrow afternoon's FOMC announcement to determine if the current value is good, or it needs to find a new value zone.  Until then, I expect the same opportunity in the morning that was presented today.  It should be a good morning for trading and then it will be time to pull up a chair, grab some popcorn and watch the melee ensue at 1:15 when the Fed makes their FOMC (interest rate) announcement.

We also have some big news about an hour before the cash market opens that could present some decent opportunity.  Consumer Price Index and Housing Starts figures come out publicly at 7:30 a.m.  Those can be like roller coaster rides and are not for the faint at heart.  There is no planning for those trades. It is all reflex and reaction.  A run can be over in seconds and back down in seconds again.  I trade very small or in "sim" in those cases.  There's no need to gamble when trading.

Monday, Monday, Just love that day!!!

I read a lot of complaints today about the market movement today.  Some said that it was too slow, while others said it was too flat.  It is true that price wasn't flying around today, but I had another great day and even surpassed my target this morning.  I took two trades.  The first took about 30 seconds.  The second trade took about an hour and a half!  That is a long time in a trade.  It started out against me, but because I did my homework and waited for the price to get to where I wanted, it did not go far against me.  Then it turned around and moved right on up to (and actually through) my target.  After that, there was one more trade, but I had a meeting that I had to get to and I decided to take my money and wait until tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I have a few meetings in the morning and might have to miss trading tomorrow.  That's always when the best days happen.

As the market turns...

Friday was another great day for trading and another target day made.  The market is never predictable, but sometimes it acts "normally" and trades within a range, turning up and down.  The challenge of course is knowing when to go up and when to go down.  That has been the fun part.  Doing the work, studying the market, making a daily plan, and then executing the plan and staying with it until you hit your profit target, or the market tells you to get out.

I was able to hit my target with two trades on Friday, which is unfortunate for my broker, but good for me.  Don't worry about my broker though as they will have their day with me.  Besides, there are a lot of other people paying them plenty of money, making a bunch of trades every day.

I am looking forward to Monday...

A Great Trading Day

Wow!  Fun, fun, fun!!

I woke up early to go over the market (my homework) and found the places where I wanted to put trades on.  I set my trades to execute if/when price got to a certain level and then I went to breakfast with some friends.  When I got home from breakfast, I found that my orders were hit and my profit targets were automatically filled while I was gone.  I was then able to get into a trade just before market open for another great trade on the Russell e-mini index.

It pays to do the work, because then....there is no work.  Get it?

Homework

I remember that when I was a kid, I was never a homework fanatic.  There was always something else to do that was certainly more fun and memorable.  I can honestly say that now that I am a little bit older, I view my homework in quite a different way, especially with trading.

Homework is necessary every night and especially every day before the trading begins. When it comes to investing, who do you rely on to do your homework?  I remember that I would spend 15 minutes every year reviewing the single page summary sheet of the various Fund returns, in order to make a selection for how I would divide up my 401K account.  That was it!  Unbelievable.

Now I do my homework every night, so that I can review the trade day in the morning, set my targets and plan at the beginning of the day and then watch, modify (if necessary) and execute the plan.  It can be a fair amount of work, but it makes the execution of a trade significantly easier and a lot less stressful because if I get into a trade, I have done the work to know why I got into the trade and have waited for that specific scenario to get into a trade.  I am no longer reacting to stale pricing data, but rather acting from my plan and a position of expectation.

Trading is not hard, but it is work.  The only magic to trading is to make your current perceptions and paradigms disapear so that you can actually learn.

Doing my homework and creating a plan to trade with gave me my single largest profit day this week and two other profitable days to make three for three this week.  I am having a blast doing it.  In fact, for those who know me, they would be shocked to know that I would rather do my homework, and plan for trading and actually trade than I would rather go golfing!

P.S.  I gave my golf cart away.

Good Friday

What a great trading day it was on Friday!  I waited and waited until price got to where I wanted and went in.  I think that my trade on Friday morning was the closest thing to a "sure thing" or "all in" trade that I have ever seen and or made.  It was definitely worth the wait.  I had to close it out to run to a meeting, but if I could have stayed, I would have made another 80% profit!

There is still a lot of work to do and plenty of more research and studying, but as long as I keep doing the work, I am seeing the results.  I can honestly say that my results are so much more consistent now and the amount of trades that I am actually making are way down.

I have been at this now for six months and I love it more today than I did when I started.  Maybe I have just been getting on a lucky streak lately, but I am starting to think that it's something other than luck when I am beginning to be able to call my targets to within a few ticks.

I know that there are days that I am going to lose, but I am also implementing a max loss from now on that will keep me from doing anything stupid or too damaging to my account that I cannot easily recover.  There is always another day.  Time to do some reading.

It's been a little while

I haven't posted for a while.  I haven't been able to do much trading as I have been working on a few projects in my consulting role.  I am hoping that I will be able to pick it up again soon.  I am continuing to have good success on the S&P e-mini (ES#F).  I hurried my morning trade a few times this last week and tried to do the trade without the appropriate studying.  Needless to say, it was difficult to read and I picked up a few losses.  It is just evidence to me of the work that is required to trade, every single day.  If I don't put in the work, I should not be trading.  When I have done my homework and have the proper focus, I am finding good success consistently.  I don't know why I think that it is like anything else, or any other job.  To do well requires a great amount of attention, preparation and focus. 

I was able to make some trades in simulation today and came out pretty well.  I rode the early morning ride up for about 6 points!  I could have been live, but once again, I am trying to stay patient and only trade live when I have done my homework and am prepared to respond to the market.  Soon.