A better day
Today I made 2.62R on four picks. I went long on FDG and shorted MA, AGU and CLF. I lost 1R on AGU but gained on the rest. That gives me a little more confidence.
I was tempted to virtual trade today after my 4R loss yesterday. I decided that I'll learn much quicker if I'm using real money. I dropped the dollar amount risked on each trade to $100 which is a tenth of what I normally risk. I'm going to spend a few months figure out what kind of R (or risk) value I can achieve each month. If I can average 5R a month, I'll up my dollars risked.
If I don't have a knack for daytrading, I'll probably return to position trading using screens again. We'll see in a few months, but I'm encouraged by a better day today.
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5 comments:
Can you tell us a little more on how you select stocks for your watchlist and what determines whether you would go long or short?
Great move trading smaller rather than paper trading or not trading.
SC,
Right now my list is kind of a hodge podge of the 100 top Alpha stocks (from barchart.com), a few screens (including Zweig), and various other stocks that I have my eye on. I've also been toying with TradeIdeas through my account at Scottrade. I just look at the trend of each stock-up or down and trade in that direction.
Thanks for the encouragement! A few folks seem irritated at me for switching the way I trade. Hopefully everybody can learn from my mistakes and (hopefully) my good choices.
Thanks Rick. Maybe I should change the blog to NeuroticTrader or something similar. If I blow up my account, at least it will provide someone with some entertainment!
I can't track R since I don't use stops. Monthly, quarterly and yearly performance data suffices. For July up 9.6% YTD 26.6% I use Zacks and I trade screens.
My guiding principle is a quote from Charlie Munger: "Take a simple idea, and take it seriously."
Hi Scott,
I hope that you keep tracking and updating your fundamental screens. And I hope youa lot of success with your new daytrading endeavours.
Cheers
Xaguar
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