Day Trading Stocks : Progress Thread

[SeanKelly]

Actually, it is pretty common for someone to run an account from $5k to $100k in a short amount of time. You can take risks and use leverage when you don't have much to lose. Making the next 20x increase from $100k to $2M is an entirely different story. No one trades $1M like it is $1k. After they run their account up to $100k, they get very defensive, and usually churn or give back their profits.

I doubt that it is "pretty common"

 

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[Xyros]

Hmm personally I do not believe in back testing. It feels like checking the past week's lottery number. Back testing only shows past volume, candles, moving averages, news, etc. It does not let you feel the overall market. Also I cannot see the Level 2. When you back test and see the buying opportunity, sometimes there's not even enough liquidity to trade but it might misled you to think that it was a good entry point. Backtesting only shows the half the picture in my opinion.

I am not sure about other people, but I do not back test.

Well I always used to backtest the breakout strategy to get a rough sketch of how many times my strategy occurred.
I sometimes did try without backtest but it felt like "just doing something" without the knowledge if it working for a longer period of time.
Backtesting in daytrading does work because you can see on which bar you can place a trade on the opening, if it's the 2nd or 3rd bar etc.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of March 26, 2013

Alright guys, here's the result

I have made 4 trades today

032580, Bought at 4360, sold at 4320 = -1.24%
089150, Bought at 3135, sold at 3160 = 0.46%
041590, Bought at 4550, sold at 4695 = 2.85%
041590, Bought at 4800, sold at 4920 = 2.16%

Total comes out to be about 4.2%

I just broke 20K mark.. currently 20.1K!

I did not read any news, but I guess there's something going on in 031590 company.

By the way, I usually aim for breakouts of today's starting price or previous high of the day.

 

[InLikeFlint]

Damn! Great work Austin, good to see you recovered from the negative today and still came out on top!

 

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[bmw335isedan]

Result of March 27th, 2013

I have made one trade today

035610, Bought at 5120, sold at 5050 = -1.69%

There was no mistake in Entry and Exit, but North Korea threatening South Korea caused Kospi, Kosdaq Index to drop significantly .

I am not so upset about result cause I followed my rule and I also have profits I gained from Monday and Tuesday.

Take a look at Kospi, Kosdaq Index, I have attached it.

Now I have about 19.8K

 

[bmw335isedan]

I accidentally uploaded a chart without entry and exit point so here it goes

 

[InLikeFlint]

Unlucky day, but it's really good to see you stuck to your plan and didn't get discouraged.

Tomorrow is a new day!

 

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[HD_edacity]

keep it up man you're doing well, just stick to your plan and don't get emotional

 

[AlexV]

This is normal to happen. Don't let this pull you back, if you do the average you are still ahead of your plan. I gave you some +speed for encouragement and for the value that you bring.

 

[thehawkman]

You know, I read the book on trend following by Michael Covel. I remember him writing that one of the people mentioned in the book talked to his grandfather about trading and the grandfather said: "of all the ways to lose money, why did you have to go with the fastest?".
And I'm sorry, but risking 90% of your equity? Bad idea.

 

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[Stam]

Isn't he just risking just 2% of the 90%, since he puts in a stoploss at 2%. Can break off many deals, that later could shown better results. But thats his strategy. When I tested Forex, I put 10% equity in and a stoploss of 10% of that, so a bigger margin, since sometimes the trade fell a little down before it went straight up. Making it a succesful profitable trade

Keep up your good work! Great thread to follow!

 

[loop101]

I doubt that it is "pretty common"

Then you would be surprised by the returns people can get when they are willing to blow their entire account.

 

[Twiki]

Then you would be surprised by the returns people can get when they are willing to blow their entire account.

Since the definition of "pretty common" is relevant, it might be useful to compare which is more "common"

Let's take 100 random traders willing to blow their entire account (assuming they're using leverage as you mention)... what is the distribution of those people in the following categories:

a) going from 5k to 100k in a short amount of time, or
b) blowing the entire account

I suspect b) is many times more likely (esp. w/ leverage). Assuming that, then saying a) is "pretty common" ignores the most likely outcome by a wide margin. So if you say a) is "pretty common" but the alternative outcome b) is "even more common", then it's meaningless to say that a) is "pretty common". it's a form of survivorship bias. the amazing returns of one individual player are meaningless when adjusted for risk among all probable outcomes.

PS. I want to know if the OP knows SNSD and if so, who is your favorite?

 

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[bmw335isedan]

This is normal to happen. Don't let this pull you back, if you do the average you are still ahead of your plan. I gave you some +speed for encouragement and for the value that you bring.

Thanks Alex

 

[bmw335isedan]

Isn't he just risking just 2% of the 90%, since he puts in a stoploss at 2%. Can break off many deals, that later could shown better results. But thats his strategy. When I tested Forex, I put 10% equity in and a stoploss of 10% of that, so a bigger margin, since sometimes the trade fell a little down before it went straight up. Making it a succesful profitable trade

Keep up your good work! Great thread to follow!

That is right so I am risking about 90% * 2% = 1.8% per trade

My broker automatically cut it at 2% so I don't get involved. Also it is hard to lose 1.8% cause I am using trailstop of 2% meaning, if I gained couple ticks above my price then my risk automatically get reduced to 1.3% ~ 1.6% from 1.8%.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of March 28, 2013

Hello guys

Today I made 0 trade. Simply, I did not see any premium stocks (setups) even though I saw couple mediocres that lack liquidity.

Anyhow, this is pretty common, once a week or so I get a market like this and last week I had nothing on Wednesday.

This is another reason why I wanna join Wallstreet in New York cause there will be no days like since there are 12,000 stocks to choose from! 6X compare to South Korea.

 

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[InLikeFlint]

PS. I want to know if the OP knows SNSD and if so, who is your favorite?

I don't know the individual members, but I love Run Devil Run

 

[loop101]

Since the definition of "pretty common" is relevant, it might be useful to compare which is more "common"

Let's take 100 random traders willing to blow their entire account (assuming they're using leverage as you mention)... what is the distribution of those people in the following categories:

a) going from 5k to 100k in a short amount of time, or
b) blowing the entire account

I suspect b) is many times more likely (esp. w/ leverage). Assuming that, then saying a) is "pretty common" ignores the most likely outcome by a wide margin. So if you say a) is "pretty common" but the alternative outcome b) is "even more common", then it's meaningless to say that a) is "pretty common". it's a form of survivorship bias. the amazing returns of one individual player are meaningless when adjusted for risk among all probable outcomes.

PS. I want to know if the OP knows SNSD and if so, who is your favorite?

I wrote and cancelled two giant responses to messages in this thread. Then I realized, I'm not willing to get sucked in to debates about things like the meaning of the word "meaning". I'm just speaking from my experience, with the intent to help others learn from that experience.

 

[Twiki]

I wrote and cancelled two giant responses to messages in this thread. Then I realized, I'm not willing to get sucked in to debates about things like the meaning of the word "meaning". I'm just speaking from my experience, with the intent to help others learn from that experience.

Hi, there is no attempt to engage in a debate about the meaning of words, just questioning whether something is as common claimed. I understand we are all here to share or learn from each other's experience, great. If you are speaking from direct experience and happened to be the fortunate person to go from 5k to 100k using leverage in a short timespan, fantastic, congratulations! (I did something similar, without leverage, but I recognize that was purely based on dumb luck of riding the dot-com bubble and getting out before it burst, no skill involved) But if that is just something you've heard about or observed other people claiming to have achieved, that's probably another form of survivorship bias, only noticing the winners.

However, even if this kind of terrific gain is from your own direct experience, that does not mean your experience is "pretty common" either... it's like a winner at a roulette table who bets their life savings, win, and then believes that they are proof that strategy "works" (which is a meaningless concept anyway)... or someone who likes to read about people betting it all and winning on an internet forum for gamblers, and then concluding that those experiences are common because "I read about it all the time".

It's great to share experiences, but I am just questioning whether or not an individual experience can be generalized as claimed. This isn't a debate about nit-picking grammar, it's about probabilistic thinking, which is kind of fundamental and pretty important when it comes to this trading thing.

 

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[Era]

Great thread Austin! I will be following your progress. All the best!

 

[bmw335isedan]

Result of March 29, 2013

I have made 2 trades today

015020, Bought at 1335 and sold at 1350 = 0.79%
043710, Bought at 2565 and sold at 2575 = 0.06%

Not much of profit, but at least I did not lose!

Now I have about just under 20K

After I made 015020 trade, right away, I saw 043710 opportunity so I got in right away

For off-topic, I recently bought starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm, which is very popular in South Korea. I played that until 3:00AM and I almost struggle to get up by 8:45.

 

[loop101]

Hi, there is no attempt to engage in a debate about the meaning of words, just questioning whether something is as common claimed. I understand we are all here to share or learn from each other's experience, great. If you are speaking from direct experience and happened to be the fortunate person to go from 5k to 100k using leverage in a short timespan, fantastic, congratulations! (I did something similar, without leverage, but I recognize that was purely based on dumb luck of riding the dot-com bubble and getting out before it burst, no skill involved) But if that is just something you've heard about or observed other people claiming to have achieved, that's probably another form of survivorship bias, only noticing the winners.

However, even if this kind of terrific gain is from your own direct experience, that does not mean your experience is "pretty common" either... it's like a winner at a roulette table who bets their life savings, win, and then believes that they are proof that strategy "works" (which is a meaningless concept anyway)... or someone who likes to read about people betting it all and winning on an internet forum for gamblers, and then concluding that those experiences are common because "I read about it all the time".

It's great to share experiences, but I am just questioning whether or not an individual experience can be generalized as claimed. This isn't a debate about nit-picking grammar, it's about probabilistic thinking, which is kind of fundamental and pretty important when it comes to this trading thing.

I think the difference between probability and commonality was best exemplified by Victor Niederhoffer and Nassim Taleb.

 

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[AlexV]

I have made 2 trades today

015020, Bought at 1335 and sold at 1350 = 0.79%
043710, Bought at 2565 and sold at 2575 = 0.06%

Not much of profit, but at least I did not lose!

Now I have about just under 20K

After I made 015020 trade, right away, I saw 043710 opportunity so I got in right away

For off-topic, I recently bought starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm, which is very popular in South Korea. I played that until 3:00AM and I almost struggle to get up by 8:45.

Stop the crap with Starcraft. Focus on what helps, even if a Starcraft player is seen as a rockstar in Koreea, it will not bring you far ;-)

 

[InLikeFlint]

Stop the crap with Starcraft. Focus on what helps, even if a Starcraft player is seen as a rockstar in Koreea, it will not bring you far ;-)

^^^^^^^^ this for sure..

When I am home from school on break or whatever I never get as much stuff done as I would hope because I end up playing CoD or FIFA..

Then recently I started telling myself that I won't play any games before 11:00pm, and only then once my To-Do List for the day has been completed.

It does wonders.

 

[bmw335isedan]

Guys, I decided to add USD/KRW Future to my watch list as well. It has a lot of liquidity of about 3 billion dollar per day. Also I can go both Long and Short. Just for this future only, I will be using leverage. Even with leverage, volatility is little less than trading stocks.

 

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[InLikeFlint]

Guys, I decided to add USD/KRW Future to my watch list as well. It has a lot of liquidity of about 3 billion dollar per day. Also I can go both Long and Short. Just for this future only, I will be using leverage. Even with leverage, volatility is little less than trading stocks.

Just from a learner's perspective, how will using leverage benefit you? Will it make your returns larger because you are using a larger portion of your money?

 

[bmw335isedan]

Just from a learner's perspective, how will using leverage benefit you? Will it make your returns larger because you are using a larger portion of your money?

Leverage will only benefit you if you make right decision. It is a double edge sword. It lets you buy more with less money resulting more higher profit. Currently USD/KRW gives me about 22 times leverage meaning i can buy $220000 worth of dollars with $10000. However, currencies are much less volatile for example, it usually moves at most 1%.

By the way, I did make trades today but I had personal business to take care of so I had to leave right away. Will update later on tonight

 

[mikko]

Keep up the good work, I registered just to follow your thread!

 

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[southbayrider]

I'm totally digging this thread. I love love love talking about money

 

[MCD]

How do you decide to exit a position? Do you look for anything in particular, or do you just try to ride it up as you said earlier?