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Gav's trading blog - Perseverance, Consistency, Confidence

Gav

Postmortem 19-Oct-2006

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Dear diary,

A quick and short one. I did not make any trade. The market movement today was not my liking. Well, is this because of option expiration? No idea.

I was tempted to scalp here and there, but, I did not, I was not ready. Now market is closed. The feeling of not losing money is pretty good as well. 😉

I am taking a day off tomorrow. Option expiration Friday? Not sure what is the implication on index futures. I will spend some time to study instead of trading.

Be a better trader.

Stop and look back

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I have not completed my 100 trades of dummy trading, so it is still too early to do statistical analysis. But i think it is appropriate to review my progress and decide my next step. I had bad days since end of August. Looking at the performance chart since 01-August-2006 to 18-Oct-2006, ugly?, I think so. my accumulated R has been dropping.
Overall, system expectancy fell to 0.09 and accuracy is around 45%. But then , it is still too early to analyze these figures.

[photopress:dummy_trading_performance.jpg,full,pp_image]

After reviewing the result I have identify some problems:

  • Personal problems during September had created some troubles to my life as well as my trading

  • Lack of discipline. There were times, I was anxious to trade, and breaking rules.

  • Dummy entry is not only about reversal up/bar and inside bar. Market trend and intraday market tone are important prerequisites. I did not do enough for this part.

  • Trying out multiple positions concurrently. Obviously, I am not good enough at this, yet.

  • Without a profit target for each trade. Basically, I did not know where to exit the position in order to protect profit. For many instances in my life, I do not do well when I do not have a target. This problem appears in my trading now.

Here are steps I have taken to improve.

  • I have reduced my risk level from from maximum 1.25% to 0.76%. So now I am more careful and particular in choosing real low risk dummy entry.

  • Maximum 2 opened positions concurrently.

  • Learn to be really patient. It is absolutely fine to sit with cash if there is no low risk entry.

  • Setting minimum profit target for each trade. I am using Fib extension levels to determine exit point now.

It seems like I am such a big dummy fan huh. Well, I believe in controling risk. As long as I keep my risk exposure in check, walking through the bad days, I will be the last one to laugh. Dummy spot just suits my risk appetitie so well. I will start exploring more strategies when I have achieved consistency in my trading performance.

Be a better trader.

Wallstrip – 18-Oct-2006 ADOBE

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Not publicising for wallstrip.com, because they are already well known enough.
Check out this video clip for 18-Oct-2006, ADOBE. The funniest ever.
The wallstriper has done a good job. It is my daily reading blog.

Internet Addiction May Soon Top Alcoholism

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I trade online, I blog, and I read blog and check email on my PDA when I am in the train! But, I never hide…

From www.woai.com

A new study indicates the US could soon have an illness just as bad as alcoholism – internet addiction.

Researchers at Stanford found that 1 in 8 Americans has at least one sign of “problematic internet use.”

They said what’s even more disturbing that some people hide their internet surfing much like some alcoholics hide their drinking.

Another warning sign is when people use the internet to get out of a bad mood.

Postmortem 18-Oct-2006

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Dear diary

After watching pre market of Dow futures,  I thought I would have made some trades today.Well, at the end of the day, I did not make any trade. There was no low risk dummy set up.

Just how limited is my trading toolbox. I basically did not know how to trade under this kinda situation. Gap up, down, filled gap, then up. Well, “Don’t know what to do? then don’t do”.

I guess there should be a lot of actions in stocks trading. I am going to check out blogs in my blogrolls now.

Be a better trader.