DeeBee

Hi Pat,

Actually its not easy for me to wake up early than usual for the past two weeks. Its also tough doing this practice seriously, I mean programming the mind that its real money rather than not. I got inspired to implement paper trading after reading a book authored by Josh DiPietro entitled, "The Truth About Day Trading Stocks", Josh advocated every newbie to practice paper trading for a whole month or more until you get really familiar with the following: 1. The stock(s) you'll be trading, 2. Familiarity with yourself, 3. Familiarity with the trading platform you're planning to use 4. The use of a journal to record everything (what you feel, think, anything). He called this advanced paper trading. This process according to him even though not that close to a real money on the line is much cheaper than doing live without any practice then making lots of mistakes giving you frustrations and psychologically rooted trading scars thats are tough to recover with.

It is my objective that when I'm ready to trade live, I have internalized the trust and the confidence in my method and trading plan which shall become my own rules to execute the same nice trades.

Thank you.

DeeBee

DeeBee

No paper trades today. My LS demo is not updating real time prices. Re-started twice but still getting the same problem. The Quote window is just blank

Happy trading to all of you!

Dr Pip

Hey,
Sorry to here your having difficulties with the demo platform! One thing is for sure the demo's in forex are much much better. I have a question for you. You seem to be doing good on the demo but how relative is it to when you start live? As in 100 shares of Apple are maybe $20K? Just wondering is all because I have never really had the capital to trade stocks very well thus the commission ate my profits heavily.

I also saw your question about videos. Thanks for the compliment but I don't feel like much of an expert although I used to edit video part time. The software you have helps a ton. What kind of computer are you using? If its a Mac I can get you some really nice stuff. If not I know of a few programs that can help. Learning the video software is almost like trading! It takes time.

-Dr Pip

DeeBee

Hey Doc,

Ok, hope this answers your question and let me know if you have more. I was looking into some prop firms where you can usually put down 5K and they allow you to day trade under their corp. I've found out that there's a lot of other fees involved aside from commission (which also a bit higher) so I guess I'm back to square one, put down the 25K and go with LightSpeed because they charge less in commission compared to props. I know that even at LightSpeed, commission + the ecn fees will be a big part so here is my initial plan based on the data gathered from my two weeks of paper trading.

1. Only trade in 100 shares.
2 Trade one maximum three stocks.
3. Implement a risk tolerance of 30 to 60 points (not final)
4. Implement a strict rules when to enter/exit trades
5. No fixed profit target, market condition will dictate
6. Watch out for commission and fees by only trading between 2000-3000 shares per day (not final)

Again based on my data if I exercise patience and wait thoroughly for my edge to signal high probability trades it has a possibility of yielding 30 to 100 points per day please note that I only have two weeks so my statistics may not be enough. When I start live trading my main goal will be to improve my trading skills and not trading for income. I strongly believe that if I focus first on my trading skills the profit will soon follow.

About the video, I'm using a desktop PC. Any apps recommendation?

DeeBee

Dr Pip

DeeBee,

Sounds like you have a decent plan with realistic expectations. I'm sure you will have a good feel for things if you keep that paper trading up. Hey if you want to fund me an account with 25K I won't object! Ok about videos:
You need a screen capture program: CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software This one is free and I have used it once with no problems. You may need a mic to capture your voice if your computer doesn't have one built in. I did not have a mic so I can't say for sure if it captures your voice or not? Next you need a video editing program. Microsoft Movie Maker should work fine or if you feel like spending a few hours learning how to use a video editing program then step it up to Sony Vegas or Adobe Premiere. I would go to youtube and search for either one add "free" to the search and I will be a 14yr old(or less) will have a video teaching you how to get it free and use it. You don't have to get fancy with the editing for the live trades because people just like to see how you did it. Export your video to youtube and post the link in your journal. If you have any problems several people around here can help out. I wish I was more familiar with the PC software but unfortunately I'm a mac convert. (it also helps if you have a fairly powerful computer as video software can really slow it down)
Good luck and if you have anymore questions just ask!

-Dr Pip

Brendan Egan

Sounds like a good plan--the only thing I personally do different (and of course this differs from person to person and trading styles) is trade less than 2k-3k shares per day if trading 100 share lots. This is just because that means you are entering 10-15 trades which in my opinion is a lot of trades for a short period of time. I personally have found it more productive to hold out for 2-3 great positions per day than to jump into a bunch of "good" positions.

I'm with Lightspeed because of their low fees---just a word of caution their charts are pretty weak so you will likely need 3rd party charting. Also one other question on your trading plan--are you going to have a "kill switch" or a daily loss limit that once hit you stop trading?

DeeBee

Hi Doc,

I would fund you asap, if I could just give me 40% of profit he-he-he thanks for video eds info this will be a good reference later on. Still trying to come up with the 25K will work more this weekend

Hi Brendan,
Great point 2K-3K shares a day might be too much (expensive) and counter productive for a beginner. I'll think about this as I finalize my trading plan. I like the "kill switch" its very important to have one in place. BTW, are you using a third party charting software?

Thank you.

DeeBee

I made two classic trading errors all due to "hurry up place the trade" attitude entered long on AMZN at 124.97 right after it made its high of the morning at 10:35AM bringing me down to -52 points as my mind just froze see attached 5 min AMZN chart. This bad experience have affected my AAPL short trade at 195.74 (7:43AM) got quickly scared when it came back up to kiss 196.00 so I covered at 195.94 (7:44AM) just before AAPL slide down. Well, its obvious that I need to seriously deal with my "jump the gun" attitude. I have enough for today its time to enjoy Carrow's breakfast special

Enjoy your trading!

Paper Trades Summary
Shares Traded: 2,400 x .00395 = 9.48 + 9.40 (ecn fees) = 18.88
Marked P/L: +98.00
Net P/L: +79.12

see attached logs for day 13

Attached Thumbnails

 

Shootanappleoffmyhead

Hey DeeBee,

Great posts, keep the journal entries coming as we are all learning from them.

One Suggestions I would offer though is that, if you haven't already, make sure to look back a few days to see what s/r levels are present. If you notice on the chart below you'll see that the spot you entered long was right as price was approaching some pretty strong resistance from a couple days ago. You've got to make sure there are not any substantial resistance areas immediately above your prospective long positions before considering them. On another note, this would have actually been a very decent no show position.

Thanks for posting, Shoot.

__________________
Memoirs of a Day Trader by Shoot ~~~~~~> The Pro Course

DeeBee

Thanks for commenting Shoot that's right there is a strong resistance waiting at that level. I just need to look to the left. Somehow I became the uninformed bull. Dave Waring mentioned the same thing in one of the PRO lesson, he said something like "always look to the left of price"