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Strategies & Market Trends : DAYTRADING Fundamentals -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Michael Friesen who wrote (1263)	6/22/1999 6:00:00 PM
From: Hands Off	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 18137

--OT-- to The Quant. Long personal catharsis follows Quant, thanks for taking the time to respond. Your points are well taken. I have thought about what you mentioned. Strange as it may seem taking a loss does not bother me too much - although no one really likes it. I have profits from the last 3 years safely out of the market and have decided to risk 15% of my available cash for this venture, which I will give 6 months to try. After 6 months I will reevaluate. If I lose my 15%, I am out. I think what bothers me is not having a specific plan for each stock I trade. Lets take QLGC - a stock I have owned and made money on for years. I watched it all day today. It was up a point, 2 points and I said to myself well it can't go any higher cause the market is bad. I turn my back for 1 hour and its up 8 points. Well just call me numbnuts but I did not have a clue. I have it in my IRA at $105 - should I have sold at $135 today? Should I have bought it on the way down since I could have got it at $130 or $129. I don't have a plan. Based on a spreadsheet I got from IntelligentSpeculator on risk/rewards I know that if I cut my loss at 5% and let my winnings run 15% I only have to win 30-40% of my trades to make a profit. And so that I can do. I buy a stock and I calculate the 5% & 15% targets and I will cold-bloodly decide when those prices are hit. But how to I decide to buy in the first place? What is my entry point? Or, on the other hand, when do I sell short? I know there is no answer to these questions. It depends of many factors. But that is what I am working for. I don't want to make my decision based on 15 minute Qchart. I want my decision the night before let Qchart tell me when I should execute. I don't know if any of this makes sense. But again thanks for listening. Luck Marshall